Abstract
This issue of QSW opens with Mari D. Herland’s call for social work to embrace emotional intelligence as a critical tool in research and practice. Herland argues that, in spite of the profession’s emotionally laden work, social workers receive limited guidance in using the emotional intelligence perspective to manage the strong emotions they and their clients experience. The author uses her own experience studying fathers with criminal backgrounds to illustrate the processes of managing her own and her participants’ emotions, as well as using an emotional intelligence lens to uncover the biases, preconceptions, and triggers lurking beneath emotional reactions.
The next two articles also advocate for approaches that generate understanding of youth who exhibit troubling behaviors. Hau-lin Tam, Siu-ming To, Diana Kan Kwok, and Doris Ka Yin Chan examine the motivations of young adults in Hong Kong caught taking illicit photos or videos of unsuspecting people in public—a practice known as “upskirting.” The authors argue that boredom and loneliness motivate these behaviors, rather than sexual deviance. Consequently, they suggest social and familial interventions may be more appropriate than legal responses to this problematic behavior. Similarly, Will Dobud examines the often-traumatic process of transporting youth to outdoor behavioral healthcare, or wilderness therapy programs. Youth describe feeling kidnapped by law-enforcement type transportation agents who ambush them in their own homes. Dobud highlights the negative impact this pre-treatment experience has on already troubled youth, as well as the ethical concerns inherent in treating clients in such a manner.
Two articles in this issue focus specifically on language and the meaning behind words in social work research, practice, and policy. Tracy Watson, David Hodgson, Lynelle Watts, and Rebecca Waters contend that in spite of social work’s widespread emphasis on the importance of empathy, the profession lacks a clear definition of the concept. They advocate for a critical interrogation of the term and its use in social work research and practice. In their article, Tania Smith, Carole Zufferey, Snjezana Bilic, and Cassandra Loeser critically examine the language Australian policies employ to address women’s alcohol consumption. These policies focus almost exclusively on the medical relationship between alcohol and pregnancy/breastfeeding, as though womanhood is synonymous with motherhood. The authors argue for social workers to reject this patriarchal and dismissive framing.
The last three articles in this issue underscore the importance of emotional intelligence, empathy, and language, especially in working with families in the child welfare system. In their article, Therése Wissö, Anna Melke, and Irene Josephson examine the language social workers use to describe parents of removed children. The authors note that workers use these interpretive repertoires, or recurring systems of terms, to frame parents quite negatively. More importantly, the authors assert that this language shapes worker practice with parents; the more negative the language workers use, the less support parents receive. Conversely, Tonning Otterlei and Engebretson approach the removal of children from the position of parents, left to navigate the loss of custody on their own. Their study highlights the dehumanization, shame, and stigma parents experience at the hands of the state, and the ways parents perceive child welfare staff and their own parental shortcomings, in response. Finally, Ann-Karina Henriksen examines youth participation in decision-making around secure placements, and finds youth often lack the ability to participate effectively, even when invited. She argues that youth simply lack sufficient understanding of the child welfare system, the logic of risk-assessment, and the knowledge of placement options required to meaningfully contribute to this complex process. Henriksen argues for redoubled efforts in developing participatory practices designed to include youths’ voices, in spite of these barriers.