Behavioral social work is the application of behavior analysis to the field of social work. There are behavioral social work interventions for individuals, groups, and communities. Nevertheless, behavioral social work is far from a widely adopted approach among social work practitioners. A reason for the underuse might be seen in the fact that…

Objective: This study tested the effectiveness of Parent Management Training, Oregon (PMTO) model on child social-emotional well-being. Methods: Using a randomized controlled design and three measures of social-emotional well-being, the study investigated effectiveness of PMTO with families of children in foster care with serious emotional…

Objective: To evaluate whether the addition of a wraparound facilitator to regular child protection services improved child and family functioning over 20 months. Method: A single blind randomized controlled trial with concealment and stratification across three sites (N = 135 eligible families with substantiated maltreatment). Results: Based on 2…

Objective: This research study assesses the effectiveness of participation in a multimodal/holistic residential treatment program on changing deviant sexual interests and functional impairment among sexually abusive youth. Method: A one-group pretest posttest design was utilized to examine pretest (intake) and posttest (discharge) scores for 58…

Objective: This article introduces and evaluates children's psychosocial rehabilitation, a home- and community-based treatment for children with serious emotional disturbance. Method: In an open-trial design, the author used repeated-measures analysis of variance and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to assess pre-post outcome ratings for 218…

Objectives: Services to children and adolescents with a severe emotional disturbance (SED) have long been inadequate. The wraparound approach has emerged as a promising practice that could address the needs of children with SED and their families through a strength-based, individualized, family-focused team process that emphasizes flexible service…

Teenagers' running from foster placement is a significant problem in the field of child protection. This article describes a functional, behavior analytic approach to reducing running away through assessing the motivations for running, involving the youth in the assessment process, and implementing interventions to enhance the reinforcing value of…

Abuse, neglect, or both often result in removing children from their homes and placing them in foster care. As a result of these experiences, many children learn unhealthy behaviors. These "behavioral challenges" often lead to a cycle of multiple placement disruptions and progressively more restrictive placements. The philosophy,…