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In today's social landscape, marked by structural complexity and role fluidity, family social work has evolved from a traditional model focused on crisis remediation to an integrated and preventive perspective. This new paradigm recognizes that family well-being is not simply the absence of dysfunction, but a multidimensional construct influenced by biological, psychological, social and economic factors viewed in a systemic paradigm. Family well-being is one of the main indicators of a society's resilience. When family social work moves from intervention to prevention, from control to empowerment and from stigma to empathy, a system is built that not only survives crises but transforms them into opportunities for growth.
In contemporary changes, a special approach is given by the transition from the “deficit model” to the “strengths-based approach”. According to Walsh (2016), family resilience is not just an individual trait, but a dynamic process that allows the family system to adapt and grow in face of adversity. Modern intervention is no longer limited to correcting deviant behaviors but aims to strengthen communication processes and the belief system. On the other hand, integrated social work uses ecological systems theory, which provides a framework for understanding how the family micro-system interacts with meso- and macro-systems (school, labor market, public policies). In addition, recent research emphasizes the importance of evidence-based interventions (evidence-based practice), which combine scientific rigor with practical expertise. Authors such as Corcoran and Nichols-Casebolt (2004) argue that the effectiveness of social support is conditioned by the social worker's ability to navigate through the complexity of the cultural and economic contexts of the beneficiaries. Recently, an emerging pillar within the specialized literature is driven by the impact of digitalization on family dynamics (López Peláez, Kirwan, 2023). Integrated approaches now include “family digital literacy” as part of overall well-being. Goldkind and Wolf (2015) note that the use of technology in social work practice can facilitate the access to resources but also impose new ethical standards in managing confidentiality and professional boundaries.
Taking these new approaches to family social work as a starting point, this issue of the Social Work Review brings together the contributions of the authors who respond to the invitation of the coordinators of this number, targeting contemporary approaches to family social work. The texts gathered within this volume reflect the diversity of theoretical frameworks, methodological strategies and current empirical approaches, outlining a complex picture of the challenges and opportunities that the family faces in the context of contemporary social transformations.
Integrated interventions for supporting the vulnerable families
The family remains the fundamental unit of sociological analysis, being the matrix in which the first adaptation mechanisms and long-term life trajectories are configured. The evaluation of the dual role of the family reveals a series of paradoxes within the present studies. Thus, the paradox of support and dependence appears in the analyses carried out by Biriș Diana et. al. The authors highlight a major contradiction that resides in the fact that, although the family is perceived as a central resource of emotional stability, it can generate a dependence that nullifies the beneficiary's autonomy.
Another paradox that appears in the article signed by Coroi and Raicu is the determinism of the family environment. The authors emphasize that the family environment is the critical variable in the genesis of juvenile delinquency.
Symbolic reparation through substitution is a valuable perspective offered by Bordás Enikő, who observes that young people leaving the child welfare system use the formation of their own family as a form of “symbolic reparation”. From a Medical Humanities perspective, Dumitrescu and Dan criticize the “instrumentalization” of the family in academic medical literature. The authors observe an “individual-centered ontology,” where the family is reduced to the status of a resource for treatment adherence, being maintained in a zone of “structured absence” instead of being recognized as a subject of rights and an autonomous unit of well-being.
Bujor Elena-Mihaela, draws attention to the fact that supporting teenage mothers, often marked by poverty and stigmatization, requires multidimensional interventions (prenatal and postnatal counseling, parenting education, school reintegration) based on the principles of "trauma-informed care", in order to break the cycle of intergenerational reproduction of vulnerability. In the context of pediatric palliative care, Dumitrescu Ana-Maria shows us that the integrated approach involves treating the family as a central unit of care, because the child's suffering is inseparable from that of the parents; social work intervenes in an integrated manner to reduce emotional distress and to prevent parental burnout. Biriș Diana, Feher Claudia, Molnar Irina, Năstasă Diana, Năstase Marian Valentin and Popescu Rebeca show that, in the case of people on probation for drug-related offenses, although the family is a vital emotional and financial support factor, the integrated interventions must aim to reduce excessive dependence on it, which can diminish the individual's economic autonomy. From the perspective of juvenile delinquency, Coroi Magda and Raicu Mădălina Beatrice underline that interventions must target dysfunctions from family, as emotional deficiencies, antisocial parental models, and the lack of a secure attachment are major causes regarding the deviant behavior.
