Judy Postmus. Photo courtesy of Rutgers University.

Victims of economic abuse are better able to manage finances after taking a money management curriculum, according to an exploratory study from the Rutgers University School of Social Work’s Center on Violence Against Women and Children.

Abusers often use economic methods, including running up credit card debt and withholding paychecks, to control victims. Victims of domestic abuse can also be reluctant to leave because of money.

The center studied 120 women and one man who completed their “Moving Forward Through Money Management” curriculum. The curriculum gave participants more confidence in handling finances. For instance, 88 percent of participants set financial goals for themselves after taking the course.

The exploratory study highlights a trend that needs more attention, researchers said. “Ask people about abuse and economics abuse is way down on the list,” said Judy Postmus, an assistant professor at the Rutgers social work school, director of the Center on Violence Against Women and Children, and National Association of Social Workers member.

To read a press release on the study click here and to read a myCentralJersey.com article on the study click here.

To learn more about how social workers help domestic violence victims visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Domestic Violence Web page by clicking here.

Richard Barth. Photo by Peter Howard.

National Association of Social Workers member Richard Barth’s research has helped lawmakers improve child welfare, according to this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Barth, dean and a professor of social work at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, this year earned the distinguished-achievement award from the Society for Social Work and Research.

His research helped persuade Congress to pass legislation to remove barriers that prevent parents from adopting children from another race. Barth’s work on homelessness among former foster children also influenced legislation to extend financial support to children who are not ready to leave home at 18.

Barth and his wife, who is also a social worker, adopted two children. His experiences in the child welfare system on a personal level helped shape his career and research.

“Being a client as well as a professor is both humbling and identifies areas where you realize there are major gaps,” Barth said.

To learn more about how social workers such as Richard Barth help children visit NASW’s “Help Starts Here” Adoptions and Foster Care Web page by clicking here.

University of Louisville researchers Seana Golder (left) and Linda Bledsoe (right) from the Kent Social Work School and George Higgins. Photo courtesy of the Courier-Journal.

Researchers from the University of Louisville Kent School of Social Work and University of Kentucky will study ways to keep women out of prison.

The project, called “The Women’s Health Research Study,” will look at how incarcerated women were affected by victimization, including physical and sexual abuse, according to this article in the Courier-Journal.

“This is a big study, but it’s going to give us a lot of information that we just don’t have,” said  George Higgins, an associate professor in justice administration at University of Louisville.

A $1.5 million federal grant will fund the project. The team will begin recruiting women in the Louisville area in the next few weeks and hopes to examine 400 women on probabation and parole.

There were almost 115,000 women in federal and state correctional institutions as of June 2009, up 23 percent from 2000, according to this Bureau of Justice Statistics report. About 2,200 women are jailed in Kentucky and another 15,000 are on probation or parole.

Photo courtesy of AskMen.com

A study done by researchers from two social work schools shows gay couples are just as fit to adopt as heterosexual ones, according to this article in the Ottawa Citizen.

Paige Averett, an assistant professor of social work at East Carolina University, Blace Nalavany also from East Carolina, and Scott Ryan, dean of the University of Texas School of Social Work Arlington and National Association of Social Workers member, interviewed 1,400 couples from around the nation, including 155 gay and lesbian parents.

They found sexual orientation had no bearing on the emotional development of adopted children. What mattered far more to the children’s well being was whether parents were satisfied with the adoption process, had a stable income and functioned well as a family.

To learn more about gay and lesbian adoptions and find out how social workers help families adopt, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Web page on this issue by clicking here.

Darrell Wheeler at the White House conference on black men and HIV/AIDS.

Darrell Wheeler of Hunter College School of Social Work recently attended a White House Office of National AIDS Policy conference on HIV/AIDS among African American men.

Wheeler, PHD, MPH, is associate dean for research and community partnerships and an associate professor at the social work school. He is also a member of the National Association of Social Workers.

“It was an honor to be invited, and even more so when during the course of the presentation my research was cited and I had an opportunity to speak at the microphone,” Wheeler said via email. ”The entire program is very illuminating and might be of interest to you.”

CSPAN covered the four-hour conference. To watch it click here. Wheeler’s research is cited at minute 18:35 and he addresses the panel at 1:46:00.

To learn more about HIV/AIDS and how social workers help clients with the disease visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” HIV/AIDS Web pages by clicking here.

A disabled office worker. Photo courtesy of Equality 2025.

Households that have an adult with a disability have substantially lower income and net worth than those without, according to a study published in the June issue of National Association of Social Worker’s Social Work Research Journal (Volume 34 No. 2).

The income and net worth disparity between households with an adult with a disability and those without persists, regardless of the family structure (married couple, single parent etc.).

The study shows that adults with disabilities continue to fall behind their peers when it comes to economic well being almost two decades after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The study was done by researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Social Work and the University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, School of Social Work, Social Welfare and Social Planning  in Israel.

The National Association of Social Workers offers members an array of cutting-edge publications. To subscribe to Social Work Research or purchase other NASW books and journals visit the NASW Press Web page by clicking here.

Dana Plato. Photo courtesy of CNN.

