Brian E Perron
Biographic Data
| ID | 151952 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brian E Perron |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brian E |
| FAMILY NAME | Perron |
| SIGNATURE | PERRON B E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0009-0008-4865-451X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 65 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 210 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 65 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Parental Cooperation from Swiss Child Protection Reports
Purpose: Assessing parental cooperation during child protection services (CPSs) interventions raises distinctive analytical challenges due to ambiguous, conflicting information. We compared reasoning language models (RLMs) to retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) in classifying parental cooperation from Swiss CPS reports. Methods: RLMs of three parameter sizes (255B, 32B, 4B) were benchmarked against a RAG-based approach using a consensus dataset …
AI-Assisted Curation of Conference Scholarship
Evolution of Social Work Knowledge Production Over 35 Years
Purpose: This study developed a comprehensive bibliographic infrastructure addressing systematic coverage gaps in social work literature indexing and examined disciplinary knowledge production patterns from 1989 to 2025. Method: Article metadata was compiled from Web of Science, Scopus, Directory of Open Access Journals, and web scraping. A small language model performed classification and extraction tasks on abstracts. Results: Analysis of 62,60…
AI-Enhanced Social Work
This article introduces the application of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) technology, aiming to enhance decision making and client support through artificial intelligence (AI)–enhanced tools. RAG addresses the critical challenge of ensuring accuracy and reliability in AI-generated content by integrating generative AI with domain-specific knowledge bases. Through a case study, we explore the development and assessment of a RAG-powered tool d…
Theoretical and Methodological Shifts in Social Work Research
Purpose: This study empirically documents temporal patterns in social work research's engagement with postmodern and critical theory (P/CT) frameworks. Methods: Large language models (LLMs) were used to analyze 19,134 conference abstracts presented at the Society for Social Work and Research (2012–2025) for P/CT alignment and methodology. Multimodel evaluation demonstrated excellent reliability across six frontier LLMs (kappa = .73). Results: Tem…
Artificial Intelligence and Cultural Context
Objective: This study examines how well leading Chinese and Western large language models (LLMs) understand and apply Chinese social work principles, testing whether cultural context influences model reasoning and accuracy in non-Western professional settings. Method: Using the Chinese National Social Work Examination covering jurisprudence and applied knowledge, we administered three testing conditions to eight cloud-based LLMs—four Chinese and …
Demystifying Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
A Primer on Word Embeddings
Introducing Generative Artificial Intelligence Into the MSW Curriculum
The most recent Council on Social Work Education’s Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) demands that social workers develop competence in the ethical and professional deployment of technology. Arguably, artificial intelligence has become a critical element in the technological landscape, most recently with the advent of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). Beginning in late 2022, there has been an explosion of interest in …
Using Artificial Intelligence to Support Scientometric Analysis of Scholarly Literature
The rapid growth of scholarly literature poses significant challenges in effectively organizing, managing, and synthesizing research. This issue is particularly pronounced when the relevant literature is dispersed across numerous journals and languages. In this methodological article, we demonstrate how artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can support research designs that aim to comprehensively understand a specific area of study through sc…
Co-authorship Networks in Left-Behind Children Research in China
Purpose This study investigates collaboration dynamics within Chinese left-behind children (LBC) research through co-authorship network analysis. Method Using Web of Science data from 2017 to 2023, the study maps a research network involving 886 authors and 1,944 links. Results The analysis reveals sparse collaboration and fragmented structure, predominantly featuring single-paper contributors. Notable institutions such as Zhejiang Normal Univers…
Moving Beyond ChatGPT
Purpose: Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable abilities in natural language tasks. However, their use in social work research is limited by confidentiality and security concerns when processing sensitive data. This study addresses these challenges by evaluating the performance of local LLMs (LocalLLMs) in classifying and extracting substance-related problems from unstructured child welfare investigation summaries. LocalLLMs a…
