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School bullying is a serious social problem, which has received widespread public, media, and research attention over the years. The first study of bullying was published in 1969 by a school physician named P. P. Heinemann (Olweus, 1999), which was subsequently followed by extensive empirical inquiry since the 1970s in Scandinavia led by Dan Olweus (Vaillancourt et al., 2008). In subsequent decades, social scientists have developed a rich theoretical and empirical body of knowledge with regards to children and adolescents’ experiences in bullying. Scholars conceptualise bullying as a sub-category of aggression (Smith et al., 2002), characterised as being purposeful, including an imbalance of power, and being repetitive (Hunter, Boyle & Warden, 2007; Smith, 2014). Bullying has for the most part been explored from a psychological perspective, providing insights into proximal risk factors, such as individual traits and behaviours. However, bullying is a complex, multifaceted problem, and consideration of theoretical frameworks from outside psychology is necessary to fully explain why certain individuals (or groups of individuals) are involved in bullying. Scholars have therefore come to realise the importance of integrating psychological theories with social environmental perspectives (sociological, anthropological, political-economic; Lawson & King, 2012). This has the potential to broaden perspectives on the etiology and outcomes of bullying, introduce innovative methodologies, and raise important questions about new approaches to prevention and intervention (Holt et al., 2017).This chapter will provide an overview of multiple social science theories and perspectives in explaining bullying. It is divided by theories and perspectives represented by four major branches of social science: psychology, sociology, anthropology, and political-economics.

The Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) was founded in 1994 to provide a meeting ground and support organization for individual social workers who engage in research. Over its first 14 years, SSWR has grown from a modest-sized organization that hosted an initial conference to a large and influential force that sponsors a wildly successful yearly conference. SSWR's annual conference now showcases a portfolio of awards, including a travel scholarship for a doctoral student, a named lecture, and a very competitive abstract submission process. Funding for research by social workers has grown over the years, and SSWR, in association with the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research (IASWR), has become a regular provider of educational opportunities about funding sources. This article presents perspectives from the first seven presidents of the organization, who describe the growing richness and diversity of SSWR's membership and projects and the increasing visibility of research conducted by social workers. KEY WORDS: infrastructure; organization; research; SSWR ********** The Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) was founded as a membership organization in 1994 to support social workers interested in research. To preserve the history of SSWR, this article presents sections contributed by the first seven presidents, each describing, often from a personal point of view, how their efforts helped to build the organization and to contribute to the current research infrastructure in social work. PRESIDENTIAL PERSPECTIVES Janet B. W. Williams, Founding President, 1994-1996 It was 1992. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)Task Force Report on Social Work Research (1991) had just been presented to the National Advisory Mental Health Council of NIMH. The report clearly acknowledged the significance of social work research by recognizing the breadth of critical problems with which social work deals and the increasing need for all human services to demonstrate the effectiveness of the services they provide. This report provided the stimulus and led to the funding that supported the establishment in 1992 of the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research (IASWR). IASWR was created by five leading social work organizations: Baccalaureate Program Directors (BPD), National Association of Deans and Directors (NADD), Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education (GADE), Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), and NASW. SSWR was conceived in direct response to the NIMH Task Force Report conclusion that "[t]hroughout the profession there is insufficient organizational support for research development." As a research social worker who was not embedded in a school of social work, I had always felt somewhat professionally isolated and hungry for interaction with nay social work research colleagues. As a faculty member in a medical school department of psychiatry, I frequently attended conferences and meetings of research-oriented groups in psychiatry but knew of no similar groups in social work. Therefore, at a psychiatry research meeting shortly after the Task Force Report was issued, I discussed these thoughts with Dr. Alan Leshner, at the time the director of the National Institute on DrugAbuse (NIDA). He agreed to support the founding of such a group and to contribute to its first conference. In 1992, at an NIMH-sponsored conference in Washington, DC ("Building Social Work Knowledge for Effective Mental Health Services and Policies"), I presented a plan for a new membership organization that would provide social work researchers with a base: the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWFZ). At that conference, Betsy Vourlekis also presented a report on the development of the new IASWR, as she had been appointed head of the implementation committee. At the conclusion of the conference, Betsy approached me and asked if I would delay the initiation of efforts to establish a membership group until the new organizationally based IASWR was firmly off the ground. …

