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Social Work Research Studies

research

Richard Barth, MSW, PhD
University of Maryland Baltimore, School of Social Work

  • Professor
  • Dean of the School of Social Work

Dr. Barth has directed more than 40 studies and, most recently, served as co-principal investigator of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, the first national study of child welfare services in the US.  He has served as a lecturer and consultant to the Swedish Board of Health and Social Services; the U.S. Children’s Bureau; the states of California, Washington, North Carolina, Connecticut, and Minnesota; and many universities. He has testified before Congressional and state government sub-committees.

Dr. Barth remains an active researcher, currently involved with two federally funded projects—one to create a standardized national format for adoption home studies, another to maximize referrals of abused and neglected children to early intervention services.

http://www.ssw.umaryland.edu/faculty_and_research/bios/barth/index.htm

 

research

Diane DePanfilis, MSW, PhD
University of Maryland Baltimore, School of Social Work

  • Professor
  • Associate Dean for Research
  • Director, Ruth H. Young Center for Families & Children

Dr. DePanfilis is the principal investigator of research for the Family Connections program, a community-based family strengthening outreach service program designed to support vulnerable families to meet the basic needs of their children without the need for formal public child welfare services. Recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for its efforts to prevent child neglect, Family Connections is being replicated in multiple sites across the United States. Recent research and publications relate to the epidemiology and prediction of child maltreatment recurrences; CPS risk assessment, safety evaluation, and decision making; the role of social support in preventing neglect; the costs of caring for children in foster care; outcomes of youth transitioning from child welfare services to independence; and the efficacy and cost effectiveness of Family Connections.

http://www.ssw.umaryland.edu/faculty_and_research/bios/depanfilis/
http://www.family.umaryland.edu/ryc_about_us/staff_bios/depanfilis.htm

 

research

Curtis McMillen, PhD
University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration

  • Professor

Dr. McMillen’s current research looks at issues related to the quality of mental health services received by child welfare clients, quality improvement and assurance in mental health organizations, and services for older youth as they leave the foster care system. He focuses his work around improving mental health services for children and youth in foster care. These efforts include: developing and testing new models of treatment foster care; improving the delivery of psychiatric service to foster care populations, including psychotropic medications; and bringing evidence supported mental health interventions into foster care. Dr. McMillen also is involved in efforts to study and develop the social service workforce that is charged with monitoring and improving quality. He currently is planning a national survey of quality improvement professionals in children's mental health.

http://newfaculty.uchicago.edu/ssa/mcmillen.shtml
http://ssascholars.uchicago.edu/c-mcmillen

 

research

Peter Pecora, PhD
University of  Washington, School of Social Work

  • Professor

Dr. Pecora has provided consultation regarding evaluation of child and family services to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and a number of foundations including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Colorado Trust, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, McKnight Foundation and the Stuart Foundation. In 2002 he was awarded a short-term J. William Fulbright Scholarship in Australia.

Currently, Dr. Pecora is co-leading with Dr. Peter Jensen, Dr. Ronald Kessler, Dr. Kimberly Hoagwood, and Dr. Patrick McCarthy a clinical “R&D” project to improve youth access to evidence-based mental health services through improved screening, and caregiver and youth self-advocacy. He is also managing an employment evaluation project with the U.S. Department of Labor and the Institute for Educational Leadership in five cities. These projects are in response to the findings of his recent study of foster care alumni with the states of Oregon and Washington in conjunction with Harvard Medical School and the University of Michigan. Finally, Dr. Pecora co-leads a data work group as part of a national effort to reduce racial disproportionality in the child welfare system.

http://socialwork.uw.edu/faculty/peter-j-pecora

 

research

Jacquelyn McCroskey, MSW, DSW
University of Southern California

  • Holder of John Milner Professorship in Child Welfare
  • Associate Professor of Social Work and Policy, Planning, and Development

Dr. McCrosky leads several countywide efforts to use and integrate data to inform planning, analyze distribution of resources and assess impact on the lives of children and families. Her research focuses primarily on the financing and organization of services for children and families, utilization of results and performance measurement, and the effectiveness of child welfare, juvenile justice and early care and education services. Topics of recent publications include reducing disproportionality and improving child and family outcomes through Los Angeles' Point of Engagement reform approach; using child and family indicators to influence communities and policy; offering evidence for family-centered community-based supports, services and capacity-building; and providing outcomes of Los Angeles' Prevention Initiative Demonstration Project. Currently, McCroskey co-directs the multi-university child welfare evaluation team funded by Casey Family Programs to support the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services in understanding the impact of a variety of service initiatives.

http://sowkweb.usc.edu/faculty/jacquelyn-mccroskey
http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/experts/693.html

