Table Of ContentJohn S. Wodarski · Laura M. Hopson
Editors
Empirically
Based
Interventions
Targeting
Social Problems
Empirically Based Interventions Targeting Social
Problems
John S. Wodarski • Laura M. Hopson
Editors
Empirically Based
Interventions Targeting
Social Problems
Editors
John S. Wodarski Laura M. Hopson
College of Social Work School of Social Work
University of Tennessee The University of Alabama
Knoxville, TN, USA Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
ISBN 978-3-030-28486-2 ISBN 978-3-030-28487-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28487-9
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
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Contents
1 Social Problems: A Cost-Effective Psychosocial
Prevention Paradigm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
John S. Wodarski
2 Child Maltreatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
M. Sebrena Jackson and Peter Lyons
3 Educationally Disadvantaged Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Catherine N. Dulmus, John S. Wodarski, and Fan Yang
4 Violence in Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Lisa A. Rapp and John S. Wodarski
5 Adolescent Sexuality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
John S. Wodarski
6 Preventing HIV Infection in Adolescents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Charles W. Mueller, Robert Bidwell, Scott Okamoto,
Eberhard Mann, and Sarah V. Curtis
7 H elping Families Affected by Substance Abuse:
What Works and What Does Not. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Jan Ligon
8 Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Lisa A. Rapp and John S. Wodarski
9 Homelessness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Shanae Shaw and Namkee Choi
10 Unemployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Anna Celeste Burke
11 Marital Conflict, Intimate Partner Violence,
and Family Preservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
M. E. Betsy Garrison and Sarah V. Curtis
v
vi Contents
12 Practice Approaches with Older Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Nancy P. Kropf and Sherry Cummings
13 Promoting Self-Management of Chronic Medical Problems . . . . . . . 271
Jan Ligon
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Contributors
Robert Bidwell Department of Pediatrics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI,
USA
Anna Celeste Burke The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
Namkee Choi Steve Hicks School of Social Work, The University of Texas at
Austin, Austin, TX, USA
Sherry Cummings College of Social Work, University of Tennessee, Knoxville,
TN, USA
Sarah V. Curtis College of Social Work, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN,
USA
Catherine N. Dulmus School of Social Work, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY,
USA
M. E. Betsy Garrison School of Human Environmental Sciences, University of
Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA
M. Sebrena Jackson School of Social Work, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa,
AL, USA
Nancy P. Kropf Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Jan Ligon School of Social Work, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies,
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Peter Lyons School of Social Work, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies,
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Eberhard Mann Department of Pediatrics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI,
USA
Charles W. Mueller Department of Psychology, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa,
Honolulu, HI, USA
vii
viii Contributors
Scott Okamoto School of Social Work, College of Health and Society, Hawaiʻi
Pacific University, Honolulu, HI, USA
Lisa A. Rapp School of Educational Social Services, Saint Leo University, St. Leo,
FL, USA
Shanae Shaw School of Social Work, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL,
USA
John S. Wodarski College of Social Work, University of Tennessee, Knoxville,
TN, USA
Fan Yang Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian Shi, Liaoning
Sheng, China
About the Editors
John S. Wodarski, PhD, is professor of social work at the University of Tennessee
College of Social Work in Knoxville. Dr. Wodarski has over 40 years of experience
teaching graduate and undergraduate social work students. His main interests
include child, adolescent, and young adult health behaviors, including research on
violence, substance abuse, depression, sexuality, HIV and viral hepatitis prevention,
and employment. He has written over 65 textbooks and has contributed to over 50
additional texts.
Laura M. Hopson, PhD, is an associate professor at the University of Alabama
School of Social Work in Tuscaloosa. Dr. Hopson has over 10 years of experience
teaching social work students and practitioners. Her research focuses on prevention
of health risk behaviors and academic failure among vulnerable adolescents, espe-
cially ethnic minority adolescents from economically disadvantaged households.
Her work also examines barriers to implementing evidence-based practices in com-
munity agencies and strategies for overcoming these barriers. She has authored or
coauthored over 50 publications in journals and texts and coauthored the book
Research Methods for Evidence-Based Practice with John S. Wodarski.
ix
Chapter 1
Social Problems: A Cost-Effective
Psychosocial Prevention Paradigm
John S. Wodarski
The cost of social problems and the negative consequences are extensive and well
documented. From a cost-benefit perspective, the largely remedial, as opposed to
practice, interventions the social service system has chosen are extremely costly and
highly unproductive for both client and practitioner in terms of targets, timing of
intervention, ages, and contexts. Social, cognitive, and academic skills that indi-
viduals must master should provide the focus for intervention from a life-span
development perspective. A review and analysis centering on social problems
underscores the need for cost-effective, evidence-based, and preventive efforts.
First, the personal and societal costs of child abuse, educational outcomes, violence
in the schools, teenage sexuality, HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, crime, urban decline and
homelessness, unemployment, marital conflict, race, retirement, and hospice are
analyzed. Subsequent chapters review the personal, social, economic, and political
benefits of prevention. Preventive models of service delivery are elucidated. The
chapter concludes with specific applications and discussions.
Prevention Versus Remediation
Much has been written about many problem behaviors of the young and the undesir-
able consequences thereof. Teenagers’ experimentation with drugs and alcohol can
lead to overindulgence and abuse. Serious short-term and long-term effects include
risk taking and daredevil behaviors that increase risks to mental and physical health,
including accidents, which are a leading cause of death among adolescents.
Likewise, risk taking may increase the incidence of irresponsible sexual activity,
which eventuates in venereal disease, unwanted pregnancy, and premature
J. S. Wodarski (*)
College of Social Work, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
e-mail: jwodarsk@utk.edu
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 1
J. S. Wodarski, L. M. Hopson (eds.), Empirically Based Interventions Targeting
Social Problems, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28487-9_1
