Children and Families

The book explores and differentiates the many manifestations of school violence, such as verbal, social, threats, bullying, physical, sexual harassment, and weapons possession, as well as staff-initiated violence against students. It presents a socio-ecological model of school violence in context, and explores the role of culture, religion, neighborhood, family, school characteristics (such as size), age, and gender. The model outlines how aspects of school climate, including anti-violence policies, teacher-student relationships and student participation mediate the effects of the outside context and influence levels of victimization, feelings of safety and fear. The book presents a large scale nationally representative study of school violence conducted among Jewish and Arab students in Israel. A nested design (students within schools) was used to gather data from the multiple perspectives of students, teachers, and principals. Hierarchical regressions, multi-level analyses (HLM), and structural equation models (EQS) are used to assess the relative impact of culture, religion, poverty, school characteristics, and student gender and age. Finally, the book outlines a series of detailed recommendations to advance theory, research, monitoring of schools, and violence prevention policies and interventions.

This book provides an explanatory model of adolescent development in a social context in order to explicate how meaningful psychosocial identities are constructed. The maturational trajectories of adolescents are fully explored within particular developmental domains. The functional constructs of resilience and risk are utilized to clarify the intersection of social context and emotional-behavioral responses in the lives of Black girls and their families. Based on research findings, the book has a particular ethnic focus; notwithstanding, it offers powerful insight into the developmental issues confronting all adolescents. The book brings together empirical data and case illustrations to theorize about social competence and social assets that promote healthy development. The book argues that developmentally self-relatedness or the lack thereof makes for adaptive or maladaptive social adjustment. Altogether, authoritative foundational knowledge in theology, philosophy and human development underscores theorizations about the complexities of concrete life-experiences. The girls' self-reports are told in their own words. Their visceral language communicates chutzpah, intelligence, courage, and hope. Of import to students of social work, counselling, and psychology will be the book's theoretical composition and the presentation of actual case material all of which provide a knowledge base for the development of critical thinking and intervention skills. Case illustrations feature study questions for reflection and class discussion. A Glossary is provided at the end of the book to capture the meaning of core concepts presented throughout the text.

This book presents a “360-degree” view of SFBT in school settings from meta-analytic, intervention research, and practice perspectives. This book is divided into sections within each chapter to allow access to information easily so that SFBT ideas can be applied. The section The history provides the background information on the specific area of SFBT being discussed in the chapter. The section The research explains what the best and most current evidence has to say. The skills provides specific SFBT skills needed for the concepts discussed in the chapter. The Application uses case studies and other tools in each chapter which will show how to implement the techniques and ideas discussed in the chapter. The future shares the information on current trends in SFBT research and practice.

Society has instigated diverse responses in an attempt to end domestic violence in intimate relationships, which has plagued our society and deeply hurt our families and children. Helping professionals are constantly in search of effective ways to provide treatment for domestic violence offenders, although such a search is haunted by hope, promises, and controversies. This book describes and evaluates a solution-focused group treatment program for domestic violence offenders. This is a goal directed, solution-based, group treatment program that utilizes goals to create a context for participants to identify, notice, rediscover, and reconnect with their strengths and resources in addressing problems with domestic violence. Building on a strengths perspective, a solution-focused approach holds a person accountable for solutions instead of focusing on problems. Without minimizing or denying the destructiveness of violent behaviors, such an approach aims at empowering a person so that she or he can discover and/or reconnect with his or her strengths and resources to build a more satisfying life that excludes violence in intimate relationships. Such a treatment approach uses the language and symbols of “solution and strengths” as opposed to the language of “deficits and blame.” Treatment focuses on identifying exception and solution behaviors that are then amplified, supported, and reinforced through a solution-building process. This book describes a pragmatic, step-by-step, “how-to” description of what helping professionals can do in treatment to create positive changes in domestic violence offenders. This is a treatment guide from intake to termination, capitalizing on participants' strengths and goal accomplishment to encourage and assist their efforts to eliminate and exclude violence from intimate relationships.

