Special Discount Rates in 2010 for Online Subscriptions
This economy is forcing tough decisions about how much to invest in your program's learning needs. It's a fact—Everyone is facing cutbacks and tighter purse strings in 2010.

Let us help you. Don't miss out on new research, clinical implications, and policy recommendations in the next volume of Families in Society. We've cut our online rates by 20% as a way to help you maintain these important ties to ongoing scholarship in social work. With an online subscription, you have full access to the complete 30-year archive of 3,500+ articles, essays, book reviews, research & field notes, and editorials. Worried about perpetual access for an online 2010 term? Request a complimentary CD-ROM of all content published that year. Plans are also underway to migrate content to LOCKSS.

Make a request today for a new or renewed online subscription to your clinical or educational department. ORDER NOW

Preview the Next Issue (January–March 2010; Vol. 91, No. 1)
The Spring 2010 issue of Families in Society will highlight public policy and effect, intervention models and service delivery, child welfare, and practice issues and social change.

• Read the abstracts for the upcoming articles. 

2000–2009 Annual Indexes
Over 850 articles, editorials, book reviews, commentaries, and more have been published in this century's first decade and all are available at Families in Society Online (www.FamiliesInSociety.org). Not an online reader yet? Subscribe now

Download this decade's 10-year cumulative index in spreadsheet format, or browse the individual indexes by clicking on the PDF links below:

2009 Consulting Editors
The list of consulting editors upon which Families in Society has relied between October 2008 and September 2009 can be downloaded or viewed on the Consulting Editors page.

These individuals have supplied an invaluable service that provides critical feedback to authors and improves the body of available literature. Families in Society and its publisher, the Alliance for Children and Families, extend our appreciation for their time, professionalism, and commitment to excellence. We look forward to working with our reviewers again in 2009.

Would you like to be a part of our peer review corps? Contact us for a reviewer profile form.

View Our New Book Reviews Online
Families in Society has expanded its reviews of publications written for social workers and other professionals in the fields of human services, psychology, behavioral health, and medical care. Dozens of newly published and archive reviews are available for free to registered users.

All book reviews can be accessed by becoming a registered user on the journal Web site:
Visit FamiliesInSociety.org/BookReviews.asp.
 

• Addiction Treatment: A Strengths Perspective (2nd ed.)
  Book review by Barbara F. Turnage
  Book Review PDF
   
• Social Work Practice With Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People (2nd ed.);
  Gay Affirmative Therapy for the Straight Clinician: The Essential Guide
  Collective book review by Ann M. Callahan
  Book Review PDF
   
• Cry Rape: The True Story of One Woman’s Harrowing Quest for Justice
  Book review by Anna Saeli
  Book Review PDF
   
• Psychotherapy With Infants and Young Children: Repairing the Effects of Stress and Trauma on Early Attachment
  Book review by Karen Zilberstein
  Book Review PDF
   
• Autism and Loss;
  How to Talk to Parents About Autism
  Collective book review by Ann M. Mumm
  Book Review PDF
   
• Assessment of Parenting Competency in Mothers With Mental Illness
  Book review by Jessica M. Kahn
  Book Review PDF
   
• Lives Across Time/ Growing Up: Paths to Emotional Health and Emotional Illness From Birth to 30 in 76 People
  Book review by Richard K. Caputo
  Book Review PDF
   
• Mindfulness and the Therapeutic Relationship;
  The Zen of Helping: Spiritual Principles for the Mindful and Open-Hearted Practice
  Collective book review by Ann M. Callahan
  Book Review PDF
   

Call for Book Reviewers
Love new books about social work and related fields? Become a book reviewer and add titles to your personal library, publish reviews in Families in Society, and contribute to peer knowledge-building.

Interested in being a reviewer? Complete a book reviewer profile online* or download the form and e-mail to Reviews@FamiliesInSociety.org. 

*To submit the form online, you must have Flash installed on your Internet browser and the free Adobe Reader for PDF files.

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Current Issue  │ Table of Contents  │  Article Summaries  │ Editorial  │  Article Abstract Podcast

Topics in this issue include:

• Antipoverty Efforts for Vulnerable Families
• Intervention Models and Service Delivery
• Evolving Practice Frameworks
• Familial Strengths and Efficacy

To view all articles, visit the current issue page. Online subscribers can view the complete issue and nonsubscribers can view all abstracts and summaries.

Online subscribers and registered users can access the full-text article links below. Log in, subscribe to premium content, or register for a free account.

Listen to the podcast of the article abstracts from this issue. (19 minutes/ 17.9MB .mp3)
Click on the hyperlink to listen to the podcast with your computer's default media player,
or right-click to download and save the file.

