Major Social Work Journals Research Articles

African-Centered Social Work in the 21st Century: A Content Analysis.

Endorsement of African-centered theory and practice are widespread within Black communities across the United States. The usage of African-centered frameworks is also common among many Black social workers. However, past research suggests that African-centered theory and subsequent models of practice are marginalized within social work literature and curricula. Since advocacy began for the inclusion of African-centered approaches to practice during the mid to late 1990s, there have been no strategic analyses tracing how African-centered scholarship has advanced within social work. This study sought to examine to what extent the African-centered framework is included within scholarship among prominent social work journals. A content analysis was conducted of articles in six major social work journals published between 2000 and 2019. A total of 42 articles met the criteria for inclusion. While there has been a level of change in the number of published articles of African-centered social work, findings suggest that relative to other practice modalities/models, African-centered scholarship is noticeably lacking in social work literature. The article concludes with implications to advance culturally responsive research and practice with communities of African descent.

Responses to COVID-19 in Major Social Work Journals: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies, Comments, and Editorials

Purpose: The main objective of this study was to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest studies on COVID-19-related social work issues. Method: This systematic review aimed to collect, review, and synthesize all COVID-19-related papers published in 43 major social work journals, a year after the first known case was reported. Results: The final sample ( n = 256) consisted of 85 research articles and 171 in other formats. All the studies involved a total of 46,195 research participants. The majority of papers (75.4%) could be accessed freely online. Service users including families, students, older adults, caregivers, refugees, patients, health care workers, etc. were either researched or discussed. Discussion: Gerontological social work was one of the fields that received ample attention. Papers published in the Journal of Gerontological Social Work yielded the highest number of citations. Academics and social workers came up with innovative ways of practicing and researching during the pandemic.

Preventing Violent Extremism and Social Work: Recent US History and Prospects.

Anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, and anti-Muslim violent extremism is on the rise in Western nations while jihadist terrorism continues throughout the Middle East and Africa. Despite significant efforts by governmental, non-governmental, and civic society organizations to address violent extremism, little progress has been made to prevent it. White supremacist organizations are now organizing globally through a variety of next generation communication networks using techniques developed by ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Throughout, relatively few social work academics have engaged in preventing violent extremism (PVE) scholarship. Though the profession is referenced frequently in the PVE literature, it is dominated by those in psychology and political science. Few articles in major social work journals have discussed social work’s role or advanced PVE research. What has been published has mainly been critical of social work in this arena for legitimate fears of securitization, lack of resources/training, and the potential to discriminate against particular groups. The profession has a long history of impactful work in violence prevention in a myriad of practice areas. Given this wealth of experience and focus on social justice, social work should be a leader in this field. Areas of potential engagement in practice and research are discussed.

Conceptualizing Disaster Preparedness Interventions and Research: What Does Literature Have to Do With It?

Natural disasters are frequent, widespread, and derail the lives of large percentages of the population. Social work professionals are among those suitable for intervening in natural disasters as they assist individuals, families, and communities. To understand the knowledge in the areas of disaster preparedness—the authors investigated the literature by reviewing 10 major social work journals—a conceptual model of disaster preparedness was developed for effective intervention and research. While specific needs vary for individuals, communities, and cultures, there are universal aspects central to human existence.

Is Social Work Still Racist? A Content Analysis of Recent Literature.

Addressing systems of oppression that disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minoritized groups appears to be of marginal interest in social work's professional literature. This article describes the content analysis of articles on Asian Pacific Islander (API) Americans, African Americans, Latinx or Hispanic Americans, and Native or Indigenous Americans in four major social work journals published between 2005 and 2015. (The analysis serves to update a 1992 article by Anthony McMahon and Paula Allen-Meares that examined literature between 1980 and 1989.) Of the 1,690 articles published in Child Welfare, Research on Social Work Practice, Social Service Review, and Social Work over an 11-year period, only 123 met the criteria for inclusion. Findings suggest that social work researchers are still failing to address institutional racism and are relying heavily on micro-level interventions when working with minoritized groups. Social workers need to increase efforts to dismantle institutional racism.

