Suchergebnisse

Objective: A questionnaire to examine efforts toward the teaching of empirically supported interventions (ESI) was mailed to the 165 deans and directors of Council on Social Work Education-accredited Master's in social work (MSW) programs; 66 (40%) responded. Method: Questions included program characteristics and items assessing both faculty and official program positions on ESI, which were summed to provide scores as an index of commitment to ESI. Results: Informal faculty commitment to teaching ESI was significantly higher than official program commitment, and offering more clinical practice courses was associated with greater program commitment. Factor analysis extracted two components from program emphasis on theoretical models in the overall practice curriculum: (a) experiential and (b) behavioral/systems; correlation of factor scores for these two components, as yielded from regression, with commitment scores, showed that the behavioral/systems component was significantly associated with greater faculty and program commitment. Conclusion: Study limitations are discussed and recommendations address how the findings apply to social work educators and innovations for promoting empirical practice in the MSW curriculum.

The Family Mentoring Program (FMP), which provided approximately 1 year of mentoring for at-risk, 10-year-old Latino children and their parents, offered individual mentoring, group educational sessions for children and parents, and group social/recreational activities. This study examined mothers' perceptions of the parent–child relationship and of family strength as measured by the Parent–Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI) and the Family Hardiness Index (FHI). Analysis focused on factors expected to contribute to variance in the outcome measures. Regression results indicated that involvement in parent group education predicted higher scores on the Support and Communication measures. Compared to the standardized samples used in the development of these measures, mothers, at the beginning of the program, scored lower on six of seven PCRI subscales and on the FHI. By the end of the program, mothers' scores on Support and Limit Setting had improved, no longer differing from the standardized norms. The overall findings suggest that parents of children in mentoring programs need services and parent education and that they can benefit from these. Future research should focus on careful design and evaluation of multifaceted mentoring programs that include parents.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the perceptions of clinical social workers compared to other mental health professionals (OMHPs). Methods: This exploratory survey research evaluates the perceptions of clinical licensure from social workers ( N = 519) and OMHPs ( N = 624) in a midwestern state. Results: The results indicate that most respondents believe that universities should be evaluated based on whether students pass licensing exams, and that faculty should be licensed. Many social workers feel ill-prepared to take a licensing exam. There are significant differences between social workers and OMHP in several areas. Additionally, differences are distinct between social workers who are people of color and White in their perception of universities' ability to prepare them for licensing exams. Conclusions: This research serves as a prototype for a more extensive study exploring social workers' perceptions of licensure's three main components: examination, supervision, and education.