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News Archive

Research

  • Despite their status as the largest ethnic minority group in the United States, Latinos are often poorly represented in federally funded research and clinical trials.

    For example, Latinos comprise 16 percent of the general population but represent only 7 percent of participants in research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and just 2 percent of those in clinical trials overseen by the Food and Drug Administration.

  • At a substance abuse treatment center, a Master of Social Work student working as an intern speaks with an alcoholic, who is feeling torn between wanting to quit drinking and not knowing how else to numb his pain.

  • When Associate Professor Karen Lincoln joined the USC School of Social Work, she quickly noticed a critical issue in the lower-income areas of Los Angeles. Despite experiencing high rates of mental illness and other chronic health conditions, older African-American residents were struggling to access care and seemed to be slipping through the cracks.

  • USC School of Social Work doctoral candidate Rong Xiao has been chosen to participate in the USC Diploma in Innovation project, a highly selective program that allows current PhD students to demonstrate their potential to push the boundaries of existing scholarship by translating novel ideas into tangible benefits to society.

  • A new research project led by Emily Putnam-Hornstein, an assistant professor with the USC School of Social Work, will link child welfare reports and birth records from throughout California to explore issues surrounding teen pregnancy among transition-age foster youth.

  • The Journal of Social Work Practice in Addictions has awarded Jeremy Goldbach, an assistant professor at the USC School of Social Work, an honorable mention for his dissertation, “Toward the Prevention of Substance Use in Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth.”

    The journal annually recognizes the best social work dissertations that present new developments in the field of addictions.

  • With the presidential race heading into its final stretch, both candidates vow to protect the sacred promises made to military families. But neither is offering any details on how they might support military families if we hit a fiscal cliff with budget cuts that could wipe out services for military and veterans' families.

    Month after month, in the midst of a heated presidential and congressional pre-election cycle, we see no organized blueprint to integrate millions of military family members into civilian society.

  • More than 100 scholars convened for a three-day discussion about the health of aging Hispanics in the United States, Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean, as part of the 2012 International Conference on Aging in the Americas hosted by the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging at the USC School of Social Work.

  • Sexting, the sending or receiving of sexually explicit text messages or photos via cell phone, appears to be part of a cluster of risky sexual behaviors among adolescents, rather than a substitute for "real world" sex, according to a USC study in the October 2012 issue of Pediatrics.

  • A national social work organization has awarded USC School of Social Work doctoral student Gretchen Heidemann with funding to support her dissertation research on the transition of formerly incarcerated women into the community.

    The Robert L. Schneider Dissertation Award, which includes a $1,000 cash grant, is given annually by Influencing State Policy to scholars whose dissertation is focused on social policy research at the state level.