Embracing the concept that the social compact between university and community can provide a cornerstone for true social change. This article details how partnering with outside organizations in collaborative relationships can help fulfill higher education's obligation to educate for the good of a democratic and learned populace. Often the social conscience of a university, schools of social work can serve as leaders in the development or facilitation of university and community partnerships to address or intervene in areas of social need. One research institution of higher education provides successful examples.

SUMMARY With the increasing diversity in America, it is not only crucial, but ethically imperative, that social workers understand and appreciate cultural norms and variations in their consideration of the whole person. This article defines cultural competence, details related ethical requirements, and examines its importance to social work practice.

Objective: The purpose of this article was to examine how an initiative of 10 collaborative projects focused on children and youth have applied principles of participatory research, collaboratories, and technological solutions. Method: The study analyzed multiple forms of qualitative data, including semiannual formative evaluations and semistructured interviews of participating partners. Results: Both the collaborative method and the infusion of technology were central to the functioning of collaboratory projects and, ultimately, the translation from research to practice and policy. The community-based participatory nature of the research projects resulted in applicable findings that were credible with people affected by the issues studied. Conclusions: The present study suggests that when there is steadfast commitment on the part of a diverse group of partners, even simple applications of technology can make a difference.

The Global Program on Youth (GPY) employs a technology-supported, collaborative framework of problem solving, called a collaboratory, to improve the lives of children and youth. Collaboratory partners use technology to share research, apply practice wisdom, and learn from the experiences and perspectives of diverse groups of people. Findings from the initiative are presented in this article, highlighting the lessons learned from each of the participating collaboratories, including the rewards, challenges, and applications of technology-supported collaboration.

This article reports the results of a national survey of school social workers in which respondents were asked to rate the importance and complexity of different knowledge, skills, and abilities selected by a panel of experts to reflect the breadth of content for entry-level social work practice in schools. The article discusses the implications of these findings for curriculum development and offers additional curriculum guidelines based on current trends affecting our nation's schools.

The complexities of serving as a professional school dean in a large public research university provide unique challenges, especially in relationship to issues of gender and race.

Federal public assistance policy can be construed as the U.S. low-income family policy. The most recent effort at public assistance "reform," the Family Support Act of 1988 (FSA) (P.L. 100-485), is an enunciation of this policy. As chair of the National Governors' Association, then-Governor Bill Clinton helped draft the 1988 reform package ("Welfare Reformer," 1993), and secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala has stated that much of the Clinton administration's reform efforts will be based on elements of the FSA (Vobejda & Balz, 1993). The current rhetoric in Congress, with its themes of personal responsibility and fear of the corrupting influence of "handouts," are echoed in the FSA as well. Given the content of this policy, this article discusses the options available to poor women and men with respect to raising families and escaping poverty and uses state demographic data from Illinois to describe the situation of low-income families. Until rather recently, only single parents and their dependents could qualify for assistance through Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the major cash benefit program for low-income people in the United States, and the vast majority of single heads of household in this country are women. For this reason, discussions of public assistance policy often come to center on single parenthood, particularly single motherhood, and often involve pervasive behavioral and racial stereotypes of poor single mothers, with two consequences. First, dialogue concerning public assistance policy comes to center less frequently on economics and more often on how people come to have children in or out of wedlock and why they do not have a "standard" nuclear household. Second, public assistance policy itself is thoroughly embedded in a context of stereotypes and beliefs about sex, class, and race. President Clinton's promise to "end welfare as we know it" (DeParle, 1993) was intended as a commitment to new ideas and agendas for the future. The examination of public assistance policy in this article has two aims: The first is to analyze public assistance policy as family policy, making explicit the values, intentions, and biases that underlie it, and the second is to examine the consequences of the public assistance system for low-income, single-parent families and to measure the consequences against policymakers' intentions. Given the recent changes in Congress and the new calls for restructuring policy at the federal level, evaluation of the assumptions underlying public assistance and its effects is timely and necessary. For better or for worse, the public assistance system in the United States is a good part of what passes for its "family policy," at least regarding low-income families, and the public assistance system is based on assumptions and values, both implicit and explicit. In writing legislation, policymakers do more than anticipate needs; they expect certain behaviors from groups of people and incorporate their own values regarding these behaviors into policies. What options do poor women and men have under the resulting public assistance system, particularly with respect to raising families and escaping poverty? How plausible are these options in light of the earning potential for male and female workers, the costs of child care, and the income and size of the pool of potential spouses? Are the behaviors expected and promoted by public assistance policymakers realistic? Might some single parents be better off raising their children without a spouse? What are the likely financial benefits of marriage, and what can single parents expect to achieve on their own? Values Undergirding Family Policy Public policy is driven by a variety of often conflicting values and ideologies, even though all of the people involved may not agree on these values or even state them explicitly. These values include the work ethic, the family ethic, a nuclear family bias, and faith in capitalist processes. …