Recommendations for Social Work Researchers and Journal Editors on the Use of Generative AI and Large Language Models
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) are poised to significantly impact social work research. These technologies can produce high-quality written materials and support qualitative and quantitative data analysis with simple, plain-language prompts from users. However, they also introduce challenges, such as potential bias, data privacy concerns, and generation of misinformation. In this paper, we use a disruptiv…
Time to Move Beyond the ASWB Licensing Exams
Social work scholars have long questioned the validity and utility of the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) licensing exams. Data released in 2022 revealed severe disparities in pass rates based on race, age, and language, exacerbating these concerns. In this paper, we explore the potential of generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT to address core problems of the ASWB exams, including the use of a multiple-choice format th…
Construct-Irrelevant Variance on the ASWB Clinical Social Work Licensing Exam
Purpose: This study sought to replicate a previous investigation of construct-irrelevant variance on the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) clinical licensing exam completed by Albright and Thyer over a decade ago. Method: The performance of ChatGPT was assessed on a modified version of 50 newly developed clinical exam questions currently distributed by the ASWB, where only the four multiple-choice options for each item were presented witho…
Teaching Note—Data Science in the MSW Curriculum
Recent and rapid technological advances have given rise to an explosive growth of data, along with low-cost solutions for accessing, collecting, managing, and analyzing data. Despite the advances in technology and the availability of data, social work organizations routinely encounter data-related problems that have an impact on their opportunities for making data-driven decisions. Although training in research methods and statistics is important…
Persistent racial disproportionality in investigated and substantiated child maltreatment reports
Early studies revealed COVID-19ʹs outbreak led to a drastic decline in child maltreatment reports and investigations within child welfare services. However, limited research has documented whether these declines continued throughout the pandemic. Furthermore, our knowledge is limited around whether COVID-19 influenced existing racial disproportionalities given the shock to the child welfare system. This study addresses those gaps by drawing from …
Faculty stressors and their relations to teacher efficacy, engagement and teaching satisfaction
This study investigated faculty-perceived stressors and their relationships with teacher efficacy, engagement and teaching satisfaction in mainland China. The results of a survey of 2758 faculty members from 25 public institutions showed a generally high level of stress, and the stress varied among different types of institution and demographic groups. In a series of bivariate analyses and structural equation models, we found no compelling eviden…
Development of research on social work practice in mainland China
Research on social work practice is essential for developing an indigenized base of knowledge. In China, while social work education has grown rapidly, much of what is taught – and many social work priorities in research and practice – is influenced by rapidly changing national government policies. This policy environment creates both opportunities and challenges to building an infrastructure to support research on social work practice. This arti…
Why are Chinese university teachers (not) confident in their competence to teach? The relationships between faculty-perceived stress and self-efficacy
Changes in Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (Cans) scores over time
Mental health service interventions for left-behind children in mainland China
A Scoping Review of Interventions to Promote Health and Well-Being of Left-behind Children in Mainland China
Approximately 65 million children in mainland China are left behind in rural areas while their parents work in the cities. Research has highlighted their health needs. However, current research on interventions for this population is unknown. The purpose of this study was to systematically review existing health service interventions for left-behind children in China. The study team identified interventions for left-behind children by conducting …
Automated Identification of Domestic Violence in Written Child Welfare Records
Objective: Child welfare agencies often lack information about the front-end service needs of the families they serve. Thus, the current study tests the feasibility of text mining and machine learning procedures for identifying problems related to domestic violence documented in child welfare investigation summaries. Method: We labeled child welfare investigation summaries (N = 1,402) for the presence or absence of an active domestic violence ser…
Patterns and social determinants of substance use among Arizona Youth
Environmental social work in the disciplinary literature, 1991–2015
