Family Service Workers Research Articles

Head Start’s Family Services: Promoting the Outcomes of Low-Income Children and Families

ABSTRACT Research Findings: Very little research has examined whether the contributions of Head Start’s Family Service Workers (FSWs) and family partnership services influence family and child outcomes. Using data from 215 families in the 2014 Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), this study used structural equation models to examine associations between FSWs’ relationship, empowerment, and communication practices; families’ receipt of income supports; change in parent depression symptoms; and change in child approaches to learning, early literacy, early math, and social skills. FSWs’ practices and family receipt of income supports over the Head Start year were associated with reduced parent depression symptoms. Receipt of income supports also was associated with children’s improved approaches to learning skills. Results suggest that Head Start’s family partnership staff and services can help support parents and children living in poverty, identifying critical elements of successful two-generation programming. Practice or Policy: These findings have implications for Head Start and other two-generation programs targeting families with low incomes and suggest investment in strategies to help families address their financial needs and in staff who families view as supportive.

“Would You Like to Hear a Story?”: Collaborating With Families Using Photo-Elicitation

Research related to family empowerment and capacity-building suggests that families facing multiple risk factors (e.g., presence of a disability, poverty, single parents, low levels of maternal education, etc.) may experience feelings of powerlessness when asked by professionals to make decisions on behalf of their families. The purpose of this study was to explore a particular strategy for engaging families experiencing multiple risk factors, including caring for young children with disabilities, to work collaboratively with Head Start professionals when planning and implementing family-centered interventions. Specifically, we examined how photo-elicitation may empower families to share their personal stories as a pathway to building meaningful relationships with their Head Start family service workers. A qualitative approach via thematic analysis was used. Findings begin to address the need for identifying innovative strategies for building family capacity with Head Start families, specifically those caring for young children with disabilities.

Family Counselling as Decolonization: Exploring an Indigenous Social-Constructivist Approach in Clinical Practice

In Canada, Indigenous peoples’ lives are shaped by relationships with their families. These relationships are defined by traditional Indigenous conceptions of connectedness with the earth, communities, and the many relations that occur within these contexts and are based on what is termed Indigenous ways of knowing. These relationships are also described through a concept of Western social constructivism. Social constructivism is an ideal mate for Indigenous ways of knowing in the practice of family counseling because it recognizes the importance of culture and context in understanding what occurs in human interactions when constructing knowledge based on this understanding. Indigenous ways of knowing have been of recent and growing interest to family mental health practitioners and policy makers who are seeking to support clients in decolonization processes. Family service providers who work in a Western social service or health care setting have an interest in exploring forms of sociocultural theory and practice, such as Indigenous ways of knowing, in order to address and further the practitioner-family interaction and to benefit both individuals and communities in a responsible and sustainable manner. Using current and historical literature, this article presents a summary of issues and guidelines for a hybrid approach that brings together Western and Indigenous approaches for family service workers (such as counselors, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists), and a set of guidelines for practical application. Implications of how these practices can positively impact and promote community mental health in the current climate of recovery from colonialism and cultural genocide are presented.

BUILDING NETWORKS OF PROFESSIONALS TO SUPPORT KINSHIP CARE FAMILIES

Numbers of American children being raised by relatives continue to rise. Over 7.8 million children, representing 10.5% of American children under age 18, lived in a relative-headed home. Of these, 2.5 million have no parent present in their home (Generations United, 2016). Kinship families’ needs are typically complex, needing prompt and sensitive responses. Varied professionals often serve kinship families but the majority report receiving little information or training related to kinship families. (Smith 2017 This pilot project surveyed professionals (n = 63) representing varied disciplines in a pre/post-test format to determine change in knowledge and strategies for working with kinship care family members. All respondents were enrolled in graduate courses specifically focused on kinship families. Respondents represented diverse fields including family therapists (n = 9), family service workers (n = 23), teachers (n = 16), school administrators (n = 4), child care providers (n = 2) and health care professionals (n = 7 ). Respondents completed a 17 question pre/post survey. Results demonstrated the majority (n = 59; 93%) had experience with kinship families but most (n = 47; 74%) had received little/no targeted professional training. Post-test results strongly indicated that completing any amount of kinship-related coursework positively impacted professionals’ knowledge, confidence, and readiness to utilize learned strategies in their work with kinship families. Additionally, post-test results of students completing the entire series of classes (9 credits) revealed significantly greater changes, demonstrating the importance of providing comprehensive information to enhance professional practices for working with kinship families.