Tyler Lambert, 25, son of “Diff’rent Strokes” actress Dana Plato, committed suicide this month almost 11 years to the day after his mother killed herself by drug overdose, according to this CNN article.

The death of two close family members from suicide may be more common than you think. The Johns Hopkins Children’s Center recently did a study that shows people who were children or adolescents when their parents committed sucide are more likely to commit suicide as well.

“It appears from our results that all factors — developmental, environmental and genetic — are important,” lead author Holly Wilcox said in a CNN article about the study.

Social workers often help families cope with grief. To learn more visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Grief and Loss Web page by clicking here. And to get information on how to prevent suicides visit the Suicide Prevention Action Network USA by clicking here.

Q: Social workers, when you help suicide survivors deal with grief  are you aware odds are higher other family members may commit suicide? Do  you try to address this trend in counseling?

Photo courtesy of the Joslin Latino Diabetes Initiative.

Providing care tailored to Hispanic culture significantly lessened depression among Hispanic patients with diabetes, according to a study led by an investigator from the University of Southern California School of Social Work.

The study, which followed 387 patients suffering from depression, is important because Latinos have the highest risk of diabetes in the United States.

Researchers used psycho-education to dispel treatment misconceptions, stigma and enhance therapeutic alliance. Bilingual social workers also worked directly with primary care physicans and patients to enhance care.

The study was published in the April 2010 issue of Diabetes Care. The research results have already prompted the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services to hire more social workers to provide such interventions.

“We believe this trial got the attention of such a high-impact journal because this is such a disadvantaged and underserved population,” said principal investigator Kathleen Ell, the Ernest P. Larson Professor of Poverty, Ethnicity and Health at the USC School of Social Work. “They face a lot of barriers to receiving appropriate treatment–everything from language and cultural barriers to getting time off work.”

To read the USC press release about the study click here and to read the Diabetes Care article click here.

Social sector jobs include employment in health care and social assistance, educational services, and nonprofit community and religious groups, the study said. There will be 6.9 million new jobs in this sector by 2018, the study said.

Filling them could be more difficult because the Baby Boom generation is retiring and the size of subsequent generations is smaller. “The projected labor shortage could limit the growth of the social sector, affecting critical services, including health care, social assistance, education and government,” the research report said.

The study examined 2,500 mothers, asking them how frequently they spanked their child and how hostile their children were. The study discovered that children spanked often at age three were more likely to be more hostile at age five.

The study has ties to social work. One of the co-authors is Shawna J. Lee, assistant professor at the School of Social Work at Wayne State University.

You can find the study online by clicking here. Or you can read a Tulane University press release on the study by clicking here.

The National Association of Social Workers has said the “weight of evidence” repeatedly shows physical punishment of children is not as effective as other means of behavior management.  According to NASW policy: 

“The use of physical force against people, especially children, is antithetical to the best values of a democratic society and of the social work profession. Thus, NASW opposes the use of physical punishment in homes, schools, and all other institutions, both public and private, where children are cared for and educated.” 

Mark Courtney

The outlook for the 30,000 foster children in the United States who ”age out” of the system each year is bleak, according to a study led by University of Washington School of Social Work researcher Mark Courtney. Many have no family support.

A New York Times article citing the study said only half will be employed by the time they reach their mid ’20s. Sixty percent of men will be convicted of a crime. Four out of 10 women who were formerly foster children will be on public assistance. And only six out of 100 former foster children will be attending community college.

To read the full article click here.

Possible solutions for this problem include encouraging birth families to stay involved with foster children and using mentors to help guide newly emancipated youth.

To learn more about how social workers help visit the National Association of Social Workers “Help Starts Here” Adoptions and Foster Care Web pages by clicking here. NASW member Matt Anderson is also working on a documentary on the plight of aged-out foster children. To find out more click here to read his interview with SocialWorkersSpeak.org.

Photo courtesy of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center.

The quality of life for breast cancer patients was consistently better over time if the patient and their mate participated in a couples-based intervention program, according to a study published in the National Association of Social Workers’ Social Work Research journal (Vol. 34, No. 1).

However, the difference in quality of life between 23 couples in a Partners in Coping Program and 24 couples who used hospital standard social work services was not significantly different, the study said.

Still, the results could guide future intervention research and give social workers guidance on providing efficient and effective ways in delivering psychosocial services to cancer patients, the authors said.

The study was done by Karen Kayser, PhD, a professor at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work; Barry Feldman, PhD, director of psychiatry services in public safety at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center; Nancy Borstelmann, MSW, MPH, LICSW, director of patient and family support services at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; and Ann Daniels, PhD, LICSW, ACSW, executive director of social services and champlaincy at Massachusetts General Hospital Social Services.

The National Association of Social Workers offers members an array of cutting-edge publications. To subscribe to Social Work Research or purchase other NASW books and journals visit the NASW Press Web page by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Momlogic.com

You would think blogging would give teenagers an opportunity to write about all the wild things they do — underage sex, drinking and drugs.

However, a study led by Ohio State University Associate Professor of Social Work Dawn Anderson-Butcher, found quite the opposite. Teenagers tend to go online to write about the good things they do.