This study provides a scientometric summary of peer-reviewed articles ( N = 497) pertaining to environmental topics in social work journals between 1991 and 2015. We find that theoretical and empirical scholarship on environmental social work is growing, though this growth remains limited to specific geographical regions and topics. We note the need to clarify the relationship between environmental social work as a theoretical paradigm and as a r…
The Severe 5
Religiosity Profiles of American Youth in Relation to Substance Use, Violence, and Delinquency
Toward a criminal justice epidemiology
Characteristics of abstainers from substance use and antisocial behavior in the United States
Differences Between African Americans and Non-Hispanic Whites Utilization of Clergy for Counseling with Serious Personal Problems
Longitudinal trends in substance use and mental health service needs in child welfare
Laying the Foundations for Scientometric Research
Objective: Scientometric studies of social work have stagnated due to problems with the organization and structure of the disciplinary literature. This study utilized data science to produce a set of research tools to overcome these methodological challenges. Method: We constructed a comprehensive list of social work journals for a 25-year time period and searched for all available article records using 35 different databases. Customized software…
Development of research on social work practice in mainland China
Research on social work practice is essential for developing an indigenized base of knowledge. In China, while social work education has grown rapidly, much of what is taught – and many social work priorities in research and practice – is influenced by rapidly changing national government policies. This policy environment creates both opportunities and challenges to building an infrastructure to support research on social work practice. This arti…
Patterns and social determinants of substance use among Arizona Youth
Modeling the mental health effects of victimization among homeless persons
Demystifying Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
Moving Beyond ChatGPT
Purpose: Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable abilities in natural language tasks. However, their use in social work research is limited by confidentiality and security concerns when processing sensitive data. This study addresses these challenges by evaluating the performance of local LLMs (LocalLLMs) in classifying and extracting substance-related problems from unstructured child welfare investigation summaries. LocalLLMs a…
Recommendations for Social Work Researchers and Journal Editors on the Use of Generative AI and Large Language Models
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) are poised to significantly impact social work research. These technologies can produce high-quality written materials and support qualitative and quantitative data analysis with simple, plain-language prompts from users. However, they also introduce challenges, such as potential bias, data privacy concerns, and generation of misinformation. In this paper, we use a disruptiv…
Time to Move Beyond the ASWB Licensing Exams
Social work scholars have long questioned the validity and utility of the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) licensing exams. Data released in 2022 revealed severe disparities in pass rates based on race, age, and language, exacerbating these concerns. In this paper, we explore the potential of generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT to address core problems of the ASWB exams, including the use of a multiple-choice format th…
Disparities at Adjudication in the Juvenile Justice System
Black and male youths are overrepresented at every stage of juvenile justice processing. The current study investigated racial, gender, and age disparities in the probability of a formal adjudication using administrative data (N = 12,070) from a large, urban county in the Midwest. The authors extend previous work by considering the joint effect of race, gender, and age on formal adjudications in the juvenile justice system. The findings indicate …
Recovery coaches and the stability of reunification for substance abusing families in child welfare
Strong-Arm Bullying Prior to Incarceration Among a Sample of Young Offenders
Most studies of bullying behavior have been conducted with general populations during childhood and early adolescence. Although incarcerated youth are at increased risk for bullying others, incarcerated youth in the United States have rarely been studied regarding their bullying behavior prior to incarceration. Understanding the psychological and antisocial correlates of strong-arm bullying prior to incarceration may highlight risk factors that, …
Information and Communication Technologies in Social Work
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are electronic tools used to convey, manipulate and store information. The exponential growth of Internet access and ICTs greatly influenced social, political, and economic processes in the United States, and worldwide. Regardless of the level of practice, ICTs will continue influencing the careers of social workers and the clients they serve. ICTs have received some attention in the social work l…
Using Artificial Intelligence to Support Scientometric Analysis of Scholarly Literature