An update to "among the missing: lesbian and gay content in social work journals".

The needs of lesbians and gay men appear to be minimally represented in social work literature. This study applied content analysis to four major social work journals published between 1998 and 2012, and it served to update the work of Van Voorhis and Wagner that examined content in the same four journals between 1988 and 1997. Of the 2,335 articles published in Child Welfare, Families in Society, Social Service Review, and Social Work during the 15-year period, 55 met the criteria for inclusion. Results reflect a significant decrease in the quantity of articles when compared with the previous report, with the largest decrease noticed in articles that addressed HIV/AIDS. The need to expand the type and amount of content related to this population continues.

Still Among the Missing? A Content Analysis of LGBT Articles in Social Work Journals, 1998–2009

In 2002, Van Voorhis and Wagner published an article that examined how often, between 1988 and 1997, four major social work journals published content on gay and lesbian people. This content analysis is a follow-up to the previous one to see if the findings were different when the same four journals were examined between 1998 and 2009. As with the Van Voorhis and Wagner study, articles were coded depending upon their focus on HIV/AIDS and the gay community or other issues impacting gays and lesbians. Similarly, articles were coded depending on whether they focused on the client, worker, or macro system. This study found a decrease in the number of same-sex articles from 77 in the first analysis to only 50 in the present one. Furthermore, there was a decrease of almost 90% in the number of articles on HIV/AIDS, from 51 to 5. Van Voorhis and Wagner indicated that social work educators would not be able to easily find gay and lesbian content if they had to rely only on the four major journals. This study reaches a similar conclusion.

Academic Affiliations of Social Work Journal Article Authors from 1999–2003

The academic affiliations of the authors of all articles published between 1999 and 2003 in six major social work journals were tabulated to produce a ranking of the colleges and universities whose faculty made the most substantive contributions to the social work literature. The results of this analysis are compared with findings of four identical, previously published studies, which cover the five-year periods of 197–1983, 1984–1988, 1989–1993, and 1994–1998. The limitations of this method of analysis are discussed, as are its merits.

Elderly Racial and Ethnic Groups: A Content Analysis of Mainstream Social Work Journals, 1995–2002

Articles published in five major social work journals were examined to determine the extent to which the literature addresses elderly members of racial and ethnic groups. The analysis found that only 1 percent of the articles published between 1995 and 2002focused on racial/ethnic elderly. This review indicates that social work students, educators, and practitioners will have difficulty understanding the issues facing aging minority populations and developing appropriate interventions if they rely on the major journals. Given this finding, it is imperative to increase the representation of members of ethnic and racial groups in the profession, the cultural competency of current social workers and educators, and the dissemination of research findings on this population.

How international is the social work knowledge base?

