Grand Challenges for Society

Foreword
Angelo McClain
Introduction: Social Work’s Grand Challenges

Section I: Individual and Family Well-Being

Part 1: Ensure Healthy Development for All Youths

Chapter 1: School-based Social Work Interventions A Cross-National Systematic Review
Paula Allen-Meares, Katherine L. Montgomery, and Johnny S. Kim

Chapter 2: Teacher and Staff Voices: Implementation of a Positive Behavior Bullying Prevention Program in an Urban School
Joan Letendre, Jason A. Ostrander, and Alison Mickens

Chapter 3: Intervening in Bullying: Differences across Elementary School Staff Members in Attitudes, Perceptions, and Self-Efficacy Beliefs
Anne Williford

Chapter 4: Cross-Ethnic Measurement Invariance of the Brief Symptom Inventory for Individuals with Severe and Persistent Mental Illness
Maanse Hoe and John S. Brekke

Chapter 5: Understanding the Relationship Between School-Based Health Center Use, School Connection, and Academic Performance
Jessica Strolin-Goltzman, Amanda Sisselman, Kelly Melekis, and Charlotte Auerbach

Part 2: Close the Health Gap

Chapter 6: Disparities and the Social Determinants of Mental Health and Addictions: Opportunities for a Multifaceted Social Work Response
Elizabeth A. Bowen and Quenette L. Walton

Chapter 7: Rural School-Based Mental Health Services: Parent Perceptions of Needs and Barriers
Kimberly Searcey van Vulpen, Amy Habegar, and Teresa Simmons

Chapter 8: Correlates of Receipt of Colorectal Cancer Screening among American Indians in the Northern Plains
Soonhee Roh, Catherine E. Burnette, Kyoung Hag Lee, Yeon-Shim Lee, and R. Turner Goins

Chapter 9: Traumatic Brain Injury and the Americans with Disabilities Act: Implications for the Social Work Profession
Portia L. Cole and Dale Margolin Cecka

Part 3: Stop Family Violence

Chapter 10: A Black Experience-Based Approach to Gender-Based Violence
Tricia B. Bent-Goodley

Chapter 11: Culturally Competent Intimate Partner Violence Risk Assessment: Adapting the Danger Assessment for Immigrant Women
Jill Theresa Messing, Yvonne Amanor-Boadu, Courtenay E. Cavanaugh, Nancy E. Glass, and Jacquelyn C. Campbell

Chapter 12: Child Maltreatment Reporting by Educational Personnel: Implications for Racial Disproportionality in the Child Welfare System
Kathryn Suzanne Krase

Chapter 13: Factors Related To Sexual Abuse and Forced Sex in a Sample of Women Experiencing Police-Involved Intimate Partner Violence
Jill Theresa Messing, Jonel Thaller, and Meredith E. Bagwell

Part 4: Advance Long and Productive Lives

Chapter 14: Evaluation of a Spiritually Focused Intervention with Older Trauma Survivors
Sharon Bowland, Tonya Edmond, and Roger D. Fallot

Chapter 15: Predicting Service Use and Intent to Use Services of Older Adult Residents of Two Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities
Jiska Cohen-Mansfield, Maha Dakheel-Ali, and Barbara Jensen

Chapter 16: The Effects of Caregiving Resources on Perceived Health among Caregivers
Michin Hong and Donna Harrington

Chapter 17: Alzheimer’s Patient Familial Caregivers: A Review of Burden and Interventions
Alexandra Wennberg, Cheryl Dye, Blaiz Streetman-Loy, and Hiep Pham

Section II: Stronger Social Fabric

Part 5: Eradicate Social Isolation

Chapter 18: Psychosocial Concerns of Veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom
Jessica Strong, Kathleen Ray, Patricia A. Findley, Rita Torres, Lisa Pickett, and Richard J. Byrne

Chapter 19: Caregivers of Veterans with “Invisible” Injuries: What We Know and Implications for Social Work Practice
Bina R. Patel