The rapid growth of scholarly literature poses significant challenges in effectively organizing, managing, and synthesizing research. This issue is particularly pronounced when the relevant literature is dispersed across numerous journals and languages. In this methodological article, we demonstrate how artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can support research designs that aim to comprehensively understand a specific area of study through sc…
Persistent racial disproportionality in investigated and substantiated child maltreatment reports
Early studies revealed COVID-19ʹs outbreak led to a drastic decline in child maltreatment reports and investigations within child welfare services. However, limited research has documented whether these declines continued throughout the pandemic. Furthermore, our knowledge is limited around whether COVID-19 influenced existing racial disproportionalities given the shock to the child welfare system. This study addresses those gaps by drawing from …
Automated Identification of Domestic Violence in Written Child Welfare Records
Objective: Child welfare agencies often lack information about the front-end service needs of the families they serve. Thus, the current study tests the feasibility of text mining and machine learning procedures for identifying problems related to domestic violence documented in child welfare investigation summaries. Method: We labeled child welfare investigation summaries (N = 1,402) for the presence or absence of an active domestic violence ser…
Foster home licensing and risk of reentry to out-of-home care following family reunification
Child Welfare and the Transition to Adulthood
Policymaking Opportunities for Direct Practice Social Workers in Mental Health and Addiction Services
Direct practice social workers have potentially significant policymaking opportunities as mediators of top-down policy and as creators of policy where none exists. The power they possess stems from their 'on the ground' expertise and the discretion available to them in making practice decisions. By understanding their power as 'street-level bureaucrats' they can significantly improve policy. Drawing on policy issues in mental health and addiction…
A Critical Examination of the Environmental Mastery Scale
Victimization Among African-American Adolescents in Substance Abuse Treatment
Victimization is regarded as a significant public health issue, especially among adolescents in urban areas. Although victimization is linked to substance use, the research on victimization among adolescents in treatment is underdeveloped. Given the high rate of victimization among African-American adolescents, further research on the prevalence and correlates of victimization for this population is needed. This knowledge can guide the developmen…
Making Time for Dissertation Grants
Grant writing is a necessary skill for becoming an independent and successful social work researcher. Since social work dissertation grants are a relatively new trend, students face many challenges in identifying, preparing, and submitting dissertation grants. Lack of resources and experiences, difficulties in protecting time for grant writing, and the uncertainty of success can hinder work on dissertation grants. Thus, this article provides an o…
Modeling the mental health effects of victimization among homeless persons
Co-occurring Conditions and Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients With Bipolar Disorder
Objective: To assess changes in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and to determine whether co-occurring substance use and medical comorbidities were associated with worse HRQOL over a 1-year period in a naturalistic sample of patients with bipolar disorder. Method: Patients enrolled in the Continuous Improvement for Veterans in Care: Mood Disorders (CIVIC-MD), a large prospective study from July 2004 to July 2006, completed baseline and foll…
Ethnic Differences in Delays to Treatment for Substance Use Disorders
Prior research has shown that minority groups experience greater levels of disability associated with psychiatric and substance use conditions due to barriers to treatment. Treatment delays are an important part of the overall problem of service utilization and access to treatment, yet little work has been done to understand the factors associated with treatment delays among ethnic minorities. This study compares African Americans, Caribbean Blac…
Nitrous Oxide Inhalation Among Adolescents
Few studies have examined the prevalence of nitrous oxide (NO) inhalation or co-occurrence of NO and volatile solvent (VS) use in adolescents. Study aims were to (1) describe the independent and conjoint prevalence of NO and VS use in incarcerated youth, (2) compare adolescent users of both NO and VS inhalants (NO+VS) to users of NO-only, VS-only, and nonusers of NO and VS (NO/VNS nonusers) with regard to demographic, psychological, and behaviora…
Laws and policies to support the wellbeing of children
The international community has raised concerns regarding the extent to which countries have implemented laws and policies to support the rights and wellbeing of children. This study evaluates the progress of least-developed countries (LDCs) and middle-income countries (MICs) in developing such legislation. Surveys were sent to 131 UNICEF country offices. Items included efforts to promote family preservation and family ties, family-based care ove…
