This article addresses a void in the literature about social work research and evaluation (R&E) designs, in particular related to the quality of its published work. Data were collected by reviewing three empirically oriented journals, Research on Social Work Practice, Journal of Social Service Research, and Social Work Research over three publication years 2005, 2006, and 2007. A total of N = 329 articles were content analyzed accordingly: research versus nonresearch, designs used, design objectives, sample sizes, primary statistics used, and outcomes. Main findings were (a) social work’s R&E is uniquely characterized by a cohort of nonresearch studies, which assist in understanding our empirically published work; (b) the most frequently used designs were preexperimental (82.2%) and least frequently used were experimental (2.3%); (c) design objectives were equally dispersed across exploration, variable relationships, instrument development, and program/evaluation; (d) primary statistics used were parametric (82.2%); and (e) 96.7% of the studies specified outcomes within them. Implications are directed to better understanding the context of where social work R&E is conducted, not apologizing for the designs the author uses, and how one can and should strengthen our study designs to offset their concerns.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the costs and benefits associated with multisystemic therapy (MST) for conduct disordered youth, 2 years following intake. Methods: The study employed a secondary analysis of 156 youth enrolled in a randomized trial assessing the psychosocial and behavioral outcomes of MST. Results: MST cost on average 105,400 SEK per youth. MST was associated with a direct benefit to participants of 1,000 SEK per youth and positively impacted the use of nonplacement downstream interventions for a benefit of 62,100 SEK per youth. These benefits did not offset the cost of MST. Conclusions: MST was associated with a net loss to society after 2 years of 44,500 SEK per youth.

This study assesses the outcomes of group intervention program with violent juveniles. The intervention is based on the ecological approach of Edleson and Tolman (1992). Forty-eight juveniles referred to the juvenile probation service because of violent crime completed the 16 sessions of the intervention. Participants completed questionnaires addressing their attitudes toward violence, perpetration of violent behavior toward others, and sociodemographic factors, pregroup and postgroup intervention. The results show significant reductions in juveniles' endorsement of violent behavior and in violence toward others. These reductions remained significant among the 27 juveniles who completed the 6-month follow-up. The discussion highlights the need for evaluation process among intervention programs conducted by social workers and recommends further research in the field.

In the past decade, the Israeli Ministry of Social Affairs has been engaged in an ongoing effort to change the capacity of social service organizations and social workers across the country to use and create knowledge in order to achieve the best outcomes for the people they serve. Although there is an ever-growing mandate in Israel to demonstrate outcomes and use effective strategies, social workers have historically experienced unique challenges in accessing and assessing available evidence-based practice when they are available. The first step to addressing these challenges, the intra-organizational phase, was to design, implement, and test a model of organizational learning designed to teach social workers how to use learning to change practice. The second step, the inter-organizational phase, was the introduction of virtual communities of practice as a tool to support workers in the acquisition and dissemination of new knowledge. This paper presents a case study of this effort including a description of the development and implementation of the two phases and an agenda for future research.

Objective: To examine the associations of patients’ characteristics, hospitalization factors, and the patients’ or family assessment of the discharge planning process, with their evaluation of adequacy of the discharge plan. Method: A prospective study. Social workers from 11 acute care hospitals in Israel provided data on 1426 discharged patients. At 2-week postdischarge, 407 patients and 659 family members evaluated the discharge planning process (information received, involvement, influence) and adequacy. Results: More family (77%) than patients (62%) assessed the discharge planning to be adequate. Discharge process variables contributed more than patient or hospitalization characteristics to evaluation of adequacy but had a negligible mediation effect. Factors significantly associated with higher adequacy of plans were: hospital ward, receiving information, high family involvement, and discharge destination among patients; receiving of information and high patient and family involvement among family respondents. Conclusions: Social workers should actively involve patients and family in discharge planning.

Purpose: This study employed a static group comparison design with 106 men in residential treatment to examine the relationship of race to treatment retention. Methods: A retrospective analysis of retention, by race, including survival analysis, was undertaken. Results: Findings from the study indicated that (a) Caucasian men complete treatment more frequently than African American men, (b) Race was not predictive of time in treatment, and (c) that race was a factor in the receipt of both criminal justice coercion and case-management both of which were strong predictors of time in treatment. Conclusions: Race serves as a factor in the receipt of services related to retention. Future research should focus on further exploration how race impacts retention, and the interaction of race with coercion and the receipt of case-management.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to test mediation versus a traditional court process for the establishment or modification of child support orders. The intention is to determine which dispute resolution process is associated with greater client satisfaction and compliance. An auxiliary objective is to test the type of cases which are most successfully mediated. Results: The analyses suggest that client satisfaction is greater with mediation, but there is no corresponding increase in compliance. Regarding the type of cases where mediation was most fruitful, the research finds that voluntary mediation and mediator experience are both positively associated with more successful mediation. Conclusions: There is no evidence that mediation will necessarily lead to increased compliance with child support orders.