Establishing Evidence for Strengths-Based Interventions? Reflections from Social Work's Research Conference

Abstract

I recently attended Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) annual conference in San Francisco. As a new assistant professor developing a research agenda focused on work practice with children and families from a perspective, I was anxious to attend sessions presenting research regarding interventions. When I received conference schedule, I reviewed titles of presentations, ready with my highlighter pen to identify any topic related to research informing practice. As I reviewed almost 300 titles of conference presentations, I was surprised to find only two sessions contained term strengths in title. I then reviewed poster sessions to discover that not one poster session referred specifically to the or strengths-based in title. I felt a bit concerned that more titles did not reflect research regarding practice. Understanding that perspective is a paradigm based on principles addressing a variety of constructs, I expanded my search to look for titles using other terms that may reflect principles without actually using strengths in title. I looked for words alluding to concept of such as assets and I then searched for concepts that describe processes identified within perspective such as and coping. Finally, I also looked for terms reflecting specific previously identified in literature such as social support, appraisal, making, and spirituality. As I expanded my search in these ways, I did find an increase in number of sessions related to this topic. Specifically, out of 359 sessions reviewed, 47 presentations or posters did refer to these concepts in their abstracts, suggesting just over 10 percent of presentations may represent research that could inform practice even if this connection was not directly stated. As I reviewed these 47 in greater detail, I discovered that 18 of sessions explored protective factor of support specifically, whereas 15 tested more expansive models of risk and protection. Six of abstracts considered strength of spirituality, and another six looked at a variety of other specific protective factors. Only two of abstracts I reviewed presented research evaluating effectiveness of intervention. As I returned from this trip, I reflected on meaning of this experience. I wondered, does a dearth of sessions directly asserting their connection to perspective suggest this paradigm is losing emphasis in work? Do SSWR reviewers not value abstracts submitted regarding research based on perspective? Or, are we not conducting kind of rigorous research expected at work's top research conference that informs this paradigm? These hypotheses have personal implications for a young researcher seeking to build a research agenda on this paradigm. More significantly, these questions also have implications for our field. What does it mean for work that we are presenting theoretical material regarding principles consistently in classroom if there is limited current evidence to support its application? As a sincere advocate of principles of perspective, even making previous statement is difficult for me. Prior to seeking my PhD, I was a work practitioner working with children and families for over 10 years. I support practice because I saw these principles work in practice (Lietz, 2004, 2007a). When I moved from a practitioner to a clinical supervisor, I applied these ideas by creating a model of supervision and again, my own observations suggested this was a useful strategy. When I moved from practice to research, I conducted research to test and explore construct of resilience for high-risk families. …