Using a sample of 284 sexual minority youth and young adults, this paper examines the relationships between mental health variables, the absence or presence of a gay-straight alliance, and membership status in a gay-straight alliance. The results suggest that the presence of a gay-straight alliance in a school or college, rather than actual…

Bullying toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youths is a pervasive problem in schools that has negative impacts on LGBTQ students' mental health and educational outcomes. School social workers need to understand the prevalence and dynamics of bullying toward LGBTQ students to respond appropriately to victims and…

Student behavior affects teacher stress levels and the student-teacher relationship. In this pilot study, teachers were trained in Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS), a cognitive-behavioral model that explains challenging behavior as the result of underlying deficits in the areas of flexibility/adaptability, frustration tolerance, and problem…

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have become the second most common childhood developmental disorder. The parents of these children are hungry for information regarding ASD and often seek support and advice from the internet and virtual social networks. This qualitative study analyzed blogs of twenty-four mothers raising children with ASD. This…

This study presents descriptive findings from self-reported qualitative and quantitative data on barriers and facilitators to culturally competent school social work practice. The study highlights the need for the development of evaluative methods for the purpose of examining how elements within the practice environment affect school social work…

Authors explored the experiences of school personnel in their responses to children's exposure to violence. Thirty-one school personnel, including administrators, teachers, counselors, school social workers, and psychologists, were interviewed to obtain data on their experiences related to violence exposure in their schools and the surrounding…

This article describes a bullying/conflict intervention system termed the student support system, which has been implemented in a suburban high school in the northeastern United States. The system is part of a concerted effort to improve school social climate, improve the quality of students' social interactions, and reduce bullying. It is based…

Schools have long recognized the importance of creating climates that are peaceful, laying the groundwork for good student academic learning. This article explores the work of a large urban school district as it applies a community violence prevention model developed by the local county public health department to create peaceful communities.…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a school-based emotion regulation group program or a community-based emotion regulation group program for children in grades one through six identified as at risk for emotional and behavioral problems is most effective in improving student functioning. Outcome measures included emotional…

This article provides a model that school social workers can use to prepare elementary school children for the return of classmates whose appearances have been significantly altered as a result of illness or injury (e.g., loss of limbs, severe scarring), for whom return to school is often difficult. School social workers can be instrumental in…

Students and other members of a school community frequently experience grief and loss. This article uses a dual process model to describe students' grief and loss. It also describes the manifestations of grief at different stages of children's development, as well as interventions at different levels of the school environment. The ability to help…

This study examines the role of school social workers as potential agents of change in the educational system, with a special focus on their major demographic characteristics in Texas and along the Mexico border region. The border region of the state has chronic poverty and limited educational attainment levels and demonstrates a need for…

This case study describes a school social worker's development of an in-school intervention for reducing severe anxiety in a fourteen-year-old student. The student was faced with the possibility of a transfer to a more restrictive setting for students with emotional disabilities because of apparently unmanageable anxiety in his regular school…