Across the United States the quality of education and the need to reform schooling continue to be debated (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983). Many states have approached this challenge by upgrading standards for both education personnel and pupils. This upgrading has included using competency examinations and setting specific standards for employment, promotion, and graduation (Allen-Meares, 1987). Society now knows that large numbers of children are not achieving, dropout rates for some inner-city communities have reached alarming numbers, and children from low-income families are less likely to come to school ready to learn. In the midst of these developments, both social problems and problems in family-child functioning continue to escalate. Large-scale changes in the demographics of the country (for example, growing racial and ethnic diversity) and new social problems (cocaine-addicted babies, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, increased rates of youth suicide, and the juvenilization of poverty) and their consequences present new challenges for schools and school social workers (Danziger & Stern, 1990-91; Ford Foundation, 1989). Social workers have known for some time that educational outcome is determined by the interactions between societal and home conditions and school variables. Germain (1991) reaffirmed this point in her discussion of educational reform and school social work practice in the 1990s, acknowledging that the school alone cannot create equality in opportunity. There is a growing awareness that to achieve certain educational outcomes, social problems must be addressed first and that social work has a place in U.S. schools (Chira, 1991). The study reported in this article has four purposes: (1) to collect information about the demographic and organizational contexts in which school social workers work, the populations served, and other working conditions that influence practice; (2) to identify the most important job dimensions that school social workers must be able to perform as they begin to practice; (3) to determine whether these dimensions are correlated positively or negatively in frequency with which they are performed; and (4) to identify the tasks school social workers prefer to perform and those that are mandated by the school. This study is part of a collaborative effort involving the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey; the National Association of Social Workers' (NASW) Commission on Education; and the author. This collaboration has resulted in specialist credentials for school social workers, some of whom have been required by their respective states to receive certification by completion of the National Teachers' Examination, which did not include an appropriate battery of questions for school social workers. Literature Review Analyses of school social work tasks have dominated the literature since the conception of this field of practice. Major studies were conducted by Costin (1969) and Meares (1977), and since then, others have examined the status and current definitions of school social work tasks and functions (Alderson & Krishef, 1973; Chavkin, 1985). For example, Chavkin examined the status of school social work activities and the pattern of delivery in three states and 200 school districts. She found that traditional activities (for example, direct services to individual students, work with families, liaison work, and interpretation) were performed most frequently. However, nontraditional tasks were also provided (for example, groupwork, consultation, and administrative consultation). Link's (1991) qualitative cross-national comparison study of school social workers in London and the midwestern United States found that the U.S. school social workers worked primarily to maintain the status quo, made referrals to agencies, and helped children adapt. Link blamed this state of affairs on the fact that these workers are bound by the school and its authority over them. …

