Traditionally, loneliness research has focused primarily on older adult populations. There is limited research on how loneliness and social support impact young people’s mental health and mental health services use.

In the May 2023 issue of the journal Health & Social Work, which is co-published by NASW and Oxford University Press, an article looks at loneliness among emerging adults. (The article defines “emerging adults” as persons aged 18 to 29 years old.)

This article reports an assessment of whether loneliness and social support are associated with the use of mental health services, and with mental health symptoms (psychological distress and suicidal ideation) among emerging adults.

A subsample of emerging adults ages 18 to 29 was drawn from the 2017 Survey of Police-Public Encounters, a cross-sectional, general population survey administered to residents of New York City and Baltimore. The authors performed various statistical analyses to model associations between loneliness and mental health symptoms and services use outcomes.

Some findings:

• Emerging adults with higher levels of loneliness reported higher levels of distress and suicidal ideation. Having more social support, experiencing higher levels of distress, and suicidal ideation were associated with increased odds for using services.
• First-generation American emerging adults and Black emerging adults were less likely to use services than their U.S.-born and non-Black counterparts.

The authors conclude that the significant impact of loneliness on mental health symptoms and the effect of social support on service use highlight the importance of developing interventions to prevent and reduce loneliness over the life course.

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Study Authors

• Melissa Bessaha, PhD, LMSW, associate professor, School of Social Welfare, Stony Brook University
• Dawnsha Mushonga, PhD, assistant professor, School of Health and Human Services, University of Baltimore
• Lisa Fedina, PhD, assistant professor, School of Social Work, University of Michigan,
• Jordan DeVylder, PhD, associate professor, Graduate School of Social Service, Fordham University

This work was supported by internal funding from the University of Maryland School of Social Work, through the Competitive and Innovative Research Award to Jordan DeVylder.

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NASW journals are co-published by NASW Press and Oxford University Press. The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print. Learn more about the journals and subscriptions.

This greatest accomplishment is often born, however, from a place of struggle. It may be a struggle to feel understood, to feel safe, to feel hopeful, and to even imagine a future in which the freedom to be yourself is possible.

During this Pride Month, we want to tell you that you deserve to feel joy, to breathe, and to be unequivocally and undeniably who you are. You deserve to do the ordinary things in life like going to school, wearing clothes that make you feel happy, and playing sports.  You deserve the essential things like being seen and having the story of your life validated as a precious and irrefutable truth.

We want to tell you that it is okay to hope that it gets better. As you grow up, and you will grow up, the people around you will learn things from you – lessons that you collected from your journey of running against the current. As you grow up, and you will grow up, people will be able to be more open to their own truths because you modeled unwavering commitment to being yourself.

During this Pride Month, we write to you on behalf of an expansive community of social workers that you have not even met. We see you, we celebrate you, and we will not give up on making the world better for you.

NASW Resources

• Help Starts Here Resources for LGBTQIA2S+ people   
• NASW Social Work Talks Podcast – Supporting LGBTQ Youth
• NASW was one of the first major mental health organizations to condemn conversion therapy

Additional Resources

• PFLAG National Glossary of Terms
• The Trevor Project
• It Gets Better
• Family Acceptance Project
• What is Pride Month? The Complete History of Pride

Parents of trans and gender-diverse (TGD) youth can experience challenges navigating gender-affirming (GA) care such as stigma, transphobia, and lack of support. There is little information available about stressors, worries, and positive feelings of parents as they try to support their youth accessing GA care.

An article in a recent issue of the journal Health & Social Work presents baseline survey data on experiences and stressors of 160 parents/caregivers in the Trans Youth CAN! cohort study, which examined medical, social, and family outcomes in youth ages 16 years or younger considering puberty blockers or GA hormones. Data were collected at 10 Canadian gender clinics. The authors report on participating parents’ characteristics, levels of support toward youth, stressors, worries, concerns, and positive feelings related to youth’s gender.

Most parent participants were White (85.1 percent), female (85.1 percent), birth or adoptive parents (96.1 percent), and reported strong support for youth’s gender. Participants’ concerns included their youth facing rejection (81.9 percent), generalized transphobia (74.6 percent), or encountering violence (76.4 percent). Parents also reported positive feelings about seeing their youth grow more confident. Most parental worries and stressors were situated outside the family, reflecting the systemic discrimination faced by youth and their families.