Chapter 20: Toward Complete Inclusion: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Military Service Members after Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Brandon Alford and Shawna J. Lee

Chapter 21: Engaging Older Adult Volunteers in National Service
Amanda Moore McBride, Jennifer C. Greenfield, Nancy Morrow-Howell, Yung Soo Lee, and Stacey McCrary

Part 6: Ending Homelessness

Chapter 22: Distal Stressors and Depression among Homeless Men
Carol Coohey and Scott D. Easton

Chapter 23: Women, Poverty, and Trauma: An Empowerment Practice Approach
Jean Francis East and Susan J. Roll

Chapter 24: Exploring the Psychosocial and Behavioral Adjustment Outcomes of Multi-Type Abuse among Homeless Young Adults
Kristin M. Ferguson

Chapter 25: Homeless Liaisons’ Awareness about the Implementation of the McKinney–Vento Act
Brittany Taylor Wilkins, Mary H. Mullins, Amber Mahan, and James P. Canfield

Part 7: Creating Social Response to a Changing Environment

Chapter 26: Human Security to Promote Capacity-building and Sustainable Livelihoods Interventions
James Herbert Williams

Chapter 27: Citizen Participation in Neighborhood Organizations and Its Relationship to Volunteers’ Self- and Collective Efficacy and Sense of Community
Mary L. Ohmer

Chapter 28: Integrating a Suicide Prevention Program into a School Mental Health System: A Case Example from a Rural School District
Robert C. Schmidt, Aidyn L. Iachini, Melissa George, James Koller, and Mark Weist

Chapter 29: Social Work’s Role in the Conservation Social Sciences
Jessica Lynn Decker Sparks

Part 8: Harness Technology for Social Good

Chapter 30: Social Work in a Digital Age: Ethical and Risk Management Challenges
Frederic G. Reamer

Chapter 31: Virtual Boundaries: Ethical Considerations for Use of Social Media in Social Work
Ericka Kimball and JaeRan Kim

Chapter 32: Children’s Experiences of Cyberbullying: A Canadian National Study
Tanya Beran, Faye Mishna, Lauren B. McInroy, and Shaheen Shariff

Chapter 33: Methods and Challenges of Analyzing Spatial Data for Social Work Problems: The Case of Examining Child Maltreatment Geographically
Bridget Freisthler, Bridgette Lery, Paul J. Gruenewald, and Julian Chow

Section III: Just Society

Part 9: Promote Smart Decarceration

Chapter 34: Reverse Social Work’s Neglect of Adults Involved in the Criminal Justice System: The Intersection and an Agenda
Carrie Pettus-Davis

Chapter 35: Shifting from Zero Tolerance to Restorative Justice in Schools
Martell L. Teasley

Chapter 36: An Examination of Family and School Factors Related to Early Delinquency
Jessica L. Lucero, Courtenay Barrett, and Hilary Jensen

Chapter 37: The “Learning Disabilities to Juvenile Detention” Pipeline: A Case Study
Christopher A. Mallett

Part 10: Reduce Extreme Economic Inequality

Chapter 38: Responding to the Global Economic Crisis: Inclusive Social Work Practice
Ron Strier

Chapter 39: Mental Health and Poverty in the Inner City
Ujunwa Anakwenze and Daniyal Zuberi

Chapter 40: Physical and Mental Health Correlates of Adverse Childhood Experiences among Low-Income Women
Christopher Cambron, Christina Gringeri, and Mary Beth Vogel-Ferguson

Chapter 41: Estimating the Economic Cost of Childhood Poverty in the United States
Michael McLaughlin and Mark R. Rank

Part 11: Build Financial Capability for All

Chapter 42: Growing Financial Assets for Foster Youths: Expanded Child Welfare Responsibilities, Policy Conflict, and Caseworker Role Tension
Clark M. Peters, Margaret Sherraden, and Ann Marie Kuchinski

