Assistant Professor Emily Putnam-Hornstein has received the 2012 Society for Social Work and Research Outstanding Social Work Doctoral Dissertation Award for her dissertation, "Do ‘Accidents’ Happen? An Examination of Injury Mortality Among Maltreated Children.”

The award recognizes dissertations exemplifying high standards in social work research and scholarship. The purpose of the award is to encourage the design and conduct of quality research by doctoral-level social workers, recognize authors of such studies and provide them with a professional conference venue to present findings from their study.

“I am truly honored that my dissertation has been recognized by SSWR and has led to a good amount of discussion in the field already,” Putnam-Hornstein said. “This research highlights the tremendous knowledge that can be generated when we integrate information across administrative data systems. It also exemplifies the research potential of strong university-public agency collaboration.  None of this work would have been possible if not for the incredible support and interest on the part of the California Department of Social Services.”

For her dissertation, Putnam-Hornstein constructed a longitudinal data set that linked 4.3 million birth records to more than 500,000 child welfare records and 25,000 death records in the state of California. Her analysis of the data shows where scarce child welfare resources may be most effectively applied and informs an understanding of maltreated children within a broader, population-level context. Putnam-Hornstein plans to expand this repository to include statewide emergency department and hospitalization data to examine intergenerational child maltreatment dynamics. The study was funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, Fahs-Beck Foundation and Center for Child and Youth Policy.

The award will be presented at the 2012 SSWR Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 13.