Parents of TGD youth in clinical care continue to experience many stressors, but evidence shows that they are seeking support and expressing positive feelings toward their youth. Their experience appears to differ from that of other parents of TGD youth in several key ways: less frequent experience of grief, reporting positive feelings about their youth’s gender diversity, and certain specific stressors related to seeking medical care. Social workers could address these stressors by developing systems-focused interventions and by further considering intersectional health disparities.

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Authors:

• Annie Pullen Sansfaçon, PhD, BSW, professor, School of Social Work, University of Montreal, and Canada Research Chair on Transgender Children and Their Families, Montreal. Quebec, Canada
• Julia Temple Newhook, PhD, adjunct professor, Department of Gender Studies, Memorial University, St. John’s, Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada
• Laura Douglas, MSc., graduate research assistant, Trans Youth CAN!, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
• Sandra Gotovac, PhD, project coordinator, Trans Youth CAN!, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
• Joe Raiche, MD, consultant psychiatrist and Foothills Medical Centre clinical assistant professor, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
• Kathy Nixon Speechley, PhD, MPH, professor, Department of Pediatrics and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
• Margaret L. Lawson, MD, FRCPC, full professor and pediatric endocrinologist, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• Greta R. Bauer, PhD, MPH, professor and Canadian Institute of Health Research Sex and Gender Science Chair, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada

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The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print. You can find out more about the journals and subscriptions at this link.

[Note: Below is an excerpt from an article in the most recent issue of the journal Children & Schools, co-published by NASW and Oxford University Press. The article was written by Sara Schjølberg Marques, MSc, assistant clinical psychologist, and Ruth Braidwood, DClinPsy, clinical psychologist, at DISCOVER Workshop Programmes in London. This article is free to be read on the Oxford University Press website.]

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The psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to be significant and sustained. Worldwide, families are being directly affected by the virus through personal experience of illness or grief and indirectly affected through disrupted social relations and education, economic impacts, and wider societal effects.… The priorities for researching the impact of COVID-19 on mental health have been set out and include assessing the impact of the lockdown and social isolation on the mental health of vulnerable people and how these impacts can be reduced.…

Given that mental health difficulties are most likely to develop during adolescence […], it is critically important to explore the impact of the pandemic and lockdown period on the mental health of young people. Although the potential stress, anxiety, and isolation of a lockdown might be short-lived for some, for other young people, the effect on well-being will be severe and longer lasting, especially for those who experience adversity or already exhibit difficulties with managing their mental health. …

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To read the whole article, please follow this link.

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The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print. You can find out more about the journals and subscriptions at this link.

To be young and transgender in North American society today is—in and of itself—an indicator of strength. Trans and nonbinary youths (TNBY)—that is, young people who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth—require a reservoir of fortitude to navigate the transphobic environments in which they are embedded. Although we know much about the challenges TNBY face, less is understood about how they overcome them or the strategies they deploy while navigating the impact of multiple forms of oppression and exclusion. Because of the diversity of experience among TNBY, it is critical to explore how race, class, ability, and language, among other factors, intersect with the ways that youths navigate transphobia and shape the strategies that they deploy in the world. This article takes up intersectionality as both a method and a form of analysis to do just that.

In an article published in a recent issue of the journal Social Work Research, co-published by NASW and Oxford University Press, researchers present the results of a combined grounded theory and community-based participatory action research project with 54 TNBY residing in the province of Quebec, Canada. Their project included two important sensitizing concepts: intersectionality and recognition. The researchers defined intersectionality as an approach that explores how people navigate manifold identities (class, race, disability, and so on) in the context of structural oppression.

An intersectional lens was applied to the recruitment of research participants through an iterative, community-based process. They also applied this lens to explore oppressive structures that negatively influence the well-being of TNBY and the specific factors that enable TNBY to thrive. In the article, the researchers argue for a contextualized, dynamic, and relational understanding of how well-being is produced. Specifically, they show two presenting needs: one for affirmation and one for safety.

Access to affirmation and safety springs from resources of privilege that emerge in the environment in which young people are embedded and from which they self-advocate. Understanding the dynamic relationship between these two needs and how they shift according to context is an important component of applying an intersectional approach to supporting TNBY in social work settings.