Chapter 43: Assets and Income: Disability-Based Disparities in the United States
Susan L. Parish, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Yeong Hun Yeo, Roderick A. Rose, and Arie Rimmerman

Chapter 44: Coming of Age on a Shoestring Budget: Financial Capability and Financial Behaviors of Lower-Income Millennials
Stacia West and Terri Friedline

Chapter 45: Cumulative Adverse Financial Circumstances: Associations with Patient Health Status and Behaviors
Joanna Bisgaier and Karin V. Rhodes

Part 12: Achieve Equal Opportunity and Justice

Chapter 46: How to Best Address the Needs of African American Children Vulnerable to the Continual Widening of the Achievement Gap
James Herbert Williams

Chapter 47: Historical Oppression, Resilience, and Transcendence: Can a Holistic Framework Help Explain Violence Experienced by Indigenous People?
Catherine Elizabeth Burnette and Charles R. Figley

Chapter 48: Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in an Era of Health Care Reform
Felicia M. Mitchell

Chapter 49: Trayvon Martin: Racial Profiling, Black Male Stigma, and Social Work Practice
Martell L. Teasley, Jerome H. Schiele, Charles Adams, and Nathern S. Okilwa

Chapter 50: Unequal Burden of Disease, Unequal Participation in Clinical Trials: Solutions from African American and Latino Community Members
Marvella E. Ford, Laura A. Siminoff, Elisabeth Pickelsimer, Arch G. Mainous, Daniel W. Smith, Vanessa A. Diaz, Lea H. Soderstrom, Melanie S. Jefferson, and Barbara C. Tilley

Chapter 51: In Pursuit of Belonging: Acculturation, Perceived Discrimination, and Ethnic–Racial Identity among Latino Youths
Adrienne Juliet Michele Baldwin-White, Elizabeth Kiehne, Adriana Umaña-Taylor, and Flavio F. Marsiglia

Summary and Conclusion: Are You #Up4TheChallenge?

About the Editors
Index

Tricia B. Bent-Goodley, PhD, LICSW, is professor of social work and immediate past director of the Doctoral Program at Howard University School of Social Work. She served as editor-in-chief of Social Work from 2014 to 2018. She serves as associate editor of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence and as an editorial board member of the Encyclopedia of Social Work. She is the founding director of the Howard University Interpersonal Violence Prevention Program, founding member and chair of the Prince George’s County Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team, past national elected board member of the Council on Social Work Education, past chair and member of the NASW Committee on Women’s Issues, and past member of the Council on Social Work Education Commission on the Role and Status of Women. Her research areas include intervention research in areas of domestic and sexual violence, HIV prevention, engaging men and boys, and social work entrepreneurship. As a scholar-practitioner, Dr. Bent-Goodley received her MSW from the University of Pennsylvania and her PhD from Columbia University.

James Herbert Williams, PhD, MSW, MPA, is director and Arizona Centennial Professor of Social Welfare Services, School of Social Work, Arizona State University, Phoenix. He is dean emeritus, Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver. He has an MSW from Smith College School for Social Work, MPA from University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and a PhD in social welfare from the School of Social Work, University of Washington, Seattle. He served as editor-in-chief of Social Work Research from 2013 to 2018. He is a member of the Grand Challenges for Social Work Executive Committee, fellow in the American Academy for Social Work & Social Welfare, past-president of the Society for Social Work and Research, past-president of the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work, and chair National Advisory Committee, Fahs Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation. His areas of research are human security and economic sustainability, behavioral health disparities and health equity, social health services for African American children in urban schools, and community strategies for positive youth development.