Rekindling the sacred fire for children and families

This video describes the partnership between the Sun Lodge Village and Peguis Child and Family Services in Peguis First Nation, Manitoba. Together we are providing opportunities for families, youth, and children to find their way back to traditional spiritual ways of healing and knowing who they are through ceremony, traditional teachings, and land-based experiences. The story is told through voices, pictures, and songs of the Sun Lodge Village family, child and family service workers, and the parents and youth involved. It describes the need for radical change in the child welfare system for Anishinaabe families, to find alternatives to placing so many children in foster care. It shows how such change is indeed possible through helping families from within traditional Anishinaabe ways of being. Those involved describe how these ways have provided healing for them, how their families have been strengthened, and how special the Sun Lodge and the Sun Lodge Village family have become for them.

Family Counselling as Decolonization: Exploring an Indigenous Social-Constructivist Approach in Clinical Practice1

In Canada, Indigenous peoples' lives are shaped by relationships with their families. These relationships are defined by traditional Indigenous conceptions of connectedness with the earth, communities, and the many relations that occur within these contexts and are based on what is termed Indigenous ways of knowing. These relationships are also described through a concept of Western social constructivism. Social constructivism is an ideal mate for Indigenous ways of knowing in the practice of family counselling because it recognizes the importance of culture and context in understanding what occurs in human interactions when constructing knowledge based on this understanding. Indigenous ways of knowing have been of recent and growing interest to family mental health practitioners and policymakers who are seeking to support clients in decolonization processes. Family service providers who work in a Western social service or health care setting have an interest in exploring forms of sociocultural theory and practice, such as Indigenous ways of knowing, in order to address and further the practitioner-family interaction and to benefit both individuals and communities in a responsible and sustainable manner. Using current and historical literature, this article presents a summary of issues and guidelines for a hybrid approach that brings together Western and Indigenous approaches for family service workers (such as counsellors, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists) and a set of guidelines for practical application. Implications of how these practices can positively impact and promote community mental health in the current climate of recovery from colonialism and cultural genocide are presented.

Family characteristics as predictors of intensity in family services

ABSTRACTThis article investigates factors influencing the number of hours families are involved with family services and uses these factors to develop a predictive model. This research began with focus groups involving family service workers who identified three key domains influencing service intensity: worker/family relationship, family motivation, and family characteristics. The family characteristics domain is the focus of this article. Influencing factors within this domain are examined through analysis of database information from 258 families who had previously accessed family services through a community services organization. Key predictors identified include the gender of main consumer, family size, and presence of issues such as family violence and physical illness. These findings are used to develop a model to predict intervention intensity for families accessing family services. The ability to estimate service intensity provides data to effectively develop innovative programs and enable better balancing of staff workloads and resources. Additionally, the capability to predict intensity helps allocate families to appropriate workers and programs.

Perceived stress, illness invalidation, and symptom severity in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome

ABSTRACT Background: Qualitative studies indicate that individuals with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) commonly experience illness invalidation from medical professionals that is often experienced as stressful and may contribute to strained patient–provider relationships, transfers of care, and/or decreased treatment adherence. Purpose: To examine the impact of perceived stress and illness invalidation from medical professionals on ME/CFS symptom severity. Methods: Adults with ME/CFS (N = 266) participated in an online survey, where they completed the Illness Invalidation Inventory (I*3) [Kool MB, van Middendorp H, Lumley MA, et al. Lack of understanding in fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis: the Illness Invalidation Inventory (3*I). Ann Rheum Dis. 2010;69:1990–1995.], the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) [Cohen S, Kamarck T, Mermelstein R. A global measure of perceived stress. J Health Soc Behav. 1983;24:385–396.], and the CDC Symptom Inventory for Assessment of CFS. Results were evaluated via hierarchical regression. Results: Neither perceived stress nor illness invalidation from medical professionals were significant predictors of ME/CFS symptom severity. Illness invalidation from medical professionals was positively correlated with illness invalidation from family, work colleagues, and social service workers. Conclusions: Results called into question the influence of psychological stress in ME/CFS symptom exacerbation, thus contributing additional information to the body of literature exploring the underlying mechanisms of ME/CFS. Additionally, this study suggested the particular importance of medical providers striving to create a validating relationship with patients who have ME/CFS.