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Study authors:

Annie Pullen Sansfaçon, PhD, BSW, is associate professor and Morgane Gelly, MA, is research professional, School of Social Work, University of Montreal. Kimberly Ens Manning, PhD, is associate professor, Department of Political Science, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University, Montreal.

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The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print. You can find out more about the journals and subscriptions at this link.

The Grand Challenges for Social Work initiative

The social work grand challenge to ensure healthy youth development necessarily involves a focus on violence prevention, including the prevention of sexual and dating violence during adolescence. The experience of sexual and dating violence is associated with numerous and often long-lasting detrimental mental, physical, and social outcomes, many of which this grand challenge seeks to prevent. Although evidence shows that gender is a critical axis of identity to consider in violence prevention research and practice efforts, gender is not a central lens applied in the field’s approach to such issues within this grand challenge.

An article in the journal Social Work, co-published by the NASW and Oxford University presses, articulates a rationale for infusing a gender analysis into understanding sexual and dating violence and conceptualizing effective violence prevention strategies. The authors describe gender-transformative (GT) approaches to sexual and dating violence prevention, a promising practice for both ensuring the healthy development of youths and reducing violence perpetration by focusing on engaging boys and young men. Additionally, the authors discuss the potential for GT strategies to be used in prevention efforts targeting adolescent social issues more broadly.

Finally, authors call for practitioners and researchers focused on healthy youth development to apply a gender analysis in their efforts and articulate concrete ways to do so.

The authors of the article are: Laurie M. Graham, PhD, assistant professor, School of Social Work, University of Maryland, Baltimore; Erin A. Casey, PhD, professor, School of Social Work and Criminal Justice, University of Washington, Tacoma; Juliana Carlson, PhD, associate professor, School of Social Welfare, University of Kansas, Lawrence.

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The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print. You can find out more about the journals and subscriptions at this link.

I am caught between leaving childhood, some of the benefits that it brought or benefits taken away

In route to adulthood, am I ready, my brain is still processing the shift and feeling it has gone astray

So many things I may never see again, so many places I dreamed of, will they ever materialize

My nights feeling abandoned, my world has been traumatized and my eyes puffy from my frequent cries

But some realized I am a process, my life is a process, my brain development is a process

You took the time to rescue and to help me untangle this emotional mess

You saw my anger but realized that it was not all about you

You saw my confusion and understood that I honestly, did not know what decisions to make and had no clue of what to do

You removed my labels of “bad Kid” or kid at-risk, and kid destined to fail, damaged and lost

You became the worker, the social worker who refused to be seized by documents and constrained by cost

You dared to learn what the development speed of the processing in my brain would take

You viewed my process as an opportunity to slow down, and think, and adjust to my growth, and consider my emotional ache

You used my processing time to help me heal and to shift the direction that my life was as it headed in deep depression

I used my amygdala, the emotional part of my brain that perpetrates impulses, instinctive behavior, and aggression

You took the time to realize that I was dealing with the impact of loss and trauma in my adolescent seasons

Please remember that if treated properly, I will one day get through this process and share my process reasons

Thank you for Caring

Cynthia Henderson is senior practice associate in child welfare at NASW and Project Coordinator Phase One of  the Integrating Adolescent Brain Development Into Child Welfare Practice with Older Youth initiative.

]]> https://www.socialworkblog.org/news/2020/08/a-poem-the-foster-adolescent/feed/ 0 https://www.socialworkblog.org/sw-practice/2020/08/integrating-adolescent-brain-development-into-child-welfare-practice-with-older-youth-curriculum-other-materials/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=integrating-adolescent-brain-development-into-child-welfare-practice-with-older-youth-curriculum-other-materials https://www.socialworkblog.org/sw-practice/2020/08/integrating-adolescent-brain-development-into-child-welfare-practice-with-older-youth-curriculum-other-materials/#respond Mon, 24 Aug 2020 15:08:08 +0000 http://www.socialworkblog.org/?p=11748

• Integrating Adolescent Brain Development Curriculum
  • The curriculum includes links to several on-line videos that are embedded in the curriculum. Four audio files and one video file can be downloaded from this page when using the curriculum.

• Integrating Adolescent Brain Development Handouts 
  
  • The curriculum indicates how and where these handouts are used.