Inpatient Hospitalization in Addiction Treatment for Patients with a History of Suicide Attempt
This study attempts to validate substance use disorder (SUD) treatment performance measures (PM) in a naturalistic treatment setting. Despite its significance in healthcare systems and in SUD populations, suicidality is one patient characteristic that remains unexplored in the context of SUD PMs. The current study focused on the extent to which the care processes encouraged by SUD PMs were associated with improved outcomes in patients with a prio…
Strong-Arm Bullying Prior to Incarceration Among a Sample of Young Offenders
Most studies of bullying behavior have been conducted with general populations during childhood and early adolescence. Although incarcerated youth are at increased risk for bullying others, incarcerated youth in the United States have rarely been studied regarding their bullying behavior prior to incarceration. Understanding the psychological and antisocial correlates of strong-arm bullying prior to incarceration may highlight risk factors that, …
Information and Communication Technologies in Social Work
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are electronic tools used to convey, manipulate and store information. The exponential growth of Internet access and ICTs greatly influenced social, political, and economic processes in the United States, and worldwide. Regardless of the level of practice, ICTs will continue influencing the careers of social workers and the clients they serve. ICTs have received some attention in the social work l…
Conceptual Tools for Research on Race and Social Problems
Although interpersonal, group processes and inter-group relationships are dynamic phenomena, researchers have studied these phenomena in a static manner. This article provides an overview of system dynamic modeling to bring greater attention to the importance of dynamic theoretical formulations and presents important concepts and tools that can facilitate movement in this direction. Important concepts for theory development are delineated, and va…
A Review of a Presentation Technology
A Review of a Web-Conferencing Technology
Predictors of Membership in Alcoholics Anonymous in a Sample of Successfully Remitted Alcoholics
This study identifies factors associated with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) membership in a sample of 81 persons who have achieved at least one year of total abstinence from alcohol and other drugs. Forty-four were AA members, 37 were not. Logistic regression was used to test the cross-sectional associations of baseline demographic, substance-related, spiritual and religious, and personality variables with AA membership. Significant variables from th…
Service Use and Treatment Barriers Among Inhalant Users
Inhalant use is a serious global problem with consequences equal to or surpassing those of other drugs. Regrettably, few prior studies have examined inhalant users' patterns of service and treatment utilization. The purpose of this study is to identify factors associated with service use and barriers to treatment among a nationally representative sample of inhalant users. Data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditio…
From SSWR to Peer-Reviewed Publication
The purpose of this study was to estimate how many presentations at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) are subsequently published in peer-reviewed journals. A 30% random sample of abstracts presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of SSWR was reviewed. To determine publication status of the presentations, the authors conducted searches using Google Scholar, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Social Work Abstracts, in addition to…
Characteristics of abstainers from substance use and antisocial behavior in the United States
The Severe 5
Reducing Social Loafing in Group-Based Projects
Almost 100 years ago Ringlemann (see Kravitz and Martin 1986) put forth the concept of the “free-rider” or social loafing. He found that in a rope-pulling experiment, individuals pulled less hard w
Introduction to the Special Issue
Religiosity Profiles of American Youth in Relation to Substance Use, Violence, and Delinquency
Toward a criminal justice epidemiology
Prevalence and correlates of truancy in the US
Truancy has been a persistent problem in the United States for more than 100 years. Although truancy is commonly reported as a risk factor for substance use, delinquency, dropout, and a host of other negative outcomes for youth, there has been surprisingly little empirical investigation into understanding the causes and correlates of truancy using large, nationally representative samples. Using the adolescent sample ( N = 17,482) of the 2009 Nati…
Travel distance to outpatient substance use disorder treatment facilities for Spanish-speaking clients
Psychology (44 works) · Medicine (36 works) · Political science (34 works) · Psychiatry (23 works) · Computer Science (22 works) · Sociology (22 works) · Clinical Psychology (15 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (14 works) · Clinical Psychology (13 works) · Social Psychology (13 works)