School of Social Work News

The Alliance of Social Workers in Sports established “The Bill Vanderwill Award” for outstanding leadership in sport social work.  The new award was announced at the Fourth Annual Social Work in Sports Symposium in Orlando, Flordia. This is an annual award and Bill Vanderwill, SSW Field Educator is the first recipient of this honor.

A new study from researchers at the University of Michigan School of Social Work is the largest to date to examine associations between parental spanking and child well-being. The results of this study suggest that the use of spanking is detrimental to children across cultural contexts. Specifically, this study used data from 62 countries, representing nearly one-third of the world’s countries, and demonstrated that caregivers’ reports of spanking of children in the household were associated with lower socioemotional development of 3- and 4-year-old children. "Spanking may do more harm than good," said Garrett Pace, the study's lead author and a doctoral student of social work and sociology. 

The results of this study suggest that bans are warranted and likely benefit child well-being in the long term. In addition, caregivers can be supported in their efforts to change parenting behaviors through culturally competent parent education as well as the use of evidence-based practices that promote alternatives to physical punishment.  The study was published in Child Abuse and Neglect The International Journal. Additional authors include Associate Professors Andrew Grogan-Kaylor and Shawna Lee.

William Elliott III, Social Work Professor and Director of the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion research on Children’s Savings Accounts is highlighted in a new Brookings Institute report, “Four policies to help the middle class, and how to pay for them”.  

Elliott is a leading researcher in the fields of college savings accounts, college debt and wealth inequality. Elliott’s research challenges individual beliefs and cultural values that surround funding for college, student debt, inequality, systemic patterns of poverty and educational justice

Todd Herrenkohl, Marion Elizabeth Blue Professor of Child and Family was recently appointed by Alex Azar, the Secretary of Health and Human Services to the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Board advises and makes recommendations to the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services; the Director, Center for Disease Control and Prevention; and the Director, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control regarding surveillance, basic epidemiologic research, intervention research and implementation, dissemination and evaluation of promising and evidence-based strategies for the prevention of injury and violence.

The New York Times features the American Academy of Pediatrics new most strongly worded policy statement against spanking children. The latest statement stems from a body of research including Associate Professor Andrew Grogan-Kaylor's "Spanking and child outcomes: Old controversies and new meta-analyses".

Associate Professor Daphne Watkins discusses her research on black men and boys and the YBMen Project with XXL Magazine. The feature explores hip-hop's complicated relationship with mental health and how a new crop of rappers are bringing the conversation to the forefront.

Huiyun Kim successfully defended his dissertation entitled "Housing Insecurity and Low-Income Housing Policy in the United States". His committee consisted of Kristin Seefeldt, Sarah Burgard (co-chairs), Richard Tolman and Rachel Best.
He has accepted a postdoctoral associate position from Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota.

Wilbur J. Cohen Collegiate Professor of Social Work Ruth E. Dunkle will be honored by the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work with a Career Achievement Award during the Gerontological Society of America Annual Scientific Meeting on November 16, 2018. The award recognizes Dunkle for her outstanding leadership in social work education and aging.