Martell L. Teasley, PhD, MSW, is professor and dean of the College of Social Work at the University of Utah. He served as professor and chair of the Department of Social Work at the College of Public Policy at the University of Texas at San Antonio from 2012 to 2017. He was chair of the Social Work and Disaster Recovery Program at the College of Social Work at Florida State University from 2006 to 2012. His education includes a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and sociology from Fayetteville State University in 1994. He received an MSW degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1996 and a PhD in Social Work from Howard University in 2002. Dr. Teasley served in the U.S. Army for 10 years and participated in the first Persian Gulf War as a licensed practical nurse. He was elected President of the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work in 2017 for a three-year term. Martell was awarded the 2011 Gary Lee Shaffer Award for Academic Contributions to the Field of School Social Work from the School Social Work Association of America. He served as editor-in-chief for the NASW Press journal Children & Schools from 2013 to 2018. His primary research interests include African American adolescent development, cultural diversity, social welfare policy, and black studies.

Stephen H. Gorin, PhD, is professor emeritus of social work at Plymouth State University, University System of New Hampshire. He has a PhD in social welfare policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University. Gorin is coauthor of Health Care Policy and Practice: A Biopsychosocial Perspective, 4E and the newly published Behavioral and Mental Health Care Policy: A Biopsychosocial Perspective. He served as editor-in-chief of NASW’s Health & Social Work journal from 2007 to 2017. He served on President Clinton’s Health Care Task Force, as an adviser to the Coordinating Committee of the National Medicare Education Program, as a member of the Advisory Council of the U.S. Center for Mental Health Services; and was a delegate to White House Conferences on Aging and Social Security. He is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and serves on the standing editorial board of Oxford Bibliographies Online: Social Work. His areas of scholarship are inequality and health, social determinants of health, and health care policy and reform.

The editors of this book have carefully identified a collection of important articles within their respective journals that speak to social work practice methods for addressing many contemporary and future social welfare issues. It is sure to generate thought-provoking approaches to social welfare issues and new lines of inquiry.

Angelo McClain, PhD, LICSW
Chief Executive Officer
National Association of Social Workers

The Grand Challenges for Social Work (GCSW) initiative provides a national platform for the profession of social work to coalesce intellectual, scientific, education, practice, financial, and political capital to solve some of the most pressing social welfare issues in our society. Across the country, educators, researchers, and practitioners are responding to the GCSW by developing and using evidence-based approaches to reduce longstanding social problems. Building on the historical and scientific accomplishments of the profession, the GCSW have become a major initiative for our profession.

The profession of social work is constantly evolving. These changes require new and innovative responses. Advances in technology influence the manner in which we work with individuals, families, organizations, and communities to address social issues. The ability to analyze large data enables us to acquire greater comprehension of social welfare problems and develop effective interventions. The complexities of service delivery require new approaches beyond our traditional practice methods. As this country undergoes major demographic shifts in age, race, and ethnicity over the next three to four decades, social workers will need to be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to address the outcomes of these significant changes. Globalization, climate change, and environmental degradation have challenged the profession to expand the definition of the person-in-environment model and train social workers to practice from a global perspective.

As the social work profession continues its long-standing focus on family well-being, greater research is needed on family and individual functioning, health, and the shifting socioeconomic opportunities in this millennium. A broad array of circumstances and changing dynamics in society are affecting family life and individual opportunities. Over the past 40 years, wages for the typical working individual or family have not maintained pace with the cost of living, leading to a widening wealth gap between affluent and middle-income families. Technology has affected labor needs and displaced many workers in manufacturing. With many sectors of the workforce not prepared for such shifts, the U.S. middle class is now shrinking, leading many to question the viability of future generations’ participation in the American dream. There is growing economic inequality, reduced economic opportunity, increasing levels of social isolation, and the use of the criminal justice system to address behavioral health concerns and individual wellbeing. The GCSW provide a path for the social work profession to respond to these pressing social issues.

