Table Of ContentWorking With Adolescents
sociAl Work PrActice
With children And FAmilies
nancy Boyd Webb, series editor
Working with Adolescents: A Guide for Practitioners
Julie Anne Laser and Nicole Nicotera
Child Development: A Practitioner’s Guide, Third Edition
Douglas Davies
Helping Bereaved Children: A Handbook for Practitioners,
Third Edition
Nancy Boyd Webb, Editor
Social Work in Schools: Principles and Practice
Linda Openshaw
Working with Traumatized Youth in Child Welfare
Nancy Boyd Webb, Editor
Group Work with Adolescents:
Principles and Practice, Second Edition
Andrew Malekoff
Mass Trauma and Violence:
Helping Families and Children Cope
Nancy Boyd Webb, Editor
Culturally Competent Practice
with Immigrant and Refugee Children and Families
Rowena Fong, Editor
Social Work Practice with Children, Second Edition
Nancy Boyd Webb
Complex Adoption and Assisted Reproductive Technology:
A Developmental Approach to Clinical Practice
Vivian B. Shapiro, Janet R. Shapiro, and Isabel H. Paret
Working with
A
dolescents
A Guide for PrActitioners
Julie Anne laser
nicole nicotera
Series Editor’s Note by Nancy Boyd Webb
Foreword by Jeffrey M. Jenson
THE GUILFORD PRESS
new York london
© 2011 The Guilford Press
A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc.
72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012
www.guilford.com
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written
permission from the Publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Last digit is print number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Laser, Julie Anne.
Working with adolescents : a guide for practitioners / by Julie Anne Laser
and Nicole Nicotera.
p. cm. — (Social work practice with children and families)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60918-035-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Social work with teenagers. 2. Adolescent psychology. 3. Teenagers—
Counseling of. 4. Teenagers—Family relationships. I. Nicotera, Nicole.
II. Title.
HV1421.L373 2011
362.7—dc22
2010040073
To Tom Luster, who died during the writing of this book
I have learned to be a scholar, a professor, and a better human being through
knowing Tom.
He taught me how to think critically, to scrutinize the details, but to always try
to find the meaning of the results in the “big picture.” He taught me how to use
research results to improve human functioning for children, youth, and society.
He taught me that one needed to always push oneself to know more, to think
more deeply, to question one’s own ideas, and to humbly share those ideas with
others.
He taught me that learning happens in- and outside of the “ivory towers” of the
academic world and that one can learn equally from theoretical geniuses like Uri
Bronfenbrenner or from Sismayo and the other “Lost Boys of the Sudan” who
were “found” by Tom and his wife, Carol.
He taught me how to run a graduate classroom, to expect the highest level of
performance, but to always respect the student for who he or she was and where
he or she was coming from, and to want each student to succeed to his or her
highest potential. Tom taught me, by example, that even though he had a million
things to do, he had time for each student’s questions and to sit with him or
her until he or she understood. Throughout the dissertation process with my
students, I try to channel what Tom taught me to my students, and thereby his
knowledge that was shared with me lives on in many others whom he never met.
He taught me that academia was a place where you could both be a scholar and
a great parent. Though I had met them only briefly, he kept me abreast of his
children’s academic, athletic, and life pursuits. He was so proud of Anna’s and
Ben’s accomplishments and the adults they had become.
He taught me that even though we were studying serious issues, there was always
time to laugh, especially at ourselves.
He taught me what to expect from the academic world as a professor and gave me
great counsel when it did not act as expected.
He is and will be sorely missed.
—Julie Anne lAser
About the Authors
Julie Anne Laser, PhD, MSW, LCSW, is Associate Professor in the Gradu-
ate School of Social Work at the University of Denver, where she coordi-
nates the high-risk youth track of the MSW curriculum as well as teaches in
the clinical and research series. Dr. Laser’s research focus is on adolescent
resiliency, particularly the relevance of specific ecological and internal
protective and risk factors by culture and gender. She recently completed
large studies of resilience in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Senegalese
youth and homeless teens in the United States. Projects are under way to
evaluate resilience in Latin American youth. Dr. Laser has more than 20
years of clinical social work experience and has worked in Mexico, Switzer-
land, Japan, and China, as well as a variety of urban and rural settings in
the United States. She is particularly interested in school social work.
Nicole Nicotera, PhD, MSW, LICSW, is Associate Professor in the Gradu-
ate School of Social Work at the University of Denver, where she teaches
clinical practice theories and skills and a doctoral research course in quali-
tative analysis. Dr. Nicotera’s research and scholarship focus on measuring
civic development in children, interventions to enhance civic leadership
and positive youth development, the influences of neighborhood collective
socialization and social cohesion on young people, and issues of unearned
privilege and oppression in social work practice, education, and research.
Her recent research with young people in public housing neighborhoods
examines civic engagement and the capacity of youth to act as agents of
neighborhood change. As a clinical social worker, Dr. Nicotera worked
with children, youth, and families in a community mental health center,
where she used art, play, and sand-tray therapies, as well as other interven-
tion modalities. She also has extensive school social work experience with
seriously emotionally and behaviorally challenged children.
vii
contributing Authors
Douglas Davies, PhD, MSW, is Lecturer at the School of Social Work, University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dr. Davies is an infant mental health specialist who was
trained at the Child Development Project at the University of Michigan (Selma
Fraiberg, Director). From 1979 to 1995 he was a Clinical Social Worker/Social Work
Specialist in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Outpatient and Infant Psychiatry
Programs in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan. From
1991 to 2000 he was Lecturer in Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical
School. In 2005 he was elected to the National Academies of Practice, Washington
DC, as a “Distinguished Social Work Practitioner,” and in 2007 received a lifetime
award, the Selma Fraiberg Award, from the Michigan Association for Infant Men-
tal Health. His clinical research interests are in intervention with toddlers and par-
ents, treatment of trauma in young children, therapy of young cancer survivors,
and child care consultation. He has published several clinical articles on these top-
ics. His 2010 book, Child Development: A Practitioner’s Guide, Third Edition (Guilford
Press), describes how to apply child development theory to clinical practice. In
his practice, Dr. Davies works with children, adolescents, and parents; supervises
clinicians individually and in groups; and consults to mental health agencies and
child care centers.
Jeffrey M. Jenson, PhD, is the Philip D. and Eleanor G. Winn Professor for Chil-
dren and Youth at Risk and Associate Dean for Research in the Graduate School of
Social Work at the University of Denver. Dr. Jenson’s teaching and research inter-
ests focus on the etiology, prevention, and treatment of childhood and adolescent
aggression, juvenile delinquency, and substance abuse. He has published three
books and numerous articles on the topic of adolescent problem behavior. His
recent book, Social Policy for Children and Youth: A Risk and Resilience Perspective (with
Mark Fraser), was the 2008 recipient of the Society for Research on Adolescence
Social Policy Award for Best Edited Book. Dr. Jenson is currently principal inves-
tigator of the Youth Empowerment Project, an investigation aimed at improving
academic and behavioral outcomes among youth residing in four Denver public
housing communities. He was recently principal investigator of the Youth Matters
Denver Public Schools Prevention Project, a randomized trial assessing the effects
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