• Integrating Adolescent Brain Development PowerPoint slides.
  • PPT Slides Day One cover Modules 1 to 7
  • PPT Slides Day Two cover Modules 8 to 13
• Audio Files
  • Disappointments (Sixto Cancel) Module 3
  • Relationships (Nyeelah Inniss) Module 5
  • Regulation (Nyeelah Inniss) Module 5
  • Rewards (Nyeelah Inniss) Module 5
• Video Files
  • How the Brain Develops (Alexandra Lohrbach) (Module 4)
  • Why the Teenage Brain has an Evolutionary Advantage  (Module 4)
  • Promoting Brain Gains for Youth Emerging from Foster Care (Module 9)
• Adolescent brain development both shapes and is shaped by the larger experiences, relationships and environments in which young people exist. Important information about adolescent brain development is included in the Annie E. Casey Foundation report, The Road to Adulthood: Aligning Child Welfare Systems with Adolescent Brain Development. This should be read as part of the ToT. The Road to Adulthood was developed by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It works at the local, state and national levels to advance policies and practices to most effectively meet the needs of young people transitioning from foster care to adulthood. Valuable resources can be found here.

The reason could be because of brain development. Many people do not know the brains of youth do not fully develop until they are in their mid twenties, which is why they may behave in ways that bewilder adults.

The National Association of Social Workers, with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, has developed training resources that will give child welfare workers, social workers, foster parents and others who work with older youth critical information about how the adolescent brain develops. The know-how these professionals gain through NASW’s Integrating Adolescent Brain Development into Child Welfare Practice with Older Youth curriculum will help older youth – especially those in foster care or involved in the child welfare system – get the life skills they need to overcome past trauma and become successful adults.

Youth in foster care or those about to age out of the foster care system especially need this support. Many have a spotty school attendance record and lack support from birth families. There are greater odds that they will end up in jail, a single parent, or have trouble getting a stable job. Even those who aspire to earn a college degree end up dropping out.

Such training can be used by more than just social workers employed by schools are in the child welfare system. Foster parents, health care and mental health care providers who serve youth, and people employed in juvenile justice facilities can benefit from the training.

“The period of brain development in adolescents provides a critical opportunity to help young people grow through learning experiences and heal from trauma they may have experienced,” said Joan Levy Zlotnik, PhD, ACSW, Director Emerita NASW Social Work Policy Institute. “That is why this curriculum and the accompanying resources are so important and we hope is shared as widely as possible.”

Professionals who are interested in the training should join a NASW Integrating Adolescent Brain Development webinar on August 25 at 2 p.m. ET. Don’t worry if you miss it. It will be available on demand.

Unaccompanied minors, or “newcomer youths,” come to the United States from Mexico and Central America to escape violence and persecution, and to seek financial and academic opportunities. Many newcomer youths arrive with gaps in their formal education attributed to the immigration process and the heterogeneity of their pre-U.S. lives. Once they are enrolled in the U.S. school system, many educators struggle to accommodate the academic needs of these students.

Drawing on the framework of social and cultural capital, an article in a recent issue of the NASW and Oxford University Press published journal Social Work aimed to expand the current knowledge on the experiences of Latino unaccompanied youths in the U.S. school system. A thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 30 newcomer students and 10 key informants revealed six themes: socialización con los demás compañeros (getting along with the other students); poca confianza (little trust); no sé lo que decían (I do not know what they were saying); it is a hard landing; education, interrupted; and estoy agradecido (I am grateful).

The article offers suggestions for school social workers and educators on how to promote academic success, student resilience, and school connectedness for a vulnerable youth population.

Study authors:

Hannah Selene Szlyk, PhD, LCSW, is NIMH T32 postdoctoral fellow, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, Campus Box 1196, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130; e-mail: hannah.szlyk@wustl.edu. Jodi Berger Cardoso, PhD, LCSW, is associate professor, Graduate School of Social Work, University of Houston. Liza Barros Lane, PhD, LMSW, is field instructor, University of Houston-Downtown. Kerri Evans, MSW, LCSW, is a doctoral student, School of Social Work, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA. The study was funded by Communities in Schools–Houston and the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Houston. Hannah Selene Szlyk is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number T32MH01996

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The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print. You can find out more about the journals and subscriptions at this link.