Social workPub Date : 2025-02-15DOI: 10.1093/sw/swaf001
David Ansong, Jamal Appiah-Kubi, Emmanuel O Amoako, Kanisha Brevard, Ramona W Denby
{"title":"Addressing Kinship Caregivers' Ambivalence and Internalized Stigma to Improve Acceptance of Financial Assistance for Children in Foster Care.","authors":"David Ansong, Jamal Appiah-Kubi, Emmanuel O Amoako, Kanisha Brevard, Ramona W Denby","doi":"10.1093/sw/swaf001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swaf001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Financial assistance programs, such as the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program, provide essential ongoing support for the care of children when reunification with their biological parents or adoption by other families is not feasible. However, these programs are underutilized by relatives who step in to provide stable, permanent homes for these children, partly due to unresolved internal conflicts about accepting financial support for caring for family members. Formative data (N = 178) and Bayesian inferential methods were used to examine whether a tailored training and support program for kinship caregivers could influence the internal conflict and attitudes of these caregivers concerning their acceptance of financial assistance. The study also assessed whether reductions in internal conflicts differed by program delivery mode: in-person versus virtual. Findings indicate that internal conflicts and stigma (a) reduced after participation in the program, (b) reduced with both delivery modes, with greater reductions among the virtual participants, but (c) did not reduce for participants of the standard foster parent training program. Results trending in the desired direction indicate that kin-specific training and programs may have crossover effects on internalized financial stigma, thus highlighting the need for future evaluations to affirm these results and inform intervention planning.</p>","PeriodicalId":21875,"journal":{"name":"Social work","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143426334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social workPub Date : 2025-02-13DOI: 10.1093/sw/swaf007
Lisa de Saxe Zerden, Brianna M Lombardi, Ron Manderscheid, Zachary Cooper, Danya K Krueger
{"title":"Going Grander: Behavioral Health as a Crosscutting Theme for Social Work.","authors":"Lisa de Saxe Zerden, Brianna M Lombardi, Ron Manderscheid, Zachary Cooper, Danya K Krueger","doi":"10.1093/sw/swaf007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swaf007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21875,"journal":{"name":"Social work","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143415335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social workPub Date : 2025-02-13DOI: 10.1093/sw/swaf002
David R Hodge
{"title":"Spirituality among People Who Are Transgender: A Nationally Representative Examination and Comparison with Members of the Public.","authors":"David R Hodge","doi":"10.1093/sw/swaf002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swaf002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Spiritual practices are important strengths for many members of the general public, but little is known about practices among transgender people. To address this gap in the literature, this study investigated the frequency with which self-identified transgender adults participate in a diverse array of spiritual practices and compared their level of participation with that of members of the general population. To conduct this nationally representative study, data were abstracted from the National Religion and Spirituality Survey 2020. Frequencies are reported for 17 spiritual practices, and logistic regression was used to determine differences in participation. The results indicate transgender adults participate in spiritual practices at levels equal to, or greater than, that of other adults. Transgender adults were significantly more likely than other adults to participate in 10 spiritual practices: yoga, meditation, tarot cards/fortune telling, fasting, attending other spiritual/religious groups, art, being in nature, writing, acts of protest, and teaching in a spiritual/religious setting. With one exception, moderate to large effects were observed across all 10 spiritual practices. The results highlight the importance of administering spiritual assessments with transgender clients to identify potential spiritual practices that might be operationalized to assist clients cope with or ameliorate problems.</p>","PeriodicalId":21875,"journal":{"name":"Social work","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143415336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social workPub Date : 2025-02-12DOI: 10.1093/sw/swaf003
Sunghyun Hong, Julie M Ribaudo, Paige Safyer, Irene E Routte, Daphne C Watkins