There is a profound crisis in the United States’ foster care system according to this book. No state has passed the federally mandated Child and Family Service Review; two-thirds of the state systems have faced class-action lawsuits demanding change; and most tellingly, almost half of all children who enter foster care never go home. The field of child welfare has lost its way and is neglecting its fundamental responsibility to the most vulnerable children and families in America. The family stories this book weaves throughout the chapters provide a backdrop for the statistics presented. Amanda, raised in foster care, began having children of her own while still a teen and lost them to the system when she became addicted to drugs. Tracy, brought up by her schizophrenic single mother, gave birth to the first of eight children at age fourteen and saw them all shuffled through foster care as she dealt drugs and went to prison. Both they and the other individuals that are featured in the book spent years without adequate support from social workers or the government before finally achieving a healthier life; many people never do. But despite the clear crisis in child welfare, most calls for reform have focused on unproven prevention methods, not on improving the situation for those already caught in the system. The book argues that real child welfare reform will only occur when the centerpiece of child welfare — reunification, permanency, and foster care — is reaffirmed.

Taking Charge is the first empirically tested program of its kind, designed specifically to improve academic achievement and self-sufficiency for adolescent and teenage mothers, who face increased risk of dropping out and experiencing poverty. This eight-session, in-school group-intervention uses cognitive-behavioral principles to bolster life skills such as focusing on action, setting goals, solving problems, and coping. The message embedded in the curriculum is one of self-efficacy and self-confidence, drawing on young women's strengths and teaching them how to manage the challenges of school, relationships, parenting, and employment. A treatment manual with detailed guidelines for establishing and leading a culturally diverse group, this guide also reviews the successful results of three school-based trials of the program, illustrated with vignettes and containing the handouts and materials necessary to implement the program.

Research has shown that truancy is frequently associated with juvenile crime and dropping out of school altogether. With the high dropout rate in the U.S. and the No Child Left Behind Act holding schools accountable for their dropout rates, it is essential for school social workers to contribute to their schools' improvement plan in meeting annual yearly progress benchmarks. This book covers best practices in truancy at the community, school, and student/family levels of interventions. It provides a reference guide to research-based programs and truancy program implementation. Beginning with an introduction to the essentials of truancy, its causes and consequences, and state and federal legislation, the authors then give readers a snapshot of what research has shown to work so far and what adaptations might look like in various school settings. Richly detailed case examples illustrate multiple levels of intervention, from the school-wide prevention and general policy levels, to remedial interventions, including culturally competent approaches.

This book analyzes in a developmental context understanding, assessing, and treating child maltreatment within the ecological framework. This framework is used to help systematically organize and integrate the complexity of the child maltreatment and developmental empirical literature by the following developmental stages: infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. Two chapters cover each developmental stage: the first chapter presents a comprehensive discussion of normal development and the developmental consequences of child maltreatment; and the second chapter applies this knowledge to the assessment and intervention strategies of child maltreatment. Research has yielded support for viewing child maltreatment from an ecological perspective, in that a spectrum of factors has been found to be correlated with protective and risk factors of abuse and neglect of children. These factors interact to create potentially protective or harmful conditions for children. Throughout the book, consideration of multiple risk and protective factors are utilized in assessing child maltreatment at each stage of development within the ecological perspective. This framework enables assessment of individual, family, and environmental elements and their interactions. To assess completely child maltreatment, all potential categories of contributory factors are considered. In addition, a case illustration at the end of each major chapter allows for the application of information presented in those chapters to enhance learning.

Violence in the home is one of the most damaging and widespread of social problems. It is an issue that cuts across all socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, gender, and age boundaries. Abuse and neglect can be found in all types of families and interpersonal relationships, and can take many forms including emotional, physical, financial, and sexual abuse. This book brings together the scholarly research and professional experience of numerous disciplines and reviews theoretical explanations. Taking a unique approach to defining family, it examines the complex, multidimensional phenomena of family violence. To further broaden an understanding of interpersonal violence, the book addresses violence against pseudo families, animals, siblings, and parents. It investigates the evolution of systems and institutions that interact with families and are mandated to provide protection and services, and explores the current debates surrounding public policy. In addition, the book explores the role of power in abusive relationships and considers the short- and long-term consequences of abuse. Also discussed are potential solutions for violence prevention.