Child Well-Being Scales as a Predictor of Casework Activity and Services in Child Protection

This study examined the use of the Child Well-Being Scales (CWBS) as an aid to structured decision making in a child protection agency in Ontario, Canada. A total of 337 closed case records from a large multi-service agency in Ontario, Canada, were reviewed and abstracted by trained coders in order to determine whether or not the scales, completed by intake workers, were predictive of the subsequent decisions and activities of family service workers. Using regression models to control for demographic, case, family, community, and organizational variables results indicated that lower CWBS scores, implying increased threats to well being, were associated with greater activity and more services.

Head Start and Hurricane Recovery: Using a Family Outcomes Measure to Assess the Impact of Program Services

ABSTRACT In Head Start, family service workers facilitate the process for guiding and assisting families in securing services needed for specific family issues regarding health care, housing, employment, education, and/or crisis management. These services were particularly important to families following Hurricane Charley and the subsequent recovery process. A problem has been the lack of a user-friendly, validated instrument for assessing the impact of services provided. A local program used a recently developed family outcomes measure to assess the impact of services during the hurricane recovery process. Results revealed statistically significant gains in a number of areas including education, employment, and literacy development. Recommendations are offered for making the instrument more useful for programs such as Head Start.

Addressing Wife Abuse in Mexican Immigrant Couples: Challenges for Family Social Workers

ABSTRACTThis article addresses wife abuse in undocumented Mexican immigrant couples and suggests an ecosystems treatment approach that takes into consideration the structural forces of oppression and discrimination on abusive behaviors in the home and combines individual, family and community level interventions to help immigrant men stop the abuse. Recognized are limitations on service provisions in rural communities and small towns where many “newly arrived” immigrants reside. Family service workers in these settings are encouraged to advocate for this population and create culturally competent domestic violence services that draw on formal and informal resources and supports in the social environment.

Describing Head Start Family Service Workers: An Examination of Factors Related to Job Satisfaction, Empowerment, and Multiculturalism

The study describes a sample of Head Start family service workers and seeks to understand what personal and employment characteristics may be associated with empowerment, multiculturalism, and job satisfaction. These three outcomes were selected based on previous research and a review of the literature on performance outcomes for human service workers. Results indicate that the number of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) families served by the family service worker, the size of their caseloads, their years of Head Start work experience, and the previous enrollment of their own child in Head Start were associated with higher job satisfaction. Empowerment was predicted by the family service workers' length of time residing in the community and having had children previously attend Head Start. The multicultural sensitivity of the family service worker was associated with having a job-related license and the number of ESL families in the caseload.

Preventing Conduct Problems, Promoting Social Competence: A Parent and Teacher Training Partnership in Head Start

Studied the effectiveness of parent and teacher training as a selective prevention program for 272 Head Start mothers and their 4-year-old children and 61 Head Start teachers. Fourteen Head Start centers (34 classrooms) were randomly assigned to (a) an experimental condition in which parents, teachers, and family service workers participated in the prevention program (Incredible Years) or (b) a control condition consisting of the regular Head Start program. Assessments included teacher and parent reports of child behavior and independent observations at home and at school. Construct scores combining observational and report data were calculated for negative and positive parenting style, parent-teacher bonding, child conduct problems at home and at school, and teacher classroom management style. Following the 12-session weekly program, experimental mothers had significantly lower negative parenting and significantly higher positive parenting scores than control mothers. Parent-teacher bonding was significantly higher for experimental than for control mothers. Experimental children showed significantly fewer conduct problems at school than control children. Children of mothers who attended 6 or more intervention sessions showed significantly fewer conduct problems at home than control children. Children who were the "highest risk" at baseline (high rates of noncompliant and aggressive behavior) showed more clinically significant reductions in these behaviors than high-risk control children. After training, experimental teachers showed significantly better classroom management skills than control teachers. One year later the experimental effects were maintained for parents who attended more than 6 groups. The clinically significant reductions in behavior problems for the highest risk experimental children were also maintained. Implications of this prevention program as a strategy for reducing risk factors leading to delinquency by promoting social competence, school readiness, and reducing conduct problems are discussed.

Assessing the Role of Head Start Family Service Workers

This paper addresses the evaluation of the social services component of Head Start by looking at the role of the family service worker: Focus groups were conducted with three sets of family service workers. Three domains for further evaluation emerged, including characteristics of the family service worker; setting characteristics of the Head Start program, and job characteristics of the family service worker. Instruments for further data evaluation were presented.

