Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effectiveness Of Feminist Social Work Methods: An Integrative Review, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

This integrative review of the effectiveness of feminist social work methods compared 35 independent studies of feminist interventions with 44 independent studies of social work practice that were based on other theoretical orientations. Feminist interventions were observed to be more effective than those based on other practice models. And among feminist social work interventions, radical methods seemed to be more effective than liberal methods. These findings are consistent with a theory by target system interaction that was suggested by a previous meta-analysis (Gorey, Thyer, & Pawluck, 1998). While personal theoretical orientations such as cognitive-behavioral modes of practice seem more supportive …

Early Childhood Education: A Meta-Analytic Affirmation Of The Short- And Long-Term Benefits Of Educational Opportunity, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

Some scholars who emphasize the heritability of intelligence have suggested that compensatory preschool programs, designed to ameliorate the plight of socioeconomically or otherwise environmentally impoverished children, are wasteful. They have hypothesized that cognitive abilities result primarily from genetic causes and that such environmental manipulations are ineffective. Alternatively, based on the theory that intelligence and related complex human behaviors are probably always determined by myriad complex interactions of genes and environments, the present meta-analytic study is based on the assumption that such behaviors can be both highly heritable and highly malleable. Integrating results across 35 preschool experiments and quasi-experiments, the primary …

Differential Effectiveness Of Prevalent Social Work Practice Models: A Meta-Analysis, Kevin M. Gorey, Bruce A. Thyer, Debra E. Pawluck

Social Work Publications

This meta-analysis of 45 recently published (1990–1994) independent studies of social work's differential effectiveness by prevalent practice models builds on the more general findings of related meta-analyses that have estimated that three-quarters of the clients who participate in social work interventions do better than the average client who does not. It found that the effectiveness of interventions based on different practice models—personal versus systemic-structural—was moderated by their primary focus for change. When the focus for change was clients themselves, personal orientations seemed more effective, whereas systemic-structural models were found to be more effective in supporting the change of other targets, …

The Effectiveness Of Social Work With Older People And Their Families: A Meta-Analysis Of Conference Proceedings, Amanda M. Grenier, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

No abstract provided.

Secular Trends In The Incidence Of Anorexia Nervosa: Integrative Review Of Population-Based Studies, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

OBJECTIVE AND METHOD: Aggregating across retrospective cohort samples, this integrative review synthesizes the findings of 12 cumulative incidence studies (45 hypotheses) on anorexia nervosa secular trends.

RESULTS: (1) The female/male anorexia incidence rate ratio was estimated to be 8.20, 18.46 versus 2.25 cases per 100,000 per year, p < .05; (2) female teenagers experienced anorexia at a rate fivefold greater than other women, 50.82 versus 10.37 incident cases per 100,000 per year, p < .001; (3) no secular trend or change in the incidence of anorexia was observed among teenagers, while a near threefold increase was observed over the past 40 years among women in their 20s and 30s, 6.28 (1950-1964) versus 17.70 (1980-1992) cases per 100,000 per year, p < .05; and (4) the two cohort characteristics of age, and the age by year interaction accounted for nearly two thirds of the variability among anorexia incidence estimates, R2 = .614, F(2,27) = 21.49, p < .001. After the two factors of age and the Age x Year interaction were accounted for, none of the other study characteristics, including study year(s), were found to be significantly associated with anorexia incidence, that is, a main effect of time was not observed.

DISCUSSION: The integrative evidence across the population-based epidemiologic studies covering 40 years in this field suggests strongly that, overall, the incidence of anorexia nervosa, particularly among those very young women at greatest risk of experiencing it, has not increased significantly. However, the risk does seem to have increased significantly among women in …

Secular Trends In The United States Black/White Hypertension Prevalence Ratio: Potential Impact Of Diminishing Response Rates, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

In this integrative review, the authors analyzed 25 studies on hypertension prevalence among black and white adults (1960-1991). The authors made the following inferences: 1) both female (2.59 vs. 1.77) and male (2.20 vs. 1.38) black/white hypertension prevalence ratios have diminished by approximately a third over the past three decades; 2) response rates were significantly lower among the more recent surveys (i.e., 1976 or later, mean 69.2 percent (standard deviation (SD) 6.9) vs. 1960 to 1975, mean 86.1 percent (SD 9.1)); and 3) these two trends are directly associated--response rates may account for a third (women, R2 = 0.362) to …

Unpublished Social Work Research: Systematic Replication Of A Recent Meta-Analysis Of Published Intervention Effectiveness Research, Gregory A. De Smidt, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

No abstract provided.

The Prevalence Of Child Sexual Abuse: Integrative Review Adjustment For Potential Response And Measurement Biases, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

This integrative review synthesizes the finding of 16 cross-sectional surveys (25 hypotheses) on the prevalence of child abuse among nonclinical, North American samples. It is essentially a research literature on sexual abuse; only one of the studies assessed physical abuse, and there has not yet been a single study of prevalent child emotional abuse nor neglect. The following summative inferences were made: (1) response rates diminished significantly over time, M = 68% prior to 1985 and M = 49% for more recent surveys, p < .05; (2) unadjusted estimates of the prevalent experience among women and men of childhood sexual abuse was 22.3% and 8.5%, respectively; (3) study response rates and child abuse operational definitions together accounted for half of the observed variability in their abuse prevalence estimates, R2 = .500, p < .05; (4) female and male child sexual abuse prevalence estimates adjusted for response rates (60% or more) were respectively, 16.8% and 7.9%, and adjusted for operational definitions (excluding the broadest, noncontact category) they were 14.5% and 7.2%; (5) after adjustment for response rates and definitions, the prevalence of child sexual abuse was not found to vary significantly over the three decades reviewed. Given the large human costs, both personal and social, of child abuse, and the identified gap in the requisite knowledge needed to steer effective preventive and treatment interventions, it is time to invest in a large, methodologically rigorous, population-based study of child abuse which, if it does nothing else, spares no expense in ensuring very high participation.