This book, Grand Challenges for Society: Evidence-Based Social Work Practice, features research and practice innovations that support the GCSW. The editors of this book have carefully identified a collection of important articles within their respective journals that speak to social work practice methods for addressing many contemporary and future social welfare issues. Each section weaves together a set of articles, within chapters, addressing specific themes. In addition to highlighting the outstanding scholarship occurring in social work, this book also identifies critical issues and substantive gaps in our knowledge across the 12 challenges. The cross-cutting research in this collection also provides implications for practice and policy. Readers of this book will find a wealth of research findings demonstrating the social work profession’s commitment to making changes in society.

The articles assembled within this book will be helpful to social work scholars, practitioners, and students. Social and behavioral science scholars will find cutting-edge approaches to both qualitative and quantitative methods, along with recommendations for research that offer new directions for future investigations. Social work practitioners will discover practice implications backed by evidence-based approaches that will facilitate their specific field of practice. Students attending social work education programs will benefit from the articles explaining how social work professionals address contemporary and anticipated social welfare issues such as family violence, health disparities, homelessness, social isolation, trauma experienced by returning veterans of wars, and the need for criminal justice reform.

I feel strongly that readers of this book will enjoy the information and knowledge provided by the selected research articles. The collected research studies represent the best of NASW’s journals. This book is a welcomed addition to the grand challenges discourse in social work. It is sure to generate thought-provoking approaches to social welfare issues and new lines of inquiry. I highly endorse this book as it adds to the approach to the GCSW.

Angelo McClain, PhD, LICSW
Chief Executive Officer
National Association of Social Workers
Washington, DC

In January 2016, the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW) launched the Grand Challenges for Social Work (GCSW) (AASWSW, 2018; Barth, Gilmore, Flynn, Fraser, & Brekke, 2014). This major initiative is composed of some of the nation’s most compelling social problems in the form of 12 Grand Challenges for the profession to address over the next decade (Williams, 2015, 2016). “Social workers are committed to advancing a strong scientific base for our profession that would provide solutions for positive transformation to several areas of need that social workers tackle daily” (Williams, 2016, p. 67). As the profession mobilizes to collectively respond to the grand challenges, it is vital to acknowledge existing evidence and information already generated by the profession in these grand challenge areas. This book highlights the evidence base of each of the grand challenges as reflected in four National Association of Social Worker (NASW) journals (Children & Schools, Health & Social Work, Social Work, and Social Work Research) over the past 10-plus years.

THE GRAND CHALLENGE APPROACH

The grand challenge approach is not a new one. It has been used by other disciplines, professions, academies, and nations to build solutions to pressing societal problems and foster a focused approach to addressing compelling issues. This approach allows for an integrative and collaborative effort to solve issues that are within reach but require collective effort. “A grand challenge approach offered the opportunity to both reflect on the direction of social work and anticipate and develop plans of action for emerging social problems” (Padilla & Fong, 2016, p. 135). The grand challenge framework has been used in other professions to address the gap between practice and research, inform the public of the role of the profession in solving significant problems, fuel an interest in the profession for the next generation of practitioners and scholars, spark innovation within teaching and education, and stimulate growth in the profession (Uehara et al., 2013). It is recognized that the grand challenge approach is not only a rallying cry for the profession, but also an opportunity to promote awareness about the unique role the profession plays in addressing problems. This effort is no different for the social work profession, which views the grand challenges as an opportunity to “dramatically increase the public understanding of why the science and practice of social work is crucial not only to the quality of life but also the sustainability of our lives” (Uehara et al., 2013, p. 166). The GCSW uses scientific evidence to show what meaningful and measurable progress can be created and the interdisciplinary collaborations that can be generated over a decade. GCSW is supported by thought leaders in our profession to bring focus and synergy on a range of social, economic, political, environmental, and psychological concerns. GCSW is a call to action for social work and allied disciplines to address prominent issues that affect human well-being. These challenges are enormous and the efforts required will be comprehensive. Thus, the grand challenge approach serves multipurposes that are important not only for the profession, but also related to issues that matter to the people, community, and broader society that social workers serve.

