Journal of evidence-based social work (2019)最新文献

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly changed the service landscape for both professionals and families. Kinship families, who often navigate multiple systems concurrently with higher service needs, were among the most vulnerable. This study explores kinship caregivers' and child welfare professionals' perceptions of changes in service delivery during the pandemic, specifically the sudden shift to virtual platforms.

Materials and methods: To understand participants' experiences, focus groups with protocols shaped by initial Delphi Rounds were implemented with 25 kinship caregivers and 34 child welfare professionals from a national sample.

Results: Caregiver and professionals shared themes related to how COVID-19 precautions impacted service delivery; kinship families' access to, knowledge, and use of technology; and benefits and challenges for implementing virtual support.

Discussion: Based on findings shared by participants, a model illustrating influencing factors for online service delivery was created highlighting technological capital, client factors, provider factors, and service type as key components. Implications of implementing online supports in practice are discussed, including technology access, training in social work education, and future research areas.

Conclusion: Despite the many adversities the COVID-19 pandemic presented for professionals and kinship families, this unprecedented time also paved the way for us think differently about service accessibility and the benefits and challenges of online supports, especially in a world that is quickly moving toward automation. Considering both families' and professionals' perspectives is key to integrating virtual supports into the current service delivery landscape in equitable and effective ways.

Purpose: Social work practice in Nigeria is profoundly shaped by local cultural norms, while formal education and ethics remain grounded in Western paradigms. This disconnect creates a significant gap between academic training and field realities. The study investigates how Nigerian social workers navigate tensions between professional values and indigenous traditions in their daily practice.

Materials and methods: A qualitative approach using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was employed to explore the lived experiences of 15 social workers from schools, hospitals, and community centers in Enugu Metropolis. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analyzed thematically to understand how practitioners interpret and respond to cultural influences in their work.

Results: Findings reveal that social workers face tensions between global professional ethics and local cultural expectations particularly around family authority, spirituality, communal decision-making, and traditional conflict resolution. Participants described ethical dilemmas including pressure to adopt informal practices such as cutting corners. Nevertheless, many found that culturally rooted approaches enhanced engagement and outcomes in community settings.

Discussion and conclusion: The study underscores the need to decolonize Nigerian social work education by incorporating Afrocentric theories, indigenous knowledge systems, and critical reflections on Western models. Recommendations include revising social work curricula, developing culturally responsive ethical guidelines, and promoting advocacy-oriented training. These reforms are essential for producing practitioners who are both ethically grounded and culturally competent, capable of delivering transformative social work within Nigeria's complex cultural landscape.

Purpose: The current review sought to characterize evaluation strategies relevant to evidence-based parenting programs (EBPP) implementation in real-world settings, specifically addressing programs' implementation characteristics, outcomes and economic evaluations under a pluralistic approach.

Materials and method: We conducted a narrative review of peer-reviewed literature completing the scale for the assessment of narrative review articles (SANRA) and following the preferred format Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion (IMRD) to outweigh appraisals of non-systematic procedures. We searched Web of Science, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, Education Source Ultimate, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, and Sociology Source Ultimate for keywords related to the concepts of parenting program, evaluation, implementation, pluralistic approach, and community-based services.

Results: We present the state-of-the-art of the evaluation of EBPP, detailing evaluation strategies through the lens of a pluralistic approach, showcasing what counts as evidence for implementation, outcome and economic evaluations of EBPP.

Discussion: Our groundwork posits the rationale for different evaluation designs addressing multiple questions for evidence, illustrating how program implementation and outcomes evaluation can critically contribute to an evidence-based practice. We also turn to the challenges implicit in translational studies and why research and practice are bound to be inseparable allies.

Conclusion: Exclusively addressing programs' evaluation outcomes may be insufficient. Outcome evaluations should be paired with implementation and economic evaluations to better understand how programs work, which could be more suitable for families according to their needs and characteristics, but also to inform cost-sensitive decisions, and reduce societal burden and costs.

Purpose: Asian Americans face unique challenges when immigrating to the United States, including intimate partner violence (IPV). Cultural factors such as male dominance and prioritization of family over individual needs often discourage women from seeking help. The purpose of this study is to examine the personal and environmental limitations of seeking help experienced by Asian American IPV survivors.