The global community has long been recognized as influencing and being influenced by United States social work education, research, and practice. Schools of social work and social services organizations in many countries as well as the United States have sponsored study trips outside of their borders for students and professionals for decades, activities sometimes referred to as cross-national learning (Askeland & Payne, 2001). Social workers often look to other countries for ideas about how to tackle local problems and to help new client populations. Successful national social policies, particularly from Europe, have been viewed as ripe for imitation in the United States, just as social work interventions initiated in the United States have been adapted elsewhere. Caveats always exist regarding the relevance of applying social work principles from one country to the next, particularly in relation to Western and non-Western countries (Al-Krenawi & Graham, 2001). But has this long-standing and irrefutably sound attempt to learn more about other countries been reflected in the articles published in key U.S. social work journals? The answer, increasingly, is yes. Method To learn to what extent contributors outside of the United States (as designated by their professional affiliation) publish in U.S. journals, seven major social work journals were reviewed for the 24 months leading up to September 11, 2001 (July 1999 through June/July 2001). Those seven journals were then reviewed for the same years one and two decades earlier (June/July 1989 through June/July 1991 and June/July 1979 through June/ July 1981) to see to what extent there had been a change in the past 20 years in the number of articles contributed by authors outside the United States. For this count (1,715 publications), only articles, regardless of length, were considered. Book reviews, letters to the editor, editorials, point and viewpoints discussions, author debates, columns, and nation-specific conference proceedings and reports were excluded. The seven U.S. journals have been used in the past for studies of trends in social work literature (for example, Quam & Austin, 1984; Van Voorhis & Wagner, 2001). The journals are Child Welfare, Families in Society, Health & Social Work, Journal of Social Work Education, Social Service Review, Social Work, and Social Work Research. Two observations are relevant that make a definitive count problematic. First, a few U.S. authors wrote about experiences in other countries. As a result, a more global perspective may be present in the journal than may be counted. Second, and contradicting the first, a few contributors from outside of the United States used U.S. data for their research. Thus, it should not be assumed that a contributor was necessarily writing about issues specific to the author's country of origin. Patel and Sumathipala (2001), two British psychiatrists, reviewed three U.S. and three European psychiatric journals for the years 1996-1998 to learn to what extent authors from non-Western countries were represented in the publications. In their methodology, they considered contributions from Western Europe (not Israel) and the United States as Western. The U.S. journals were much less likely to have contributions from the rest of the world than European journals--non-Western contributors accounted for between 1.3 percent and 2.5 percent in the three U.S. journals, compared with 6.1 percent to 15 percent in the three European journals. Cetingok (1999) reviewed 33 social work journals between 1977 and 1996 for foreign contributions and content. He found that 6.4 percent of the articles were contributed by authors outside of the United States, with Canada, Israel, Australia, and Great Britain the most frequently represented. Overall, foreign contributions more than doubled between 1977 and 1981 and 1992 and 1996. Findings For the most recent years reviewed, 1999-2001, 90. …

SELF-PLAGIARISM AS A SOCIAL WORK CONCERN

Publication ethics in social work have received very little attention. As the research base of the field continues to expand, and as the pressure to publish among academic faculty increases, social work researchers need to examine the ethical issues that can arise in scientific publication, including self-plagiarism and redundant publication. This article examines the issue of self-plagiarism, including "salami-slicing", "text recycling", and duplicate submission. Noting that many researchers may be unaware of publication guidelines, manuscript submission policies were reviewed for 28 major social work journals. Of the journals, 71.43% (n=20) explicitly prohibited simultaneous submissions, and 67.86% (n=19) clearly stated that submitted manuscripts were required to be original. Suggestions are provided to help social work researchers avoid committing intentional and unintentional acts of self-plagiarism and redundant publication.

Among the missing: content on lesbian and gay people in social work journals.

Lesbian and gay issues are barely visible in the social work literature. This study examined the content of articles on homosexuality that were published in four major social work journals between 1988 and 1997. Articles were coded according to their focus on either HIV/AIDS and the gay community or other issues pertaining to lesbians and gay men. Articles were also coded as client focused, worker focused, or macro focused. Two-thirds of the 77 articles published on homosexuality focused on HIV/AIDS. Most articles reflected a problem-oriented view of gay and lesbian people; few addressed heterosexism or environmental interventions. More literature is needed that focuses on strengths, heterosexist conditions, and social justice for lesbian and gay people.

Multiservice Centers in Chinese American Immigrant Communities: Practice Principles and Challenges

