Research and Evidence-Based Practice

Through cycles of systematic and purposeful iterative engagement with problems they face in specific practice settings, social workers engaging in action research build knowledge that is useful in advancing practice for the purposes of social betterment. This entry situates action research in the development of social-work knowledge and then examines variants of action research formed when degrees of participation and control vary among members of vulnerable populations, particularly within community situations involving coping with a degraded quality of life. The author identifies the importance of methodological pluralism and addresses how sound action research results in knowledge dissemination and utilization for the purposes of social betterment, often through alternative methods of inquiry. The entry concludes with caveats social workers engaged in action research should heed, and the author emphasizes the pivotal role social work can serve in local efforts to engage in knowledge development for social betterment.

Definitions of what constitutes advanced statistical analysis often differ among social-work researchers and across disciplines. In this article, the term advanced statistical analysis refers to advanced models increasingly applied to social-work research that help address important research questions. Because contemporary statistical models fully rely on the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator, this article begins with an overview of ML that serves as a foundation for understanding advanced statistical analysis. Following the overview, the article describes six categories of analytic methods that are important in confronting a broad range of issues in social-work research (that is, hierarchical linear modeling, survival analysis, structural equation modeling, propensity score analysis, missing data imputation, and other corrective methods for causal inference such as instrumental variable approach and regression discontinuity designs). These analytic methods are used to address research issues such as generating knowledge for evidence-based practices; evaluating intervention effectiveness in studies that use an experimental or quasi-experimental design; assessing clients’ problems, well-being, and outcome changes over time; and discerning the effects of policies.

This entry reviews agency-based research and the unique demands created by the organizational context where this activity resides. Three primary stakeholder groups are identified: administrators and program managers, supervisors, and direct service workers and clinicians. Possible uses of agency-based research by each of the respective stakeholder groups are described. Finally, the role of service consumers in agency-based research is discussed.

Social workers address older adult issues at all levels of service planning, policy-making, and delivery and across a wide range of community and institutional settings. While various models of practice intervention with older adults exist, more recently the focus is on the integration of micro and macro strategies with an emphasis on strength-based perspectives to geriatric social work practice. The older adult population will expand dramatically and become increasingly culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse in the future and social work services will need to be sensitive to the variety of issues faced by a more heterogeneous and sophisticated older adult population.

Dementia is not a disease, but a group of symptoms so severe that they inhibit normal functioning. Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia in older persons impacting not only the person with the illness but the entire family. Obtaining an accurate diagnosis is essential in order to assure appropriate and timely care and to exclude reversible causes of dementia. Social workers can play key roles throughout the course of the illness as educators, therapists, supporter and advocates for improved policies and services.

Assessment is an ongoing process of data collection aimed at identifying client strengths and problems. Early assessment models were based on psychoanalytic theory; however, current assessment is based on brief, evidence-based practice models. Both quantitative and qualitative methods may be used to create an integrative skills approach that links assessment to intervention. Specifically, assessment guides treatment planning, as well as informs intervention selection and monitoring.

Chaos theory and complexity theory, collectively known as nonlinear dynamics or dynamical systems theory, provide a mathematical framework for thinking about change over time. Chaos theory seeks an understanding of simple systems that may change in a sudden, unexpected, or irregular way. Complexity theory focuses on complex systems involving numerous interacting parts, which often give rise to unexpected order. The framework that encompasses both theories is one of nonlinear interactions between variables that give rise to outcomes that are not easily predictable. This entry provides a nonmathematical introduction, discussion of current research, and references for further reading.

The history of social work is deeply rooted in helping vulnerable populations improve their well-being, and children have been at the forefront of these efforts since the inception of the profession. Health is long understood to be critical to children’s well-being. Social workers who are skilled in integrating different systems can play pivotal roles in engineering new and improving existing health-care infrastructures and can act as advocates for fusing health-service systems with other social infrastructures to optimize outcomes for children. This entry reviews trends in children’s health throughout the world, particularly in the United States. It describes the dramatic improvements in reducing infant mortality, child mortality and morbidity from many infectious diseases as well as accidental and environmental causes, and the unequal progress in realizing children’s health. The challenges that lie ahead that pose risks to children’s health are discussed, including the health inequities created among and within countries by social, economic, and political factors. An argument for a comprehensive, integrated, evidence-based, and cross-disciplinary approach to improve children’s future health is presented.