{"title":"Advancing Psychodynamic-Based Clinical Social Work Practice to Address Structural Trauma: Integrating Neuroscience and Attachment Theory.","authors":"Sunghyun Hong, Julie M Ribaudo, Paige Safyer, Irene E Routte, Daphne C Watkins","doi":"10.1093/sw/swaf003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swaf003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Psychodynamic-based practice (PBP), including approaches informed by attachment theory, is a widely used therapeutic modality in clinical social work for addressing trauma. Yet, in some clinical spaces, PBP has faced challenges due to its process-oriented nature, particularly in an era that increasingly favors manualized, short-term interventions. Meanwhile, sociocultural neuroscience has emerged as a field providing evidence for trauma interventions. Recently, both clinical social work and sociocultural neuroscience have begun highlighting the impact of structural trauma on mental health and the need to alleviate harms stemming from experiencing such trauma. Integrating neuroscience insights and methods may offer an opportunity to enhance PBP in clinical social work practice, particularly in addressing structural trauma. This article reviews recent developments in sociocultural neuroscience that is relevant for clinical social work practice with clients who have experienced trauma, outlines how these insights can inform PBP grounded in attachment theory, and discusses the potential implication of integrating sociocultural neuroscience with PBP in addressing structural trauma underpinning the place attachment framework.</p>","PeriodicalId":21875,"journal":{"name":"Social work","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143410996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social workPub Date : 2025-02-11DOI: 10.1093/sw/swaf005
Maha N Mian, Jordan Horan, Taweh Hunter, Alan K Davis, Stacey B Armstrong
{"title":"Social Workers' Attitudes and Beliefs about MDMA-Assisted Therapy for Adolescents with PTSD.","authors":"Maha N Mian, Jordan Horan, Taweh Hunter, Alan K Davis, Stacey B Armstrong","doi":"10.1093/sw/swaf005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swaf005","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Given the widespread interest and ongoing study on MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) for PTSD, its implications for unique populations-such as adolescents-require further understanding. Social workers will likely play a crucial role in the potential implementation of this intervention, but their perspectives remain unknown. The study includes 222 social workers randomized to read one of two vignettes about MDMA-AT or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor-assisted therapy (SSRI-AT) for treating adolescent treatment-resistant PTSD. Participants rated each treatment's acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility, followed by drug stigma, perceptions of drug risk, and psychedelic knowledge. Participants in the SSRI-AT condition reported significantly higher mean ratings of treatment acceptability (p < .001; d = .72), appropriateness (p < .001; d = .72), and feasibility (p < .001; d =. 64). In the MDMA-AT condition, perceptions of MDMA risk were greater (p < .001; d = .59) and psychedelic stigma positively correlated with perceived risk of MDMA (r = .46, p < .001). Moreover, greater psychedelic knowledge was significantly related to less stigma (r = -.33, p < .001) and less perceived risk of MDMA (r = -.21, p < .001). Concerns among social workers about the acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of MDMA-AT for adolescents with PTSD may limit clinical trial recruitment, engagement, and future implementation.</p>","PeriodicalId":21875,"journal":{"name":"Social work","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143400040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social workPub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1093/sw/swae054
Catherine L Givens, Amanda C Murphy, Erik K Fromme
{"title":"Advancing the Social Work Role in Serious Illness Communication.","authors":"Catherine L Givens, Amanda C Murphy, Erik K Fromme","doi":"10.1093/sw/swae054","DOIUrl":"10.1093/sw/swae054","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21875,"journal":{"name":"Social work","volume":" ","pages":"81-85"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142808073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social workPub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1093/sw/swae052
Paulo Adrián Rodríguez-Ramos, Laura Aguilera-Ávila, Rosaura Gonzalez-Mendez
{"title":"Development and Validation of the Barriers to Professional Self-Care Scale (BPS-CS).","authors":"Paulo Adrián Rodríguez-Ramos, Laura Aguilera-Ávila, Rosaura Gonzalez-Mendez","doi":"10.1093/sw/swae052","DOIUrl":"10.1093/sw/swae052","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Professionals who provide essential social services often face high levels of stress and the suffering of others. Self-care is key to preventing the negative consequences of these working conditions, but it is mostly defined as a personal responsibility. This individualist interpretation may contribute to exacerbating the costs of work stress by ignoring the existence of barriers that do not depend on the professionals. This study aims to develop and validate a new instrument to assess barriers to self-care among social workers, as well as their association with self-compassion and self-care practices. The sample comprised 325 social workers from Spain. Participants were predominantly female (87.4 percent) and worked in public social services (52 percent). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a four-factor structure (\"lack of information,\" \"self-care is unprofessional,\" \"self-care is not a priority,\" and \"noninvolvement of organizations\") consisting of 17 items with adequate psychometric properties. Considering self-care to be unprofessional was associated with less involvement in self-care practices. The social workers who considered the barriers to be more limiting were also those who reported more uncompassionate responses. The Barriers to Professional Self-Care Scale can be used to identify the barriers to professionals' self-care, examining what maintains them and advancing in its prevention.</p>","PeriodicalId":21875,"journal":{"name":"Social work","volume":" ","pages":"69-79"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142808078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social workPub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1093/sw/swae046