Short-Term Versus Long-Term Group Work With Female Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Brief Meta-Analytic Review, Tanya L. De Jong, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

This meta-analytic review synthesizes the findings of seven published independent studies dealing with group work with female survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and compares the effectiveness of short-term versus long-term methods. Across-study summative findings were: (1) generally, group work has large beneficial effects upon female survivors' affect and self-esteem-three-quarters of the group participants improve; (2) no extant empirical evidence supports the differential effectiveness of either short-term or long-term groups; and (3) only one study to date has reported the size of long-term methods' clinical effect. In short, the question of the differential effectiveness of short- versus long-term group work with …

Effectiveness Of Social Work Intervention Research: Internal Versus External Evaluations, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

This meta-analytic review synthesizes the findings of 88 recent (1990 to 1994) independent studies of the effectiveness of social work interventions and compares the findings of those studies based on authors' assessments of their practice experience (internal evaluations) and other evaluators' assessments (external evaluations). Overall, social work interventions are effective; three-quarters of the clients who participate in social work interventions do better than the average client who does not. Also, the estimated rate of problem improvement among clients who experience an intervention and are assessed by social worker—researchers themselves is nearly 25 percent greater than the estimated rate assessed by …

Lack Of Racial Differences In Behavior: A Quantitative Replication Of Rushton's (1988) Review And An Independent Meta-Analysis, Kevin M. Gorey, Arthur G. Cryns

Social Work Publications

Rushton (Personality and Individual Differences, 9, 1009–1024, 1988) hypothesized that racial group differences exist across a range of behaviors from intelligence to social organization. Such differences were then discussed within the context of an evolutionary continuum (Negroid < Caucasoid < Mongoloid). For example, his observations that blacks compared to whites are less intelligent, physically mature more rapidly, and are more aggressive and impulsive (less law abiding) were said to support the evolutionary hypothesis. Quantitative replication of the 100 studies included in Rushton's original ‘review and evolutionary analysis’ and a meta-analysis of 100 randomly selected studies infer that any behavioral differences which do exist between blacks, whites and Asian Americans for example, can be explained in toto by environmental differences which exist between them.

Cancer Differentials Among Us Blacks And Whites: Quantitative Estimates Of Socioeconomic-Related Risks, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

This article analyzes 10 studies that assessed the association of socioeconomic status (SES) with cancer occurrence among blacks and whites in the United States. The following summative inferences were made: the associations of SES with cancer are similar among blacks and whites; cancers of organ sites with the most intimate environmental interfaces have the strongest SES-cancer associations (stomach, lung, cervix, and rectum); the prevalence of exposure to low socioeconomic-related risks such as poverty are approximately fourfold greater among blacks; the all-site population attributable risk percent due to low socioeconomic exposure among blacks is estimated to be four times that of …

The Prevalence Of Elder Care Responsibilities Among The Work Force Population: Response Bias Among A Group Of Cross-Sectional Surveys, Kevin M. Gorey, Robert W. Rice, Gary C. Brice

Social Work Publications

This review synthesizes the findings of 17 independent studies dealing with the prevalence of elder care responsibilities among the work force population. Across-study, summative findings were: (a) approximately one fifth (M = 21.1%) to one quarter (Md = 23.1%) of employees provide care for an elderly dependent; primary study findings varied by a factor of nearly 25, ranging from a high estimate of 46.0% to a low of 1.9%; (b) the average response rate was fairly low (M = 45.0% and Md = 41. 1%), indicating that the studies captured only slightly more than one third, but less than half …

Group Work As Interventive Modality With The Older Depressed Client: A Meta-Analytic Review, Kevin M. Gorey, Arthur G. Cryns

Social Work Publications

This review analyzes a total of 19 empirical studies dealing with the effectiveness of group work intervention with depressed older clients (65 years and older). Multiple analyses of all outcome data reported allowed for the following summative, empirically derived inferences: (1) overall, group work was found to account for 42% positive change in client affective states; however, most of this improvement (87%) appears to be attributable to nonspecific interventive variables, i.e., factors outside the control and intent of the group worker; (2) group work is optimally effective for clients who live alone and are moderately to severely depressed; (3) client …

Effects Of Surgery On The Mental Status Of Older Persons. A Meta-Analytic Review, Arthur G. Cryns, Kevin M. Gorey, Marion Z. Goldstein

Social Work Publications

The data bases of 18 empirical studies were combined into one comprehensive data set and subjected to meta-analysis. The following trends were observed: (1) surgery has a significantly decompensating impact on the mental status of older persons, and the average effect size observed is modest (r = .37); (2) for all mental status measures included in the review (cognition, delirium and affect), effect size appears to be significantly moderated by patient age; (3) patient sex may be predictive of the kind of mental impairment that is most likely to occur within an older surgery population, with women manifesting a greater …