Major Social Work Research Articles

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. …

Public Schools and the Revitalization of Impoverished Communities: School-Linked, Family Resource Centers

To revitalize the impoverished inner cities, the children in these communities must receive an adequate education. Unfortunately, schools often have been part of the problem rather than part of the solution, as evidenced by deteriorating buildings and disproportionately high dropout rates. Fortunately, there is a growing recognition that the problems plaguing severely distressed communities have a profound impact on children's school performance. Children must receive the full range of services they need to be ready to learn and be successful in school, and parents must receive the assistance they need to support their child's education, health, growth, and development. Communities are designing programs that link a number of services to schools through school-linked, family resource centers. This article discusses the rationale behind this movement, describes several exemplary programs already developed, and discusses the promise this movement holds for being a major social work strategy for revitalizing impoverished communities.

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.

Toward an Effective Response to the Needs of Asian-Americans

This paper identifies the major problems of most Asian-Americans and analyzes the reasons why these problems have defied solutions. In order to deal with them effectively, a more responsive organizational arrangement for a multi-purpose agency is suggested. Such an agency is client-concerned as well as community-oriented, equipped to effectively meet the immediate and long-term needs of individuals and families, as well as organize the community to deal with larger issues. The structure of the proposed agency, its major programs, approaches, and social work roles and skills are discussed.

Social Workers and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

Social Workers and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

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.

Andrew Lang: Aspects of his Work in Relation to Current Social Anthropology

ANDREW LANG was a heretic, who thought he deserved to be an outcast from 'the church anthropological' of Tylor, Huxley, and their congeners.' But he was also a profound and, in senses which we shall examine, an original man, and a scholar of great capacity, energy, critical acuity, and vision,2 who was a rationalist about the rationalism of those whom he called his masters.3 Lang thought that literary criticism, of which he wrote much,4 consisted in the main of telling other people what he thought about the works which he was asked to review or about which he felt like writing.5 The pleasure of reading and of writing such reviews and articles and the profit to be derived from them was to be found in discovering what someone with whom one was in intellectual sympathy-or not, as the case may have been-thought about what one was reading, and by seeing how far that thought coincided with or should modify one's own views. It is only appropriate and fair that we should approach Lang's work in a similarly open-minded way, looking more for what can be got out of it than for reasons to justify us in not paying it the attention which any writer of his stature6 can expect from his readers. To assess what Lang has to say in this sense involves tracing his anthropological thought and locating, where we can, shifts which occurred in it between his first major social anthropological work, Custom and Myth,7 and his later works, which culminated in 'Totemism,' a large book which remained unpublished when Lang died in 1912, and which has still not been put into print.8 To put Lang's work back to where it orginated, we shall also take note of some of the theories and interpretations with which he took issue. We shall see that Lang was not alone in the kinds of criticisms he made of most of the views and opinions which were contemporary with his, nor in the alternative solutions which with indefatigable vigour he proposed. For the most part, though, those who supported Lang's approach to social facts, and especially to the new information which was emerging from Australia at around the turn of the century,9 are as long forgotten, or at least most usually disregarded, as Lang himself is now.? This essay, then, has three main aims: to reintroduce Andrew Lang to the anthropological scene; to assess his work; and to show that we can profit from what Lang had to say, for some of the questions being asked in social anthropology these days are questions in a tradition of which he was an important, but quite unjustly neglected, part.

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.

Methods of Generalization Used in Empirical Social Work Literature

This paper reviews methods currently used for generalization of findings, as reflected in the reporting of research-related articles in two major social work research journals over a five-year period. Findings indicate, with the exception of a pronounced reliance on statistical significance testing, a greater orientation toward qualitative rather than quantitative methods. While there was also evidence of differential use of generalization methods depending on the type of research being conducted, relatively low usage of generalization procedures was the rule. Implications of these patterns, as well as achievable additions and changes to current practices, are explored.

Worker and Agency in Textbooks— Images of Which Reality?

A comparative content analysis of major social work texts shows significant variations in the ways in which they treat the relationship between social workers and employing agencies. The implications are relevant to the tensions among workers, agencies, and educators.

A walk-in and telephone inquiry service: a function of a hospital social work department.

This article describes a study undertaken to evaluate the Walk-In and Telephone Inquiry Service provided by a social work department in a general hospital division of a large, voluntary, metropolitan teaching hospital. The major social work function provided in such a service is information and referral; to provide this service, a psychosocial evaluation and counseling are essential. This service is valuable to and utilized by many individuals, professionals and community agencies. It can become the point where individuals enter the health care system. Issues related to policy making, institutional costs and cost benefits are discussed.

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.