We live in a nation strained by racism, hostility, and hatred. Our communities and neighborhoods are overcome by violence, fear, and apathy. Our homes, which were once considered safe havens, have now become the sites of increasing acting out of frustration and anger. Due to inequities, oppressive conditions, and uncontrollable stresses, individuals are turning against themselves, their loved ones, and others to vent their feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Many African American men are especially caught up in this cycle of violent behaviors and victimization and consequently are becoming an endangered species (Gibbs, 1984, 1988; Staples, 1987). The adverse consequences of this cycle - including major injury and death - will affect the future of African American men, their families, and generations to come. Society's level of concern says much about us as a nation. Many studies have reported on the extent of violence in the African American community, citing alarming statistics and predictions. Relatively high victimization rates of violent crimes have been reported for individuals who are African American, male, poor, young, or single. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (1985), African American men have an unusually high likelihood of being murdered; African Americans are more than five times as likely to be the victims of homicide as white people (Hawkins, 1986). Homicide is the leading cause of death of African American men between ages 15 and 34, and since 1960, the suicide rate for African American men between ages 15 and 24 has tripled (Gibbs, 1988). In 1992, of the 23,760 homicide victims reported, 50 percent were African American and 48 percent were white, a disproportionate amount considering that African Americans are only 11 percent of the population. Eighty-four percent of violent crimes perpetrated against African Americans were by African Americans (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1990). Ninety percent of those arrested for homicide were men; 55 percent (10,728) were African American, and 43 percent (8,466) were white (U.S. Department of Justice, 1993). In 1990, African Americans were 35.7 percent of the prison population, compared with 50 percent for white people (Criminal Justice Institute, 1991). These figures are startling but do not examine the structural forces that engender crime: inadequate education and job training, unemployment and underemployment, and the inequitable distribution of wealth and power (Seidman & Rappaport, 1986). Because the justice system places a higher value on white men than on African American men, the latter have had disproportionately higher incarceration and death penalty rates (Poussaint, 1983). Investigations of crimes against African Americans are given low priority. Crimes against white people are more stringently punished. Excessive force, police brutality, harassment, and false arrests against African Americans are widespread (Feagin, 1986). As Radelet and Vandiver (1986) pointed out, "Equality for blacks has not yet been achieved in American society, least of all in the criminal justice system. The idea that all of us are born with an equal chance of eventually dying in the electric chair remains a myth" (p. 189). Despite the risks of school failure, family estrangement, homicidal violence, and stress-related illnesses that beset African American men from the vulnerable underclass, there is a growing number of middle-class African Americans who excel in family, community, and national leadership roles (Bowman, 1989). Since 1970, the number of African Americans earning over $35,000 a year has risen by almost one-third. Yet there was also a general decline in middle-class incomes between 1970 and 1984, resulting in an increase in lower-income families (Malveaux, 1988). Thus, the gap between economically disadvantaged and middle-class African Americans is growing. A vast majority of African Americans are excluded from the economic and political participation that would improve their standard of living. …

This article reports on a case study of a community-based agency that provided vocational services to handicapped youth and the experiences of personnel in two local school districts, following the implementation of an interagency agreement. From these experiences a prescription is offered for facilitating the transition from school to work.

The authors discuss practice principles derived from ecosystems theory. These principles are useful for conducting assessments in social work. This perspective gives equal emphasis to person and environment. Formative theories and their contributions to ecosystems theory are discussed.

Development, goals, and tasks of social work in the schools.

A national survey of state offices of education identifies reform initiatives and points out pupil/family characteristics and school and community conditions that are barriers to excellence. Directions for social work services in schools are suggested.

Content analysis is presented as a research technique that social work researchers and practitioners can use to study developments and trends in social work practice, the status of social work knowledge building, the redirection of relevant policies, and accountability procedures in social service agencies. Methodological issues such as developing categories, defining the unit of analysis, sampling, and determining reliability and validity, are described and evaluated. It is concluded that content analysis provides a common basis for researchers and practitioners to document the processes and outcomes of the profession.