EDITORIAL i EDITORIAL William H. Barton Welcome to the Spring 2009, Volume 10(1) issue of Advances in Social Work. The academic year has ended; for many of us, the summer brings a welcome change of pace, and a chance to devote time to those manuscripts that we’ve placed on the back burner. I encourage you to take this opportunity to add to the knowledge base of our profession, and to submit your work to Advances. The journal’s online format makes submitting manuscripts quick and easy – just check out the Author Guidelines. You can view these by clicking on the word “ABOUT” at the top of the journal’s home page and scrolling down to the items under “Submissions.” I assure you that we will continue to try to provide a quick turnaround for the peer reviews, even during the summer. If you happen to be reading this and have not yet registered with the journal, it’s free and easy to do. Benefits include email notification whenever a new issue is published, the opportunity to serve as a peer reviewer for manuscripts received by the journal, and easy access to manuscript submission. Just click on the word “REGISTER” at the top of the home page and provide the requested information. I encourage you to select the “Reviewer” role and to include a list of review topics of interest to you as part of the registration process. The current issue contains a combination of research reports on a variety of topics using diverse methods, as well as several articles related to social work education. It begins with the report of a quantitative study by Robin Ersing, Richard Sutphen and Diane Loeffler, “Exploring the Impact and Implications of Residential Mobility: From the Neighborhood to the School.” This article examines the relationship between residential mobility among fifth graders and academic and disciplinary problems in school as well as protective services involvement. In “Child Welfare Workers’ Connectivity to Resources and Youth’s Receipt of Services,” Washington University researchers Alicia Bunger, Arlene Stiffman, Kirk Foster and Peichang Shi use administrative and survey data to measure child welfare workers’ service actions on behalf of youth. Their results suggest that child welfare service delivery to youth may be improved by training workers in the signs and symptoms of behavioral health problems and enhancing their awareness of other service providers in the community. A promising model of community-based groups connecting older adults with international exchange and multicultural students is described by Scott Anstadt and Deb Byster, in “Intergenerational Groups: Rediscovering our Legacy.” The authors frame these groups in a theoretical model of participatory, community-based outreach and then describe the process stages of the program’s development and some preliminary pilot outcomes. Next, in “Clinical Social Workers: Advocates for Social Justice,” Anne Marie McLaughlin presents qualitative results from interviews with a sample of Canadian clinical social workers regarding how they conceptualized and incorporated advocacy in their work. From the results, the author develops a matrix describing instrumental, _____________ William H. Barton, Pd.D., is a professor at the Indiana University School of Social Work. Copyright © 2009 Advances in Social Work Vol. 10 No. 1 (Spring 2009), i-ii ii educational and practical advocacy strategies aimed at micro (individuals), mezzo (marginalized groups) and macro (society) targets. The last three articles address issues relevant for social work education. In “Addressing the Mental Health Problems of Chinese International College Students in the United States,” Meirong Liu systematically describes the specific sources of mental health problems and stressors facing Chinese students in the United States and then presents several culturally sensitive recommendations for ways that health providers, mental health social workers, university faculty and staff can better serve these students. In the next article, “Examining Predictors of Social Work Students’ Critical Thinking Skills,” Kathleen Deal and Joan Pittman surveyed a sample of social work students at all three degree levels, looking at the relationship between background characteristics, personality factors, curricular choices and level of critical thinking skills. Their results suggest that higher levels of critical thinking skills are found among students with more highly educated parents, personalities more open to experience, and a background in science courses. They also found that critical thinking skills were higher as academic degree level increased. In the final article, “Addressing Sexual Minority Issues in Social Work Education: A Curriculum Framework,” Lindsay Gezinski advocates for the use of constructivist strategies to help students critically assess their own beliefs/attitudes, knowledge and skills to promote more culturally competent practice with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community. I ended my inaugural editorial in the previous issue with the hypothesis that no one reads the editorial in an issue of an online journal and invited readers to disprove it by sending me an email indicating that they had indeed read the editorial. So far, my hypothesis has not been disproven. To do so, send me an email at wbarton@iupui.edu. Please also feel free to provide feedback about the journal’s format or contents. mailto:wbarton@iupui.edu