BUSSW Recognizes Recent Faculty Accomplishments and Research

Professor Amodeo and Clinical Associate Professor López Co-Author Chapter
Professor Maryann Amodeo and Clinical Associate Professor Luz Marilis López co-authored a chapter titled, “Making Effective Referrals to Alcoholics Anonymous and Other 12-Step Programs,” for the text, “Addressing unhealthy alcohol use in primary care,” edited by Richard Saitz, M.D., Boston University School of Medicine. The text is directed to physicians who often do not assess for or address unhealthy drinking among their patients. The book is now published and available at as both an e-book and print version.

Associate Professors DeVoe and Paris Invited to Present in Rhode Island
Associate Professors Ellen DeVoe and Ruth Paris will give a presentation titled, “Addressing the mental health needs of military families,” at a conference sponsored by Butler Hospital and Family Services of Rhode Island, on March 1, 2013, in Providence, RI.

Assistant Professor Ha Has Article Published
Assistant Professor Yoonsook Ha, along with Marci Ybarra, University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, had an article published in Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services. Titled, “Are Strong Work-First Welfare Policies Aligned With Generous Child Care Provisions? What States Are Doing and the Implications for Social Work,” the article examined the intensity of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TAN F) work requirements and generosity of child care subsidy provisions across states, and the interaction of the two programs. The article discusses the implications for families, policy, and social work practice in light of the authors’ findings, which suggest that states with stringent work requirements do not typically provide generous child care subsidies. The article is available online.

Assistant Professor Miller Has Article Published
Assistant Professor Daniel P. Miller, along with Ronald B. Mincy, Columbia University, had an article published in Social Service Review. The article, “Falling Further Behind? Child Support Arrears and Fathers’ Labor Force Participation,” examines how child support arrears affect fathers’ labor force participation. Relying on longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, the study suggests that child support arrears result in declines in average weeks worked in the formal labor market in subsequent time periods. These findings are driven by the behaviors of fathers who had relatively high amounts of arrears and no income in the previous year and are mostly robust to tests for selection into no work or low levels of work by fathers. Findings also suggest that arrears obligations that are low relative to income result in increases in the probability that fathers engage in any formal work. Arrears are not statistically significantly related to informal labor force participation. This study highlights both intended and unintended consequences of the growth in arrears under current child support enforcement policies.

Associate Professor Paris to Present in Tel-Aviv, Israel
Associate Professor Ruth Paris will be a visiting scholar at Bar-Ilan Univeristy, Louis and Gabi Weisfeld  School of Social Work, in Tel- Aviv, Israel, in March. She will also present at the following conferences this spring:

• Paris, R., Schottenfeld, L.*, & Mittal, G.* (2013, April). Enhancing substance abuse treatment for mothers with an Attachment-based parenting intervention. Paper presentation as part of symposium at the bi-annual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, WA.

She gave the following paper presentation in January:

• Paris, R., Schottenfeld, L.*, & Mittal, G.* (2013, January). Substance using mothers and parenting: Adapting an evidence-based model. Paper presentation as part of symposium, Interventions in the real world: A lot at stake, at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Work and Research, San Diego, CA.

*Lisa Schottenfeld, MSW, MPH, and Gina Mittal, MSW, are SSW alumni.

Clinical Associate Professor Ruth Co-Authors Chapter in Handbook
Clinical Associate Professor Betty J. Ruth co-authored the final chapter in the Handbook for Public Health Social Work. The handbook, written and edited by respected leaders of the Social Work Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA), describes the rapidly expanding roles of public health social workers as these two disciplines continue to join forces.

Associate Professor Spencer Participates in Discussion With Corporate Funders and Philanthropists; Doctoral Student Presents at National Mentoring Summit
Associate Professor Renée Spencer provided evidentiary support and information on the leading findings on mentoring’s impact at the Corporate and Philanthropic Leadership Exchange, during the third annual National Mentoring Summit in Washington, D.C. Co-hosted by The Bank of America Charitable Foundation and MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, this interactive discussion aimed to identify action steps to advance the research-proven impact of mentoring in helping young people find success at school, home and the workforce.

Additionally, Dr. Spencer participated on an invited panel of researchers at the 2013 National Mentoring Summit. She presented findings from her work on youth-initiated mentoring relationships established through the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program, which was done in collaboration with the Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring at UMass Boston. Two BUSSW doctoral students, Toni Tugenberg and Mia Ocean, also participated in this research. During the Summit,  doctoral student Antoinette Basualdo-Delmonico presented a workshop to more than 80 attendees. The workshop was called Family Involvement in Youth Mentoring and highlighted some of the findings from Antoinette’s dissertation.