Friday, 14 January 2005 - 10:00 AM

This presentation is part of: Evidence-Based Practice

Developing Practice Guidelines for School Social Work: A Modified Replication of a Prototype

Purpose: The development of practice guidelines for social work is the focus of current dialogue and scholarship. The purpose of guidelines is to make research findings accessible to practitioners and increase their use of research knowledge in decision-making. Rosen et al. 2003) reviewed intervention research studies, categorized the outcomes of studies, and listed the interventions associated with the outcomes as a first step in the development of practice guidelines. We replicate and extend their work to the specialty of school social work to develop a beginning prototype for school social work practice guidelines.

Methods: We reviewed five years (1999-2003) of nine journals to locate school social work intervention studies. The journals were: Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, Journal of Social Service Research, Research on Social Work Practice, Social Service Review, Social Work, Social Work Research, Children and Schools, School Social Work Journal, and Families in Society. Our review yielded 1269 articles, of which 700 were research studies. Of the 700 research studies, 169 were studies of interventions and 32 of these were school social work intervention studies. The outcomes of the school social work intervention studies were coded using the five categories (symptoms, functioning, consumer perspectives, environment, and systems) in the classification system developed by Hoagwood et al.(1996) for children' services. We listed the interventions and the specific outcomes within each category for which they were tested.

Results: Sixty-nine outcomes were examined across the 32 school social work intervention studies. Twenty-six (38%) were functioning, 17 (25%) were symptoms, 17 (25%) were consumer perspectives, 8 (12%) were environment, and one outcome was in the systems category. Only 11 (34%) of the studies included outcomes from multiple categories. Most of the interventions were group-work or programs (for example, mediation, mentoring, school-wide violence prevention program) and directed at elementary age students. Less than half of the studies referenced a treatment manual and six described how the implementation of the intervention was monitored.

Implications: Much more intervention research is needed to develop practice guidelines for school social workers. Most of the studies reported positive findings. They need to be replicated by different researchers, in different contexts, and with more rigorous methods. Collaboration between school social work practitioners and academic researchers is necessary to address the many research needs. School social workers are organized--they have regional and national associations and conferences. These could serve as a vehicle to pursue the research necessary to develop practice guidelines. The specialty of school social work should take the lead to develop and carry through a research agenda to develop guidelines to help practitioners implement effective interventions.

References

Hoagwood, K. et al. (1996). Outcomes of mental health care for children and adolescents: I. A comprehensive conceptual model. Journal American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 35, 1055-1063.

Rosen, A., Proctor, E. K., & Staudt, M. (2003). Targets of change and interventions in social work: An empirically based prototype for developing practice guidelines. Research on Social Work Practice, 13, 108-233.

See more of Evidence-Based Practice
See more of Oral and Poster

See more of Celebrating a Decade of SSWR (January 13 - 16, 2005)