Allen Rubin

Assessment of Posttraumatic Symptoms in Children: Development and Preliminary Validation of Parent and Child Scales:

The authors report on the development and initial validation of two brief measures of children’s posttraumatic symptoms: a child self-report and a parent report. Intended applications include postdisaster screening, tracking children’s recovery in research and clinical settings, and screening for posttraumatic stress among children with various presenting problems. A sample of 206 urban and rural schoolchildren, Grades 3 through 8, and their parents, completed these measures as well as a checklist of the child’s trauma-loss history. Findings provide preliminary support for the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, content validity, and criterion validity of each measure. We recommend cautious use of the measures, and suggest additional avenues of study.

Direct Practice Interests of Entering MSW Students

This survey assesses the practice interests and aspirations of 257 entering direct practice students in 8 MSW programs. Its findings suggest that the majority of these students seek the MSW degree as a route to becoming psychotherapists in private practice and that they have little commitment to social work’s mission, dual focus, or distinctive functions and clientele. The implications of these findings are explored.

Views of Evidence-Based Practice among Faculty in Master of Social Work Programs: A National Survey.

Objective: A national online survey assessed the views of 973 faculty members in master of social work programs regarding their receptivity toward, definition of, and views of disparate sources of evidence pertinent to evidence-based practice (EBP) and the teaching of EBP. Method: Due to Internet-related technical difficulties, the response rate could not be precisely determined; however, it was at least 33% and conceivably much higher. Results: Although the large majority (73%) of respondents expressed a favorable view toward EBP, disparities are identified among respondents in both the definition of EBP and views regarding the EBP research hierarchy. Conclusion: Efforts appear to be needed to increase agreement regarding the definition and conceptualization of EBP among educators, with special attention to divergent views regarding what constitutes sufficient evidence to guide practice decisions or to convey that an intervention is evidence-based.

Direct Practice Interests of MSW Students: Changes from Entry to Graduation

Abstract A previously reported baseline study found that most entering direct practice students aspire to become psychotherapists in private practice and have little interest in social works distinctive person-in-environment focus, its functions, or its clientele. The current study assesses how those interests and aspirations change from entry to graduation. The findings show some decline in the appeal of psychotherapy, private practice, and most categories of clientele and case situations. Movement toward a more balanced person-in-environment perspective appears to be modest. Alternative interpretations and implications of the findings are explored.

Egoistic Motives and Longevity of Participation by Social Service Volunteers

This study tests the hypothesis that in a setting in which service volunteers are likely to experience meager egoistic benefits their longevity of participation is inversely related to the extent to which they feel motivated to volunteer by the need for—or expectation of—egoistic benefits. We confirmed this hypothesis in a multiple-regression analysis based on the case records of all volunteers who terminated their participation during a nine-month period in a Big Brothers/Big Sisters program.

CHALLENGES TO THE FUTURE OF EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE IN SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

This article critically analyzes challenges that may influence whether evidence-based practice (EBP) enjoys more success than previous efforts to improve the integration of practice and research in social work education. Key challenges include: (1) alleviating disparities in how EBP is being defined by social work educators; (2) maximizing the feasibility of implementing the EBP process appropriately after graduation, while at the same time preparing students not to over-rely on authoritative publications that designate certain interventions as evidence-based; and (3) preventing evidentiary standards from getting softened to the point that EBP becomes a meaningless term, as any study, regardless of its methodological rigor, can be cited to justify deeming an intervention to be evidence based.

Improving the Teaching of Evidence-Based Practice: Introduction to the Special Issue

This article synthesizes the highlights emanating from the proceedings of a National Symposium on Improving the Teaching of Evidence-Based Practice. Most of the ideas in it have been culled from the articles in this issue, and a few were culled from the symposium discussions. I do not take credit for any of these ideas, only for the synthesis of them.

An Effective Model for Continuing Education Training in Evidence-Based Practice

This study utilized a replicated one-group pretest-posttest design with 3 month follow-up to evaluate the impact of a one-day continuing education training on the evidence-based practice (EBP) process with community practitioners (N = 69). Outcome measures assessed the level of workshop participants’ familiarity with the EBP process, their attitudes toward the EBP process, their perceived feasibility of the EBP process, their intentions to engage in the EBP process, their self-reported engagement in the EBP process, and their knowledge about the EBP process. The results supported the effectiveness of this EBP training model, as there was significant change and moderate to strong effect sizes for each of the dependent variables over time in the desired direction.

Standards for Rigor in Qualitative Inquiry

When the Society for SocialWorkand Research(SSWR) began to sponsor thisjournal, its boardasked that the journal makemore explicit that in additiontorigorousquantitative studies,it encourages the submission of rigorous studiesthatemployqualitative researchmethods.Thejournals editor,Bruce Thyer,has met that request,and the manuscripts he has beenreceivingseem to indicatethat somesocialworkresearchers haveheard the message.Bruce has appointed a number of qualitative researchers to the journals editorial board, effective January 1, 2000. They include Deborah Padgett, James Drisko, JaneGilgun,ChristineLowery, and GardeniaHarris.Theseappointments ought to enhancethe fairness of appraisals of qualitative studies submitted,and theyreflectBruces commitmentto makethejournal more inclusive of diverseresearchmethods. I am delighted with this development. Although most of my published workhas emphasizedquantitative methods,I love rigorousqualitative studies that provide importantfindings. To wit, a lengthychapter on qualitative inquiryin the textbookI coauthored(Rubin& Babbie,1997)identifiesquite a few qualitative studiesthat I admire.Also, I invitedSSWRBoard member Deborah Padgett, author of the text Qualitative Methods in Social Work (Padgett, 1998),tochairtheAbstracts Review Committeefor thenextSSWR conference, which will conveneJanuary 2001 in Atlanta. ButI wonder, basedontheunevenness in thequalityof manuscripts I have reviewedforquitea fewjournalsin recentyears,whetherprospective authors havesufficientinformation on what is meant by rigor in qualitative inquiry. Moreover, I doubtthatthereissufficientagreementamongsocialscientistsin general about standards for rigor in qualitative inquiry. To be sure, I have found as much unevenness in the qualityof quantitative manuscripts I have reviewedas well.Unevenness in the rigor of quantitative manuscripts can be moredisheartening thanunevenness inqualitative manuscripts becausethere has longbeena fairlyclearconsensusaboutstandardsforqualityin quantitative inquiry. I find the unevenness in the quality of manuscripts reporting qualitative studies to be more understandable because the use of qualitative methods is growingin the absenceof a consensuson standards.

Problematic Phrases in the Conclusions of Published Outcome Studies: Implications for Evidence-Based Practice

Objective: This study examined the extent to which conclusions of published outcome studies contain phrases that could be misconstrued as implying more empirical support than is warranted. Methods: All articles (N = 138) reporting outcome studies from 2000 to 2005 in two social work research journals and two topical database searches were assessed regarding research design, findings, and wording of conclusions. Substantial interrater agreement was indicated by kappa values of .95 for research design, 1.00 for nature of findings, and .70 for wording of conclusions. Results: Of the articles, 70% used designs that do not warrant making conclusive causal inferences, and 60% of articles with those designs contained phrases that could be misconstrued or exploited as implying an inflated evidence-based status. Conclusion: To prevent evidence-based practice from becoming a meaningless shibboleth, authors, reviewers, and editors should become vigilant in avoiding wording that could be misconstrued as implying more empirical support than is warranted.