New Studies Focus on Elderly Poverty Rates, Child Neglect and Meth Use, and Kinship Foster Care

Nov. 22, 2010 - PRLog -- Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, a top-ranked professional social work journal published by the Alliance for Children and Families, announces the publication of its October-December 2010 issue (Volume 91, Number 4).  

The new issue, published in print and on the companion website, Families in Society Online, features interdisciplinary content relevant to social service clinicians, behavioral therapists, CPS workers, and social work educators. For the complete table of contents, visit http://www.familiesinsociety.org/new/E-Alerts/e-alert_TOC.html

Highlights include "A Life Course Approach to Understanding Poverty Among Older American Adults," by authors Mark R. Rank and James Herbert Williams. In their article, the authors illuminate the extent to which poverty among older adults in the United States is underestimated. Although the official poverty rate is relatively low for older adults, a large number of older Americans are living just above the poverty line. By using a life-course approach to follow individuals as they age across their 60s, 70s, and 80s, the authors demonstrate that, rather than economic security and stability, the likelihood of both income and asset poverty is extremely high during this stage of life.

In "Caregiver Substance Use and Trauma Exposure in Young Children," authors Ginny Sprang, James J. Clark, and Michele Staton-Tindall observe that child neglect cases associated with methamphetamine use often involve highly complex legal trajectories, biomedical disorders, and psychosocial problems. Findings indicate that methamphetamine-using caregivers take much longer to meet reunification criteria than other caregivers, including those misusing other drugs. Additionally, child welfare cases involving caregiver methamphetamine use demand additional financial and professional resources to support the required “comprehensive integrated services strategy”—this has important ramifications for judicial and social service systems operating in jurisdictions with high rates of caregiver methamphetamine use, particularly regarding permanency guidelines in the American Safe Families Act.

In another study concerning child welfare, "Indicators of Quality in Kinship Foster Care," authors Lydia A. Falconnier, Nicole M. Tomasello, Howard J. Doueck, Susan J. Wells, Heather Luckey, and Jean M. Agathen focus on child and caregiver characteristics, services provided to kinship caregivers, standards of kinship care, challenges inherent in measuring quality of kinship care, and outcomes from relevant research. Gaps in the literature indicate that few articles focus on the quality of kinship care and very few programs pertain to kinship care interventions that have been evaluated. The authors suggest that such differences be considered when evaluating quality of care, and that the development of a comprehensive instrument to assess quality would help address some gaps in the literature.

Founded in 1920, Families in Society is the oldest social work journal in the United States and continues to serve as an important source of expert, interdisciplinary information for professionals in social work and related fields such as psychology, nursing, and behavioral health. The journal’s articles are informative, instructive, reflective, and, periodically, controversial. Typically, they examine a broad range of human service activities, such as advocacy; family-life education; public policy; agency administration; professional training and education; and group, family, and individual counseling.

Families in Society scholarship is routinely distributed via national and international partners to supplement research compilations on a variety of topics. Recent examples include the Administration on Aging and the Children’s Bureau within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Veterans Health Administration in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Foster Family-Based Treatment Association, International Foster Care Organisation, Better Care Network (UNICEF/Child Protection Sect.), Integrated Policy & Legislation Team (Canadian Ministry of Children and Family Development), Australian Association of Social Workers, Center for Victims of Torture, Pennsylvania Child Welfare Training Program, Protective Services Training Institute of Texas, and Milwaukee Public Schools.

The Alliance for Children and Families, headquartered in Milwaukee, provides an in-house editorial and support staff which publishes the quarterly print journal and its companion website, Families in Society Online. The Alliance is the United States’ largest association of private, nonprofit human service agencies and organizations. Its mission is to build the capacity of its members to serve and advocate for children, families, and communities. Its members annually serve more than 3.4 million people with a wide array of programs and services.

For additional information about Families in Society or the Alliance for Children and Families, please visit http://www.FamiliesInSociety.org/About.asp

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Now in its 92nd year, Families in Society focuses on the art, science, and practice of social work and is one of the most respected professional journals in North America on social and human services.