New Articles With Free Access

Strategies for Engaging Adults in Welfare-to-Work Activities
by Catherine M. Vu, Elizabeth K. Anthony, & Michael J. Austin
Due to barriers many TANF participants face, they may be prevented from obtaining or maintaining a job and instead rely on assistance for long periods of time. Major findings are examined from the research literature about two categories of engagement strategies: the labor force attachment (LFA) approach and the human capital development (HCD) approach. The LFA approach includes participant-focused strategies that motivate and encourage participation, utilizing comprehensive assessments, individualized service planning, and access to other services. Organization-focused strategies, reflected in the HCD approach, are used within organizations to achieve broad engagement by clearly defining current and potential “participants” and identifying the time period in which participation will be measured.
Abstract │ Article PDF (free to registered users)

Race and Ethnicity as Moderators of Neighborhood Bonding Social Capital: Effects on Employment Outcomes for Families Living in Low-Income Neighborhoods
by Daniel Brisson, Susan Roll, & Jean East
This research focuses on bonding ties by evaluating families from more than 7,000 households that participate in The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections initiative. Interestingly, the higher an individual’s neighborhood bonding social capital, the less likely the individual is to have a full-time job. However, bonding social capital can increase one’s opportunity for meeting immediate survival and day-to-day needs, such as emergency child care, transportation, or even money. Considering these mixed results, it is difficult to say how social bonding may help or hinder a family’s progress, but this study and others seem to indicate that the mere presence of neighborhood relationships may, at times, be detrimental to reaching goals.
Abstract │ Article PDF (free to registered users)

Treatment Philosophy and Service Delivery in a Network of Faith-Based Substance Abuse Treatment
by Hung-En Sung, Doris Chu, Linda Richter, & Amy Shlosberg
Delivering faith-based treatment services involves building up a theoretical platform, developing therapeutic skills, mobilizing external resources, and integrating all these tasks in a long-term project. Despite important differences, findings in this article show there are many commonalities between faith-based and secular providers, such as the acceptance of cognitive-behavioral and social learning explanations and interventions. These commonalities can lead to meaningful dialogue that does not eradicate real differences but leads to mutual understanding and cooperation. A closer collaboration between social and behavioral scientists and clinicians within the faith community could explore the possibilities of integration between a living faith and evidence-based practices.
Abstract │ Article PDF (free to registered users)

Structural Design for a University–Agency Research Collaboration: Bridging an Historical Distance
by Donald H. Goughler & Carol M. Anderson
Collaboration provides agencies with new structures for problem solving and provides researchers with insight about the complexity of those problems on the front line. In this case study, a family services agency envisioned a process that would allow it to use agency-specific research data to identify and promote effective service interventions, then clarify appropriate training to enable the agency to turn research findings into service improvement. The intended results are to enhance quality assurance, clarify client needs, and improve the logistics of service delivery. Tangible changes can be gained that result in financial savings, enhanced revenues, and improved processes in better service to citizens.
Abstract │ Article PDF (free to registered users)

Power, Pathological Worldviews, and the Strengths Perspective in Social Work
by Jill G. Grant & Susan Cadell
Although the term is not used in the strengths literature, the authors describe a pathological worldview as the embedded practice approach that examines what is not working rather than what is. One of the reasons that the pathological perspective is very difficult to relinquish may be because it helps the practitioner to maintain their power. The authors assert that a collaborative approach requires simultaneous attention to strengths and to power, perhaps in combination of an antioppressive approach and the strengths perspective wherein the contributions of each would complement the other. Using data from case examples, the dangers inherent in holding onto a pathological worldview and of ignoring power differentials are illustrated.
Abstract │ Article PDF (free to registered users)

Strengths and Stressors in a Population of Kinship Caregivers: Implications for Caseload Management and Administration
by Kevin D. Blair, David B. Taylor, & Craig J. Rivera
Using an empirical strengths-based assessment tool—the Strengths and Stressors Tracking Device (SSTD)—produces a different, and arguably better balanced, picture of kinship caregivers’ situations and provides more options for cooperative casework. Using the SSTD, families who participated in this study  demonstrated a high number of strengths across the four ecological domains of environment, social support, family/caregiver, and child well-being. A strengths-based approach and the use of an instrument such as the SSTD can be extremely beneficial to caseworkers in helping them to see the kinship caregivers as separate and different from the birth parents.
Abstract │ Article PDF (free to registered users)

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educators in social work and human services.  Share your contributions
with the series Field Notes, At the Agency, Research Note, and Commentary. 
See FamiliesInSociety.org/Writing.asp for more information.