SOCIAL WORK’S GRAND CHALLENGES

Over the course of this decade-long initiative, the profession will work collectively to address three broad themes: Individual and Family Well-Being, Stronger Social Fabric, and Just Society (see Figure 1). These three broad areas each encompass four specific targets to compose the 12 grand challenges. The first area, individual and family well-being, includes four grand challenges centered on promoting the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities across the life span. This first area brings attention to ways that social workers can help close the health gap and stop family violence. The second area is stronger social fabric. This area examines how the profession can address the broader social environment, particularly as it relates to ending homelessness and social isolation, better utilization of technology, and generating improved responses to environmental concerns. The third broad area, just society, has four grand challenges that are centered on achieving social justice, strengthening financial capability, and increasing smart approaches to decrease the prison and criminal justice populations in this country.

The GCSW provide areas whereby the profession can galvanize intellectual, research, educational, and practice resources to solve social problems affecting communities (Fong, Lubben, & Barth, 2018). It should be noted that these grand challenges are not inclusive of all the issues that are meaningful and important to social workers or the communities they serve. It is further recognized that areas such as race and ethnicity and gender should be interwoven into and throughout the profession’s work on these grand challenges. Although not singularly identified, these issues are important to understand and address if we are to truly be effective in solving these critical issues. “Not only do social workers create change around critical social areas, but there is also the opportunity to further the influence of the profession through our collective stance and mobilization” (Bent-Goodley 2016, p. 198). It is important not to miss this opportunity for change. The GCSW initiative builds on the accomplishments of our profession. Our profession has a tremendous body of work to use as a foundation for launching these 12 grand challenges (Sherraden et al., 2014). It would also be foolish not to acknowledge the work that has already been done in these areas to advance the science and the knowledge that shapes these areas.

ORGANIZATION OF THIS BOOK

This book is intended to serve as a resource for social work researchers, practitioners, policymakers, faculty, and students by highlighting the contributions to knowledge, practices, policies, published research, and scholarship for each of the 12 grand challenges. The book is organized around three broad areas with published articles in each grand challenge to follow. These articles were selected for several reasons. Some are the most widely cited articles in the four NASW journals (that is, Social Work, Social Work Research, Children & School, and Health & Social Work). Others are considered as formative in the respective area. Still, some of the articles are written in areas for which there are gaps or limitations worthy of acknowledgment. This volume will also serve as a means to promote the profession and educate the public, policymakers, and funders about the broad and effective reach of social work research and practice. As you read the breadth and depth of the articles in this book, you will find that there are innovative approaches, extensive knowledge, and formidable science that is being tested and activated across the profession. It is our hope that social work practitioners will be compelled to learn more about the approaches of these scholars and how to advance them in their own work. It is also our expectation that this book will encourage practitioners, faculty, and students to learn more about and become engaged in the GCSW. We also want this book to serve as a tool for social work scholars to identify areas where they can build on established research and support further knowledge development for the profession. For the public, we hope this volume will help to dispel myths about the profession and build greater awareness of the vast spaces that social workers are occupying in practice, research, and policy. Finally, for policymakers and funders, we expect that this book can be used to acknowledge the contributions of the social work profession to finding solutions to the big problems that they are addressing daily. At the conclusion of this book, we will summarize what has been identified and explored, and highlight gaps and areas that need further attention.

CONCLUSION

The grand challenges present us with an opportunity to be impactful in the identified areas and beyond. This initiative not only allows others to experience the impact of the profession, but also reminds social work practitioners and scholars of our contributions. Armed with this knowledge, we can better highlight the impact of our profession. We now stand with the opportunity to be intentional in advancing change and shaping discourse around issues that are timely, relevant, and important. No matter the angle or approach taken, being deliberate about strategically addressing these issues with our collective resources, energy, and voice will be beneficial for the profession and those most affected by the important work we do each day.

REFERENCES

American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. (2018). Grand challenges for social work. Retrieved from http://aaswsw.org/ grand-challenges-initiative/