Social capital plays a key role in college and career success, and research indicates that a dearth of on-campus connections contributes to challenges first-generation college students face in effectively navigating the college environment. This study investigates a novel intervention that focuses on the development of skills and attitudes to empower first-generation college students to cultivate social capital and on-campus connections during the transition to college. A mixed methods, explanatory design was used to evaluate impacts and processes of the intervention among first-generation college students (n = 164) in the context of an ethnically diverse, urban, public university in the Northeast. Results indicated that students who participated in the intervention demonstrated improved attitudes and behaviors around seeking support in college, closer relationships with instructors, and higher GPAs at the end of their first year in college. These results suggest the potential benefits of a relatively scalable approach to supporting the needs of first-generation college students.

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Objective: To use meta-analytic techniques to evaluating the effectiveness of parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) at reducing future physical abuse among physically abusive families. Methods: A systematic search identified six eligible studies. Outcomes of interest were physical abuse recurrence, child abuse potential, and parenting stress. Results: Parents receiving PCIT had significantly fewer physical abuse recurrences and significantly greater reductions on the Parenting Stress Index than parents in comparison groups. Reductions in child abuse potential were nonsignificant, although 95% confidence intervals suggest clinically meaningful treatment effects. The studies examining physical abuse recurrence had a medium treatment effect (g ¼ 0.52), while results from pooled effect size estimates for child abuse potential (g ¼ 0.31) and parenting stress (g ¼ 0.35) were small. Conclusions: PCIT appears to be effective at reducing physical abuse recurrence and parenting stress for physically abusive families, with the largest treatment effects seen on long-term physical abuse recurrence. Applications to social work practice are discussed. Keywords parent-child interaction therapy, child physical abuse, child welfare, meta-analysis

Youth-initiated mentoring (YIM), in which youth select adults from within their communities to serve as mentors in relationships that are formalized through mentoring programs, has the potential to redress problems faced by many mentoring programs that could adversely affect system-involved youth, such as volunteer attrition and premature match closures. However, only a few programs have implemented YIM, and there is little research on this approach. This qualitative interview study examines the formation of YIM relationships and how they are experienced by mentors ( n = 14), youth ( n = 17), and the youths’ parent/guardian ( n = 6). Youth tended to select adults whom they had encountered through school or social services. Findings indicate that the YIM selection process contributed to mentor, youth, and parent/guardian investment in the mentoring relationship and to the youth’s rapid development of feelings of closeness and trust in the mentor. Knowing that mentors would be nonjudgmental, trustworthy, and dedicated appeared to facilitate positive relationship development, which is important given the difficulty of engaging and serving system-involved youth in mentoring programs.

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