Savin George-Marian promotes a preventive intervention model through which the school, together with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), carries out activities structured on modules addressed simultaneously to children, parents and teachers, transforming the educational unit into a proactive environment for combating violence and vulnerability. These perspectives redefine the role of the social worker, forcing the transition from a case manager to a capabilities architect (as appears in Hotin), capable of mediating between macro-structural resources and micro-relational needs.
The presence of human resources is deficient compared to the social needs encountered. Parepeanu Bianca-Daniela proposes a book review "Introduction to social work: key concepts and application exercises" written by Georgiana-Cristina Rentea (2026), a material that supports students, especially those who are at their academic debut. Regarding the challenges that students face in finishing their studies, Bădărău Oana-Lăcrămioara proposes the volume coordinated by Nina Mihalache (2025) "Studies and empirical analyses in social work. Training research skills for social problems. Migration, poverty and single parenthood" (2025), a volume that aims to provide students with a reference framework for developing research skills, highlighting the importance of the empirical approach in professional training. The author Palaghia Carmen analyzes the volume coordinated by Georgeta Pânișoară (2022) "Parenting from A to Z. 83 challenging themes for today's parents" approaching the notion of parenting from multiple perspectives, the themes being current and captivating, both for parents, teachers, specialists and students within the field of psychology and social work.
The role of social services in the context of contemporary social transformations
Hotin Paula-Magdalena argues that social work must overcome the residual paradigm (limited to compensating for deficits ex post) and to adopt an "ecosystem model focused on capabilities and social investment", addressing structural inequalities and supporting the consolidation of family capital. Ștefăroi Petru states that social services must evolve towards "assistance of ontological integrity", moving from the simple administrative distribution of material resources to restoring moral cohesion, socio-human bonds and existential meaning in vulnerable families.
Gimbașanu Veronica-Mihaela brings into discussion the importance of knowledge about social services among students as well. Vulnerabilities in the lives of older people, the frequency of abuse and the types of social work services available for older people in Romania are addressed.
Pârvu Mihaela-Cristina and Niță Andreea-Mihaela highlight a new transformation: social services and family education programs must integrate the digital component, offering to the parents support to navigate through the norms and idealized models within online environment that make them more flexible and modify their parenting styles. In the same sphere of the digital age, Bozariu Loredana Florentina specifies that social services must collaborate with school and family to guide adolescents towards active and moderate use of technology, thus protecting their emotional well-being from the risks of passive use and isolation. Buture Beatrice Mihaela shows that social services must adapt to the migration phenomenon through "e-social work", supporting women left at home who assume the critical role of emotional mediators of transnational families.
Interdisciplinary collaboration in social work family
Cernomoriț Tatiana emphasizes that the complex needs of children with disabilities can only be solved through functional intersectoral cooperation that links the education, health and social protection systems, ensuring true inclusion, a process that facilitates the empowerment of parents, too.
Dumitrescu Radu-Mihai and Dan Adrian-Nicolae advocate for a deep interdisciplinary communication between medicine, social work and the humanities (Medical Humanities), so that the family is no longer perceived by the medical system strictly as a variable, but as an autonomous moral and relational unit, with its own needs and rights.
Bordás Enikő highlights that the successful integration of young people who leave the child protection system and the formation of a functional life path depend structurally on coordinated interventions between education, health, the labor market and family support services.
Ciobanu Adina-Ioana brings up the Roma community, presenting it as a common ethnic identity, with shared traditions and customs, close social relations, common values and cultural transmission. From her perspective, "the Roma community represents more than a group of people, it represents that social and cultural space where the Roma identity is experienced daily, transmitted through generations and kept alive."
Savin George-Marian argues that the efforts to prevent abuse and domestic violence require a rethinking of the school space, the school must become a central node in a network of collaboration with NGOs and public institutions (DGASPC, police, local authorities), moving away from the logic of exclusively crisis intervention. In the field of pediatric palliative care, Dumitrescu Ana-Maria shows that the social worker has the role to mediate the collaboration within the interdisciplinary team (doctors, psychologists), informing the family and directly involving it in the decision-making process, thus preserving the unity and dignity of it.
Innovative practices in family support
Innovation in social work doesn’t lie in technology per se, but in recalibrating the power balance. This involves moving from a logic of "deficit" (what the beneficiary lacks) to a logic of "potential" (what blocks the beneficiary's development).
Hotin Paula-Magdalena proposes “mapping the conversion factors” as an original methodological tool. Instead of a classic needs assessment, the social worker analyzes “blocked opportunities”.