In reaction to the fragmentation of categorical services, there has been a renewed interest in service practice in social work (Fellin, 1995; Figueira-McDonough, 1995; Halpern, 1995; Hardcastle, Wenocur, & Powers, 1997; Rothman, Erlich, & Tropman, 1995). Some current efforts to identify the optimal community practice models and program innovations include family support centers (Adams & Nelson, 1995; Weissbourd & Kagan, 1989), new-style settlement house/neighborhood centers (Husock, 1992; Smith, 1995; Videka-Sherman, 1992), and community-service centers (Specht & Courtney, 1994). Although the term community-based service delivery has generated much recent interest, social agencies in immigrant communities have used this approach for quite some time. However, because of the paucity of studies about multicultural issues in general and in agency practice in ethnically diverse communities in particular, knowledge about practice in culturally and ethnically diverse communities has been limited. Lum (1996), for instance, found that during the 25-year period from 1970 to 1994, only 8 percent of the 3,716 articles in the three major social work journals - Families in Societies (formerly Social Casework), Social Service Review, and Social Work - were related to multicultural issues. In their review of four major social work journals for articles on practice with Asian and Pacific Islanders (APIs), Fong and Mokuau (1994) found over a period of 11 years only one article that addressed the community as its practice focus. As the ethnic and cultural diversity of the United States increases, so should the knowledge about practice with different clientele. To provide services that are useful to different ethnic populations, social workers must understand the service systems that have emerged in the various ethnic communities. Furthermore, because the community provides a locale for solidarity among ethnic groups, all studies of agency practices must take place in the overall ethnic community context. This article discusses a study of social agencies serving Chinese immigrant communities in the United States. During the past two decades, multiservice centers have been established in many Chinese immigrant communities. These agencies have developed a practice model based on a culturally competent and integrated service approach. This article summarizes the experiences of three community multiservice centers that have been established since the 1970s in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. In addition, this article explores the challenges that these practices face from the service perspective. Community Context Asian Americans were the fastest growing ethnic minority group in the United States during the past decade. The 1990 census reported that Chinese Americans, who numbered 1.6 million, were the largest subgroup among the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) American populations. About 70 percent of the Chinese American population are foreign-born, first-generation immigrants, who came predominately from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. Chinese Americans are not evenly distributed geographically. About 60 percent of Chinese Americans live in California and New York. It was not until recently that some Chinese Americans moved to the Midwest and the South shortly after their arrival in the United States (Barringer, Gardner, & Levin, 1993). Chinese Americans also tend to be concentrated in large metropolitan areas. In fact, nearly the entire Chinese American population (97 percent) lives in metropolitan urban areas. New York City, Los Angeles-Long Beach, and Chicago alone account for one-third of the Chinese American population in the United States. In many major cities there is an area called Chinatown, where Chinese Americans settle; merchants open their shops; and families, relatives, and friends are linked and interact in various networks. …

Not Simply “Asian Americans”: Periodical Literature Review on Asians and Pacific Islanders

One of every four persons in the United States is a person of color (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1991). In the total resident population of 248.7 million, the 1990 census revealed that 75.6 percent are white; 12.1 percent are black; 9.0 percent are Hispanic; 2.9 percent are Asian and Pacific Islander; and 0.4 percent are Native American, Eskimo, and Aleut. These numbers reflect an increase in racial and ethnic diversity in the 1980-90 decade, with the black population increasing by 13.2 percent; the Native American, Eskimo, or Aleut population by 38 percent; the Hispanic population by 53 percent, and the Asian and Pacific Island population by 108 percent. This increase for Asians and Pacific Islanders includes such diverse American groups as Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians (now Kampucheans), Asian Indians, native Hawaiians, Samoans, Tongans, Fijians, and Chamorros (Guamanians). Although they are the fastest-growing people of color, Asians and Pacific Islanders have been plagued by myths and misconceptions. One is that they are a model minority, without any need of government or social services. Some have claimed that Asians and Pacific Islanders no longer qualify as a disadvantaged or underrepresented group and have subsequently excluded them from the protections of affirmative action laws (Gould, 1988). For example, all agencies of the U.S. Public Health Service, a 300-organization consortium, participated in developing a national plan with 637 objectives to improve the health of the nation; yet, because of lack of data on Asians and Pacific Islanders, only eight objectives targeted their concerns (Asian American Health Forum, 1990). Real problems of Asian and Pacific Island peoples have been ignored. Native Hawaiians, for example, have experienced severe health difficulties, including startlingly disproportionate rates of cancer, diseases of the heart, and diabetes mellitus, but have only recently been recognized in federal initiatives as a population in need of services (Mokuau, 1990b). The lack of responsiveness to the needs of Asians and Pacific Islanders may derive from a lack of commitment and interest, but more probably it originates in the insufficient amount of accurate descriptive and analytical information and knowledge about the diverse groups that make up this growing population. Demographers forecast that by the turn of the century more than one-third of the entire population of the United States will be members of nonwhite minority groups (Harris, 1988-89). A significant portion of that population will include Asians and Pacific Islanders (Gould, 1988). Thus, it is imperative that social workers stay informed about people of color and their concerns. If responsiveness to the concerns of minority groups, and of Asian and Pacific Islanders in particular, is related to the availability of information and knowledge, then it is important to promote the development of that knowledge. Scholars must be encouraged to examine and discuss a range of issues such as institutional racism, historical paths of immigration, acculturation adjustment, and so on. It also is important to examine the information currently available to assess its content, to identify strengths and gaps in the knowledge base, and to chart directions for future research. This article assesses the status of social work knowledge on Asians and Pacific Islanders by reviewing the social work periodical literature and identifying areas for future research. Methodology The authors investigated articles that had total direct practice content on Asians and Pacific Islanders from 1980 to 1991 in four major social work journals: (1) Social Work, (2) Social Casework (later Families in Society), (3) Social Service Review, and (4) Journal of Social Work Education. These four journals are recognized as major social work publications with a generalist perspective; they circulate among 3,000 to over 140,000 readers (Mendelsohn, 1992), and they have been included in other reviews of social work periodical literature (Corcoran & Kirk, 1990; Jayaratne, 1979; Lum, 1986; Thyer & Bentley 1986). …