 

research

Jeanne C. Marsh, PhD
University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration

  • George Herbert Jones Distinguished Service Professor

Dr. Marsh has published broadly on issues of substance abuse, social service provision for women and children, and evaluation of social work interventions. She is co-author of two books: Berlin, S. and Marsh, J.C., Informing Practice Decisions, and Marsh, J.C., Geist, A., and Caplan, N., Rape and the Limits of Law Reform, along with numerous articles and chapters. She has been principal investigator on a number of studies and is currently principal investigator on a NIDA-funded study of gender differences in the impact of substance abuse treatment services. She has received a number of awards and honors, including the NASW Award for Excellence in Social Work Research, service as editor-in-chief of Social Work, the flagship journal of the National Association of Social Workers, and is the president-elect for the Society for Social Work and Research.

http://ssascholars.uchicago.edu/j-marsh/

 

research

Kristin Shook Slack, PhD
University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Professor
  • Director

Dr. Slack’s research focuses on understanding the role of poverty and economic hardship in the etiology of child maltreatment, with a particular emphasis on child neglect. She is also interested in the caseload dynamics of child welfare systems in relation to other public benefit systems, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and in community-based programs designed to prevent child maltreatment. Her work advances approaches to better coordinating services and benefits to effectively address the economic needs of families at risk for child maltreatment, and improved assessment strategies for identifying risks and protective factors related to child neglect. Her research is primarily supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Wisconsin Children’s Trust Fund, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

http://socwork.wisc.edu/kristi-slack

 

research

Alan Detlaff,
University of Illinois-Chicago, Jane Addams College of Social Work

  • Assistant Professor

Dr. Dettlaff's research interests focus on improving outcomes for children of color in the child welfare system through the elimination of racial disparities. Specifically, Dr. Dettlaff is actively involved in research addressing the overrepresentation of African American children in the child welfare system and identifying and understanding the unique needs of immigrant Latino children who come to the attention of this system. Dr. Dettlaff is also principal investigator of the Jane Addams Child Welfare Traineeship Project, which provides advanced training and financial assistance to students pursuing careers in child welfare.

Dr. Detlaff’s current research includes:

  • Examining the factors that contribute to disparate outcomes for African American children in the child welfare system
  • Developing and evaluating interventions to address racial disparities
  • Analyses of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) to identify the prevalence, risk factors, and characteristics of immigrant Latino children and families in the child welfare system
  • Examining the current state of policy and practice with immigrant children and families in the child welfare system

http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/college/faculty_staff/faculty/dettlaff.html

 

research

Ruth G. McRoy, MSW, PhD
Boston College Graduate School of Social Work

  • Donahue and DiFelice Endowed Professor

An academician, researcher, practitioner, trainer and lecturer in the field for over 30 years, Dr. McRoy’s work has focused on topics such as open adoptions, adoptive family recruitment, transracial identity development, family preservation, adolescent pregnancy, African American families, kinship care, and disproportionality in child welfare. She has received major research funding from public and private agencies such as the US Department of HHS, the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services, and the Hogg Foundation. She is a member of the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) Board and is a Senior Research Fellow and member of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute Board.

http://www.bc.edu/schools/gssw/newsevents/news/2009/mcroy-new-professor.html
http://www.bc.edu/schools/gssw/features/issuesevidence/IE-RuthMcRoy.html

 

research

Fred Wulczyn, MSW, PhD
Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago

  • Senior Research Fellow

Dr. Wulczyn is director of the Center for State Foster Care and Adoption Data, a collaboration of Chapin Hall, the American Public Human Services Association, and other research partners. An expert in the analysis of administrative data, he was an architect of Chapin Hall’s Multistate Foster Care Data Archive and constructed the original integrated longitudinal database on children’s services in Illinois, now in use for more than 25 years. The databases he has developed give state administrators capacity to analyze key child welfare outcomes, compare outcomes across agencies and jurisdictions, project future service patterns, test the impact of policy and service innovations, and monitor progress.

Dr. Wulczyn also designed two major social experiments: the Child Assistance Program and the HomeRebuilders project. The Child Assistance Program was awarded the Innovations in Government Award from Harvard University and the Ford Foundation. Also in the realm of public policy, he developed the nation’s first proposal to change the federal law limiting the ability of states to design innovative child welfare programs, which then led to the development of the Title IV-E waiver programs used by states to undertake system reform in child welfare programs. He continues to lead the field in developing alternative approaches to financing child welfare programs.

http://www.chapinhall.org/experts/fred-wulczyn

 

 


http://www.socialworkers.org/pressroom/swMonth/2012/toolkit/childprotection/research.asp
4/8/2013
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