Conceptualized by social work deans and actualized with the support of major social work organizations, the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare was established in 2009. This article describes the historical context and creation of the Academy, whose objectives include recognizing outstanding social work scholars and practitioners;…

Social work is increasingly embracing evidence-based practice (EBP) as a decision-making process that incorporates the best available evidence about effective treatments given client values and preferences, in addition to social worker expertise. Yet, social work practitioners have typically encountered challenges with the application of…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to review empirical evidence of the effects of placement in group care compared to other interventions. Method: Two-group empirical studies were identified and effect sizes for all reported outcomes were calculated. Results: Nineteen two-group studies were found that compared group care with family foster…

Objective: This study examines the influence of therapist and youth characteristics on post-discharge outcomes from intensive in-home therapy. Method: Data for 1,416 youth and 412 therapists were obtained from a behavioral health services provider. The Huber-White method was used to account for nested data; ordered logistic regression was employed…

This article presents propensity score matching as a method to implement randomized conditions to analyze service effects using nonexperimental data. Most social work research is challenged to implement randomized clinical trials, whereas administrative and survey data are often available and can provide valuable information about services…

Objective: This study tests the hypothesis that information typically collected during a maltreatment investigation can be used to screen children for mental health problems. Method: Data are from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. Cumulative risk scores were created for 3,022 children and compared to reports of clinical-level…

Child welfare service agencies provide parent training as part of their legally mandated responsibility to provide services to assist families to keep their children at home or to achieve reunification. The use of parent-training programs for families in the child welfare system has undergone relatively little examination. Mental health, special…