Although critical social work (CSW) is an important framework for addressing racism and oppression within social work, few studies have examined CSW education. This study assessed CSW educational opportunities, student attitudes, and the effect of CSW exposure on student learning via a survey administered to undergraduate and graduate social work students (N=191). Findings suggest that students have a strong interest in CSW, but that classroom and field placement opportunities are inconsistent. Linear regression model results demonstrate that student knowledge of and interest in CSW are significant predictors of higher scores on the Diversity and Oppression Scale (Windsor et al., 2015). Based on the study findings, recommendations regarding curriculum development and field placement policies for social work educators are discussed.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), often defined as potentially traumatic experiences such as child maltreatment and household difficulties (e.g., caregiver substance misuse) that occur prior to age 18, are associated with poor health and psychiatric illness across the life span and have been increasingly used as a predictor of health outcomes in both research and practice. However, limited research has explored who should be reporting ACEs for children or to what extent reporters agree on observations of ACE exposure. This study examines respondent agreement among children, caregiver, and caseworker using data drawn from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW II), a longitudinal, nationally representative survey of children who have been the subject of a child welfare investigation. A sub-sample of participants aged 8-17 was used (n = 1,652). The following ACE indicators had responses from all three respondents: sexual victimization, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and home violence. Analyses were completed to understand patterns of reporter's responses to each of the ACEs selected using sampling weights. We calculated interrater agreement using the Kappa coefficient for each ACE indicator. Children, caregivers, and caseworkers differentially reported the number of ACEs the child experienced. Children reported experiencing just over two ACEs on average, while caregivers reported two and caseworkers reported an average of one. Overall, Kappa coefficients were extremely low with caseworker-caregiver agreement the highest at .41. Given the lack of concordance, we recommend asking multiple informants while carefully considering self-report by children when assessing for ACEs.

Understanding what facilitates participation in neighborhood civic life is important for improving participatory interventions, and ultimately improving neighborhoods.The longer someone lives in a neighborhood, the more likely they are to participate in their neighborhood by organizing with neighbors, volunteering, or taking on a leadership role in a neighborhood organization.At the same time, the longer someone lives in a socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhood, the more social ties they develop, which may increase social obligations.The present study examines whether helping friends and family (i.e., donated social support) is a barrier to neighborhood participation.Data come from the Anne E. Casey Foundation's longitudinal Making Connections survey of low-and moderate-income communities.Providing more donated social support is associated with more neighborhood participation, controlling for tenure.Results suggest that efforts aimed at increasing household stability may facilitate neighborhood participation.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted access to and the delivery of behavioral health services for social work providers and their clients. This study examined the use of tele-behavioral health by social workers before and during the pandemic, as well as the perceived barriers and supports to technology use. Method: We developed an electronic survey, which was distributed to a convenience sample of practicing social work professionals in the United States through a national listserv. A mixed-methods study design was used to analyze responses (N = 585). Results: Over 92% of social workers reported using tele-behavioral health since the beginning of the pandemic, compared to 28% prior. About half of respondents received training on tele-behavioral health since COVID-19, whereas only 23% had received training prior. The vast majority (87%) indicated one or more barriers to the use of tele-behavioral health, with client barriers (73%) being the area of greatest concern. Yet, social workers overwhelmingly reported the desire for tele-behavioral health to continue beyond the pandemic. Conclusions: Based on our findings, we propose the following recommendations: (a) Ensure parity and reimbursement for tele-behavioral health; (b) train current and future social work practitioners in tele-behavioral health; and (c) provide supports for client use of tele-behavioral health.

Recognizing a clear call to dismantle traditionally racist structures within our nation, doctoral students at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work formed the Anti-Racist Doctoral Program Student Committee (ARDPSC) to push for systemic changes within our school and profession to eliminate anti-Black racism. Our student-led initiative is an innovative approach for two reasons. First, we strengthened our community virtually despite the limitations of COVID-19 and virtual spaces. Second, although collective organizing among students can be seen as threatening, we held a tension between agitation and collaboration, and contributed to, rather than disrupted, implementation of anti-racist reform. We map our experiences onto the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) using narrative data and documents produced by our committee. First, we describe how we built anti-racist group processes, established brave working environments, and integrated processes to reflect on change at various system levels. Next, we describe our actions to push our school and profession to be anti-racist and assess outcomes using the CFIR. Finally, we share our reflections on how to continue this work. We hope to document our experiences and reflect on how social work student groups can contribute to dismantling white supremacy and rebuilding institutions with an anti-racist approach.

A substantial evidence base has established both that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) deleteriously impact youth mental health outcomes and that racial biases in diagnosing youth are common among mental health professionals. However, the literature to date has hardly examined the relationship between ACEs and diagnostic disparities based on race. This study examines how racial disparities and ACEs contribute to childhood diagnoses of internalizing and externalizing disorders. Using data from the 2017 National Survey of Children’s Health, racial disparities in internalizing (i.e., depression, anxiety) and externalizing (i.e., behavioral/conduct problems) mental health diagnoses were analyzed using logistic regression. ACE score was a significant predictor of all three diagnoses and presented a dose–response relationship. Race was also found to be a significant predictor of diagnoses, as Black children were less likely to be diagnosed with anxiety or depression and more likely to be diagnosed with behavioral problems. Moreover, when examining racial disparities in mental health diagnoses by ACE score, the present study found that the severity of these disparities increased at higher ACE scores. Our study demonstrates that while ACEs are harmful for all children, providers’ identification of internalizing and externalizing disorders appears to occur differentially based on the race of the child they diagnose. These findings yield important insights about potential bias among healthcare providers, educators, and clinical social workers and warrant further research, training for professionals, and culturally responsive interventions. As such, we call on clinical social workers to lead the effort to address racial disparities within mental health services.

Social workers are essential stakeholders in the mounting efforts to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. This article presents a theoretical framework integrating Critical Race Theory and Risk and Resilience Theory as a tool for social workers and other school-based social service providers seeking to create meaningful change to school discipline policies. In this article, we apply the theories to expand the understanding of the school-to-prison pipeline and why it has persisted, compare and contrast each theory’s relative strengths and limitations, and conclude with implications for social workers, counselors, and social service providers at the practice, policy, and research levels.