“They showed a lot of creative expression through poetry, lyrics and song,” Anderson-Butcher said.” It was very exciting — and for me, positive — to see the typical developmental activities that they were writing about in their blogs.”

And to learn more about how social workers help young people reach their full potential, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Youth Development Web pages by clicking here.

And the more these men overestimated how common violence against women is the more likely they were to abuse their partners in the previous 90 days, the study said.

“Men who engage in violent behavior justify it in their mind by thinking it is more common and saying, ‘Most guys slap their women around so it is OK to engage in it.’ Or it could be that misperceptions about violence cause the behavior,” said Clayton Neighbors, lead author of the study.

Neighbors is  a University of Washington affiliate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a professor of psychology at the University of Houston.

Co-authors of the study include Lyungai Mbilinyi, a research assistant professor of social work at the University of Washington; Joan Zegree, an adjunct assistant professor of social work at the University of Washington; Jeffrey Edleson, a social work professor at the University of Minnesota; and Roger Roffman, University of Washington emeritus social work professor.

To learn more about the study click here. And to find out how social workers help stop domestic violence visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Web section on domestic violence by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of AP

Do you want to kick your marijuana habit?

The University of Washington School of Social Work is looking for 70 marijuana-dependent adults to take part in a clinical research trial. Researchers will test treatment approaches to help people stop using the psychoactive drug.

“When people smoke marijuana they don’t intend to become dependent on it, but marijuana becomes pervasive over time,” said Cynthia Shaw, project director of the Marijuana Counseling Project.

To take part in the study contact Shaw at (206) 616-3235 or mcpsvcs@uw.edu.

To learn more about how social workers help people fight drug and alcohol dependency visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Addictions Web site by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of momlogic.com

If you want your child to do better in math you might want to open up a savings account for them, according to recent study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work.

Children with savings accounts score on average almost nine percent higher in math that those who do not, the study said. The study was published in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues.

Click here to read the abstract.

An elderly volunteer with a child in Senegal. Photo courtesy of Projects Abroad.

The Baby Boomer generation is retiring, offering a huge pool of potential volunteers for nonprofit organizations. But how can these organizations keep older volunteers happy and coming back for more?

A study published in the September issue of the National Association of Social Workers’ Social Work Research journal (Vol. 33, No. 3) offers answers. Researchers collected data from 401 volunteers from 13 volunteer programs across the nation.

The results: volunteers who received good training and were recognized for their work were more likely to volunteer for long terms. Contrary to the original hypothesis, giving volunteers incentives such as stipends was “negatively related” to volunteer retention, the study.

The study was done by Dr. Fenyang Tang, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work; Dr. Nancy Morrow-Howell, a Ralph and Muriel Pumphrey Professor of Social Work; and Songiee Hong, MA, a doctoral candidate at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.

The National Association of Social Workers offers members an array of cutting-edge publications. To subscribe to Social Work Research or purchase other NASW books and journals visit the NASW Press Web page by clicking here.

Associate Professor Timothy Conley. Photo courtesy of the University of Montana.

Tougher laws and treatment for alcohol abuse are the strongest deterrents to drunk driving, according to a survey by the University of Montana. ABCMontana.com posted this article on the survey results.

Timothy Conley, associate professor at the University of Montana School of Social Work, led of team of student researchers who interviewed 201 people convicted of felony drunk driving in the state. Conley is also a member of the National Association of Social Workers.

Conley will present his findings to state lawmakers who are working on 2011 legislation to curb drunk driving.

To find out more about how social workers help people overcome addictions, please visit NASW’s “Help Starts Here” Addictions Web page by clicking here.

Associate Professor of Social Work Sean Joe. Photo courtesy of the University of Michigan.

African-American male adolescents suffering from depression are more likely to seek help from family than go to mental health professionals, according to a study from social work experts at the University of Michigan, the University of Maryland and Howard University.

“African-American adolescent boys underutilize mental health service due to stigma associated with depression,” said Sean Joe, associate professor of social work and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan.

The study shows social networks may play an important role in lowering depression symptoms among this demographic group.

To learn more about how social workers help teenagers cope with life challenges, visit the National Association of Social Workers “Help Starts Here” Youth Development Web page by clicking here.

Kristin Ferguson. Photo courtesy of USC School of Social Work.

It is crucial to determine whether homeless young adults have suffered from more than one type of abuse, according to a recent study published in the December issue of the National Association of Social Workers’ Social Work Research journal (Volume 33, No. 4).

A sampling of 28 homeless young adults aged 18 to 24 found a majority suffered from a high rate of direct abuse (verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual) and indirect abuse where they witnessed such actions happening to others.

Kristin Ferguson, PhD, MSW, an associate professor at the School of Social Work at the University of South California, said her research will benefit researchers and practioners.

Researchers should assess for multiple forms of abuse in addition to the common measures of physical and mental abuse, she wrote. And practioners should be on the alert because even indirect abuse can cause depression and other symptoms in clients, Ferguson says.

The National Association of Social Workers offers members an array of cutting-edge publications. To subscribe to Social Work Research or purchase other NASW books and journals visit the NASW Press Web page by clicking here.