At the micro-social level, Madianou and Miller (apud Buture) introduce the “Polimedia Theory”. In a context of digital abundance, the choice of communication channel (video call vs. text) becomes a “moral act”. The use of video call to simulate participation in the domestic routine (ambient co-presence) creates a “digital habitat”. The role of the social worker is to advise families to choose environments that maximize intimacy and emotional effort, transforming the smartphone from a communication tool into a symbolic living space. The success of these new practices critically depends on identifying the unique nuances of each family context, transforming the intervention into a dynamic process of facilitating the possible.
Cădariu Ioana-Eva proposes the introduction of Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) in social work as an innovative practice, a method that helps people with complex traumas to reconstruct their narrative coherence and identity throughout their lives, thus promoting emotional safety and social inclusion. Also, the same author Cădariu Ioana-Eva emphasizes the importance of supervision as essential for promoting reflexivity, cultural competence and ethically sensitive practices.
Ștefăroi Petru refers to alternative models such as Family Group Conferencing (FGC), through which social workers transfer decision-making and authority back to the extended family so that they can create their own safety plan, and Multisystemic Family Therapy (MST), which works within the family’s natural environment to rebuild parental authority. Bujor Elena-Mihaela brings into discussion international models of integrated support, such as the Family Cafés initiatives in Finland, which provide spaces for informal support and interaction to lift young mothers out of social isolation.
New elements and perspectives
The current social research landscape brings to the foreground unprecedented data that highlight structural disparities and new forms of invisibility. In this issue, we encounter: (1) the digital gap of old age: Coca Andreea signals the paradox between the idealized images of the elderly generated by AI and the reality of social isolation; (2) conditional legitimacy: in the Republic of Moldova, Chistruga Inga identifies a broad consensus (83.2%) for assisted reproductive technologies in case of medical infertility, but a “conditional legitimacy” and strong polarization when the reasons are purely social; (3) geriatric domestic violence: Gimbașanu Mihaela draws attention to the portrait of the aggressor in the case of elderly women: this is often a family member (son, husband), the abuse being independent of the victim's economic status; (4) the economic impact of gender inequality: the analysis carried out by Smilschi et al. provides a figure of a massive impact: reducing the gender gap in the labor market could add a substantial amount to the global economy and (5) the failure of cooperation: Chernomorit Tatiana highlights a harsh contrast in the Republic of Moldova: the success of deinstitutionalization (decrease to 5%) is overshadowed by a massive gap in education, where 44% of children with disabilities are not included in any form of schooling. There are also other new elements such as those presented below:
The Family as a Medical Instrument (Instrumentalization of the Family): Dumitrescu Radu-Mihai and Dan Adrian-Nicolae expose a novel aspect in contemporary academic medical language: the family is often stripped of its ethical and emotional valence, being transformed into a simple "care infrastructure".
"Bureaucratic Trauma" (Administrative Violence): Bujor Elena-Mihaela introduces a surprising concept, showing that the complex and rigid bureaucratic system, through the lack of coordination and the obligation of teenage mothers to repeatedly expose their intimacy to strangers, functions as a factor generating secondary trauma (retraumatization) instead of providing support.
The smartphone as a digital habitat and “social glue”: Buture Beatrice Mihaela notes a novel dimension of migration, showing that geographical distance is overcome through the “circulation of care.”
The authors of this issue bring to attention a reform of the field based on three pillars: (1) the transition from “deficit” to “capabilities”, according to the proposed ecosystem models; (2) adaptation to the digital ecology, recognizing that technology is the space in which the “circulation of care” now unfolds and normative pressures are formed; and (3) the imperative of intersectoral cooperation and data interoperability, to ensure a continuous and coherent support pathway. By recognizing the ontological dignity and through the integrated use of technological and human resources, we can prevent the chronicization of vulnerabilities and build authentic well-being for the contemporary family. Through this selection of contributions, the issue of this journal aims to stimulate critical reflection, interdisciplinary dialogue and the exchange of good practices, providing relevant benchmarks for both the academic community and practitioners and decision-makers involved in the field of family social work.
References
Corcoran, J., Nichols-Casebolt, A. (2004). Risk and Resilience Ecological Framework for Assessment and Goal Formulation. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal 21, 211-235 https://doi.org/10.1023/B:CASW.0000028453.79719.65.
Goldkind, L., Wolf, L. (2015). A Digital Environment Approach: Four Technologies That Will Disrupt Social Work Practice, Social Work, 60, 1, January 2015, 85-87, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swu045.
López Peláez, A., Kirwan, G. (eds.). (2023). The Routledge International Handbook of Digital Social Work. New York: Routledge. Crossref.
Walsh, F. (2016). Strengthening family resilience (3rd ed.). The Guilford Press.
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