Methods: We collaborated with two not-for-profit agencies serving Asian American IPV survivors. These agencies, located in large metropolitan areas, surveyed 123 clients in three time periods between 2022 and 2024. Two-thirds of respondents identified as Korean, followed by Mongolian, Chinese, and other ethnicities. The survey included a stigma scale, barriers to accessing the criminal justice system, and open-ended responses.

Results: Survivors identified fear of being blamed, feelings of shame, and lack of community support following disclosure as significant barriers to seeking help. In addition, respondents identified barriers to accessing the criminal justice system, including practical barriers (language, cost, and transportation), lack of knowledge about the system and how to contact it, fears about their partner's reaction, getting the abuser in trouble, losing custody of the children, upsetting the extended family, and lack of trust in the system. Survivors had mixed experiences with police interactions.

Discussion: The findings highlight critical opportunities for prevention efforts, emphasizing the need for strategies to change norms that blame the victims, educate communities and faith leaders on how to support survivors, inform survivors on their legal options, and educate police and legal advocates on culturally sensitive interventions.

Purpose: In this study our purpose is to evaluate the structural validity and internal consistency of the KEY, which is an effectiveness evaluation measure grounded in critical realism (CR) and designed to measure social work effectiveness. The KEY is completed collaboratively by the client and the social worker before and after interventions.

Materials and methods: Research material consists of 454 working-age social work clients from four Finnish municipalities. The data was collected between March 2018 and late 2019 via a cross-sectional survey. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with structural equation modeling was employed to assess construct validity, while Cronbach's alpha measured internal consistency.

Results: Results demonstrated that the KEY exhibited a good data fit, with a normed fit index ranging from 0.94 to 0.87, indicating acceptable psychometric properties.

Discussion: The key findings of this study demonstrate that the KEY measure possesses satisfactory psychometric properties and structural validity. The KEY proved to be a suitable tool for use in adult social work and for measuring the effectiveness of social work.

Conclusion: It is recommended that future studies focus on the predictive validation of the KEY measure, which becomes possible when longitudinal data are collected.

Purpose: This study examines the impact of perceived family social support on youth life satisfaction, focusing on the mediating roles of psychological resilience and trait anxiety.

Materials and methods: A cross-sectional quantitative research design was employed, collecting data from 626 participants via an online survey. A convenience sampling method was used. Analyses, including confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM) path analysis, were conducted using SPSS 24 and AMOS 24 software.

Results: The findings indicate that perceived family social support positively influences psychological resilience and life satisfaction while reducing trait anxiety. Psychological resilience lowers trait anxiety; however, its direct effect on life satisfaction is insignificant. Trait anxiety, on the other hand, negatively affects life satisfaction and acts as a mediator between perceived family social support and life satisfaction. Additionally, psychological resilience plays an indirect role in the effect of perceived family social support on life satisfaction through trait anxiety.

Discussion: The results suggest that perceived family support enhances resilience and reduces anxiety among youth, contributing to greater life satisfaction. These findings underscore the complex interplay between these variables and highlight the mediating roles of psychological resilience and trait anxiety.

Conclusion: This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that perceived family support enhances life satisfaction by strengthening psychological resilience and reducing trait anxiety. In addition, the study emphasizes the importance of fostering family-based support systems to promote youth well-being.

Purpose: This research aimed to examine the responses given by ChatGPT to seven social investigation reports prepared in the field of children regarding deficiencies, risk factors and protective factors, social work intervention plan and institution suggestions in Türkiye.

Materials and methods: Anonymized reports were accessed via web pages on Google and content analysis was conducted using qualitative research methods. The data obtained were analyzed by using the MAXQDA22 program with thematic analysis method and three main themes were created.

Results: In the first theme, social investigation reports are comprehensively evaluated by ChatGPT, deficiencies in both form and content are identified and improvement suggestions are presented. Risk factors and protective factors as the second theme are divided into sub-themes as individual characteristics and experience, family, social environment, health, education, housing, economic and social situation. In the last theme, it is observed that the objectives are established before the social work intervention plan and the institutions providing services are suggested by taking into account different practice areas.

Conclusion: Future studies could investigate the effects of the use of AI in social work practice on social work experts.