Objectives: The study reported the pilot evaluation of the Healthy Start Home Visit Program for disadvantaged Chinese parents with preschool children, delivered by trained parent assistants. Home visiting was used to make services more accessible to disadvantaged families. Method: The participants included 21 parent-child dyads. Outcome measures…

Objectives: This article reports the outcome of a pilot study of a cognitive behavioral group therapy (CBGT) intervention--"Vida Alegre" (the contented life)--designed for use with depressed immigrant mothers living in communities with small but rapidly growing Hispanic populations. Method: The study used a pretest/posttest/follow-up design to…

Substance abuse researchers identify self-efficacy and group cohesion as important components in alcohol and other drug-dependency treatment. Objectives: The purpose of this single-group, pretest-posttest study is to explore the therapeutic value of a challenge course intervention on the self-efficacy and group cohesion of nine chemically…

Cue reactivity assessments have been widely used to assess craving and attention to cues among cigarette smokers. Cue reactivity has the potential to offer insights into treatment decisions; however, the use of cue reactivity in treatment studies has been limited. This study assessed the feasibility of using a virtual reality-based cue reactivity…

Objectives: The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) is widely used in juvenile justice settings; however, little is known regarding its factor structure in antisocial youth. The authors evaluated the BSI factor structure in a state residential treatment population. Methods: 707 adolescents completed the BSI. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses…

Empathy is a core principle essential to social work. Despite this emphasis, minimal empirical research of empathy has been undertaken by social work researchers. The purpose of this study was to develop and initially validate the Empathy Scale for Social Workers (ESSW). The ESSW is a 41-item self-report inventory designed to assess empathy in…

Objectives: This article describes two studies related to the development of the Perceived School Experiences Scale (PSES). The PSES may be used by social workers to assess youths' perceptions of three school-related protective factors, including school connectedness, academic press, and academic motivation. Method: In Study 1, exploratory and…

Human service organizations are uniquely positioned, given their scope of practice and access to consumers with the widest range of needs to significantly increase the national capacity for research if they were effectively equipped with the knowledge, skills, and funding to integrate research and development into their ongoing organizational…

Practice and Research Together (PART) is an Ontario-based research utilization initiative, the core function of which is to distil and disseminate practice-relevant research findings to child welfare practitioners. This article addresses (a) the mission and goals of the PART program; (b) the key components of the program design; (c) the conceptual…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the underlying dimensions of professional suitability. Method: Data were collected from a province-wide mail-out questionnaire surveying 341 participants from a random sample of registered social workers. Results: The use of an exploratory factor analysis identified a 5-factor solution on…

Objectives: This article presents the validation of the 28-item Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-28) among two Canadian samples of youth with complex needs. Method: The CYRM-28 was administered to two groups of concurrent service using youth in Atlantic Canada (n[subscript 1] = 497; n[subscript 2] = 410) allowing for use of exploratory and…

Objective: Using Canadian survey data this research provides social workers in Canada with a better understanding of their role in the Canadian mental health care system. Methods: By analyzing data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, Cycle 1.2 Mental Health and Well-being, the role of social workers in the Canadian mental health system was…

HIV/AIDS knowledge measures are widely used to determine the efficacy of HIV/AIDS prevention and education efforts. While much research has looked at the interventions, less attention has been paid to the quality of the measures themselves. Objectives: (a) To identify HIV/AIDS knowledge measures created for use with adults; (b) to determine the…

Objective: Virtual reality (VR)-based cue reactivity has been successfully used for the assessment of drug craving. Going beyond assessment of cue reactivity, a novel VR-based treatment approach for smoking cessation was developed and tested for feasibility. Method: In a randomized experiment, 10-week treatment feasibility trial, 46…

Objectives: The authors systematically reviewed the outcomes and methodological quality of 24 Internet addiction (IA) treatment outcome studies in China. Method: The authors used 15 attributes from the quality of evidence scores to evaluate 24 outcome studies. These studies came from both English and Chinese academic databases from 2000 to 2010.…