Walter Gómez
{"title":"How Academic Social Workers Negotiate Their Direct Practice Skills and Qualitative Research Techniques.","authors":"Walter Gómez","doi":"10.1093/sw/swae046","DOIUrl":"10.1093/sw/swae046","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The field of social work has been invested in assessing the alignment between direct practice skills and qualitative research techniques. Nevertheless, some of the debates surrounding this relationship have not been attended to recently-and less so in empirical ways. This qualitative study aimed to assess the relationship between practice and research skills with the goal of enhancing training in our field. Twenty academic social workers who conduct qualitative research participated in semistructured interviews. Thirteen were female, 13 were White, 11 had a doctoral degree, and their ages ranged from 27 to 65 years. Autoethnography and constructivist grounded theory approaches guided the analysis. Findings were contained in three themes: transferable techniques, bidirectional benefits, and pedagogical possibilities. Data underscore the role of reflexivity and boundaries in forging spaces amenable to appropriate data collection. Findings also supported a nuanced assessment of how qualitative research in social work may deliver benefits to both researcher and interviewee. Respondents suggest guidelines to ensure that training opportunities are ethically sound and consistent with social work values. Findings from this study may inform innovative enrichment opportunities for the field of social work across both research and practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":21875,"journal":{"name":"Social work","volume":" ","pages":"39-50"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142606353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social workPub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1093/sw/swae044
Ning Tang, Donghang Zhang, Fei Sun, Yihong Xia
{"title":"Regional Differences in Job Satisfaction among Chinese Social Workers: The Mediating Effect of Attitudinal Professionalism.","authors":"Ning Tang, Donghang Zhang, Fei Sun, Yihong Xia","doi":"10.1093/sw/swae044","DOIUrl":"10.1093/sw/swae044","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Job satisfaction is a vital factor associated with better physical health and subjective well-being among social workers. This study aims to explore the job satisfaction of social workers from China's Mainland and Macao and the role of attitudinal professionalism on regional differences. A cross-sectional survey collected data from 292 social workers in Mainland and 108 from Macao one year after the outbreak of COVID-19; 72 percent were female, less than half were married (44.8 percent), the average age was 32.64 years old, and the average working time was 6.07 years. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t tests, and mediation analysis. Results indicated that Mainland social workers reported a significantly higher level of job satisfaction and attitudinal professionalism than Macao social workers. Moreover, attitudinal professionalism helped explain the regional difference in job satisfaction. The evidence from this study highlights the need to nurture professional beliefs and values among social workers, especially for Macao social workers, and also underscores the importance of developing continuing education programs to enhance social workers' identification with and commitment to the profession. We also need to improve financial compensation and social status for Mainland social workers to sustain their professionalism.</p>","PeriodicalId":21875,"journal":{"name":"Social work","volume":" ","pages":"51-60"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142606354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Relationship between Burnout and Type A Behavior Pattern in Spanish Social Workers.","authors":"Leonor Belén Ariza Toledano, Rosario Ruiz-Olivares","doi":"10.1093/sw/swae048","DOIUrl":"10.1093/sw/swae048","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The aims of this study were to establish the prevalence of burnout and type A behavior pattern (TABP) among social workers in Spain and to examine their relationship with sociodemographic variables in a sample of 442 members of professional social workers' associations in Spain. The Spanish version of the Jenkins Activity Survey, form H (JASE-H) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory were used as instruments to measure TABP and burnout, respectively. Bivariate correlation test, analysis of variance, and logistic regression were carried out to analyze the data. The results showed that variables associated with TABP (competitiveness, hostility, impatience, and workload) increase the risk of burnout, with hostility and workload being identified as predictive risk factors. Gender differences impacted burnout, with women experiencing greater emotional exhaustion, while age and time in the job influenced type A behavior, with older age associated with heightened hostility and decreased workload, and longer time in the job linked to reduced competitiveness. Conducting this study was crucial to determine whether there are aspects of TABP that impact the development of burnout, in order to design interventions and prevention strategies that promote the health and well-being of affected individuals.</p>","PeriodicalId":21875,"journal":{"name":"Social work","volume":" ","pages":"61-68"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142606355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}