Social Support of Homeless and Housed Mothers: A Comparison of Temporary and Permanent Housing Arrangements

Social Support of Homeless and Housed Mothers: A Comparison of Temporary and Permanent Housing Arrangements* Bethany L. Letiecq,** Elaine A. Anderson, and Sally A. Koblinsky This study compared the social support of 115 low-income housed mothers and 92 homeless mothers residing in emergency shelters (n = 31), transitional housing units (n = 44), and doubled-up arrangements (n = 17). All mothers had a preschool child in the Head Start program and the majority of the sample was African American. Results revealed that homeless mothers in emergencyshelters and transitional-housing had significantly less contact with friends and relatives, could count on fewer people in times of need, and received less help from their families over a six-month period than housed mothers. Findings suggest that family service workers should devise strategies to help homeless families access and mobilize existing familial supports and develop new social support networks. Additional implications for policy development and practice are discussed. Key Words: Head Start, homeless families, social support. Homeless families, generally headed by single mothers, are the fastest growing population among the homeless. Although accurate statistics are difficult to obtain, one study found that homeless families accounted for 43% of the sheltered homeless population in 1993 (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 1993). The Institute of Medicine (1988) further estimated that as many as one hundred thousand children are homeless every night. The recognition of family homelessness as a serious and growing social problem has resulted in several studies documenting the root causes of family homelessness (e.g., McChesney, 1992; Rossi, 1989; Wright, 1989) and the characteristics of homeless mothers and children (e.g., Bassuk & Rosenberg,1988; Shinn & Weitzman, 1996). Although previous studies have found that individual factors such as mental illness and substance abuse enhance families' likelihood of experiencing homelessness (e.g., Buckner, Bassuk, & Zima, 1993; Robertson, 1991), less is known about the relationship between homelessness and family variables such as social support. In general, social support is believed to enhance an individual's subjective well-being, buffer the negative effects of stress, facilitate positive coping, and strengthen family functioning (McLoyd, 1990; Rook, 1984). When social support is lacking, families who are vulnerable to homelessness may be left without a critical safety net to catch them before they lose their permanent housing (Bassuk & Rosenberg, 1988; McChesney, 1992; Shinn, Knickman, & Weitzman, 1991). The experience of homelessness may also strain existing social support because the sheltered homeless may live at great distances from their home communities and families, and may be more demanding of their friends' and families' resources. Finally, limited social support may hinder the sheltered homeless family's efforts to return to permanent housing. To provide a more precise framework for investigating social support, Barrera (1986) identified three concepts. The first, social embeddedness, refers to an individual's connections with significant in a social network, including the size, proximity, and/or amount of contact with network members. A second concept, perceived social support, is defined as the cognitive appraisal of being reliably connected to others (p. 416), and incorporates the perceived availability and adequacy of support. The last concept, enacted support, addresses the actual assistance provided by members of one's social environment. Over the past decade, several studies have attempted to investigate the relationship between social support and family homelessness. In one study of Boston homeless families, Bassuk and Rosenberg (1988) found that homeless families had significantly smaller social networks than housed families, as well as fewer extended family members living nearby. …

Career Outcomes Among Medical vs. Family Service Social Workers in Israel

SUMMARY The study compared perceptions of several organizational variables among medical and family service social workers in Israel. Three types of variables were examined; role characteristics (e.g., role ambiguity); job conditions (e.g., promotional opportunities); and career outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction). Among two groups of social workers, which operate in distinct practice settings and organizational cultures, significant differences were found in several of the variables measured. The medical social workers had a smaller caseload and more intensive contacts with clients than the family service workers. At the same time, the family service workers reported a much higher level of role ambiguity than their counterparts in the medical services. With regard to job conditions, the medical social workers reported less predictability and a higher degree of mastery than the family service workers. They also perceived themselves as having fewer promotional opportunities and financial rewards than their counterparts in the family services. Finally, the medical social workers scored higher in the area of service effectiveness and reported less burnout than the family service workers.

Does Social Work Education Make a Difference?

To test the hypothesis that state employees with social work education are better prepared for social work positions than are their colleagues without such education, data were collected in five areas, using different instruments and approaches. The data sets were scores on state merit tests for family service workers, employees' quality assurance scores, ratings of employees from supervisors, measures of employees' commitment to social work values, and measures of employees' confidence in their educational preparedness. Overall, employees with social work degrees, either bachelor's or master's, were better prepared than were those without social work degrees.