Publication Rates of Undergraduate Social Work Programs in Selected Journals

Abstract Scholarship is receiving an ever-increasing emphasis within social work education, particularly at the undergraduate level. Decisions on recruitment, reappointment, tenure, salary, and promotion often are influenced by publication productivity. The authors extend previous research on publication activity of graduate faculty by reporting the journal article production of undergraduate social work faculty over a 7-year period in seven major social work journals. As expected from earlier studies, relatively few faculty produced a sizable proportion of the articles. However, articles written by only one author were less common than previous research suggested. The majority of articles appeared in three of the journals reviewed: Social Work, Journal of Social Work Education, and Families in Society (formerly Social Casework). The most prolific undergraduate faculty were likely to come from programs located in combined bachelor of social work/master of social work settings in relatively large public un...

Publication Data of Alcoholism in Social Work Literature

This paper examines the extent to which social work educators and practitioners have contributed to the social work literature in the area of alcoholism. To achieve this, a content analysis of the five major social work journals between 1978 and 1990 was conducted. Based on the review of 2755 articles, only 68 of them had alcohol related content. Although research indicates family treatment as a more effective intervention method than individual therapy, this was not adequately addressed in the literature. Recommendations are made concerning how the Social Work profession can increase its commitment to alcoholism and substance abuse as an emerging field of practice. Additionally, this is likely to have a positive impact among the occupational social workers.

Where are the Fathers in Social Work Literature?

A review of five major social work journals published during a 27-year period indicates that the literature on fathers is sparse. The view of fathers that emerges from articles that have been published shows fathers as perpetrators, as missing, and as embattled. If the social work profession is to remain committed to working with families, then researchers and practitioners must study the changing patterns of fatherhood.

Academic Affiliations of Social Work Authors: A Citation Analysis of Six Major Journals

Abstract This article reviews citation analysis as an indicator of scholarly activity and discusses a discrepancy between two previously published studies on the academic affiliations of social work authors, in light of the authors' present citation analysis of six major social work journals. The present study largely replicates the findings of one previous report, suggesting that there are several universities whose faculty have, for many years, consistently made substantial contributions to the professional literature.

Trends in the Social Work Literature: 1957-72

One indicator of change within a profession is the journal literature. We examined articles published in three major social work journals in 1957 and from 1967 through 1972 to discover whether changes had occurred in important content areas, in theoretical perspectives, or in methods of intervention. A general decline in the numbers of social treatment articles was found with a corresponding increase in policy, administration, service-delivery, and client-behavior articles. Within the treatment literature, increased theoretical diversity appeared evident. A review of articles discussing intervention subsystems revealed no change in the number of articles focusing upon work with individuals; however, the number of family intervention-oriented articles decreased slightly, while the number of group intervention-oriented articles increased slightly.