Rural populations should be considered a vulnerable group within social work's social justice framework. However, the degree to which social work research and scholarship engage with questions of significance to underserved rural populations remains unknown. This study sought to determine how many articles in highly ranked social work journals give prominent attention to rural populations and issues. A search of the highly ranked social work journals selected from the Journal Citation Reports for the Social Sciences found only 71 articles that explicitly focus on rural populations among a total of 3,004 peer-reviewed articles in 14 top social work journals during the years 2004 through 2008. Possible reasons for the paucity of rural-focused articles within social work journals are posited. We discuss the relative contributions of these journals to development of a comprehensive and useful knowledge base within social work for addressing the needs of rural issues. Future recommendations are made for expanding attention to scholarship in this area.

Interest in relationship education for high school students has grown since the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 provided funding for Healthy Marriage Initiative programs. This study used a pretest and posttest design and measures of relationship knowledge and attitudes to evaluate a relationship curriculum taught in required health education classes to a sample of 139 students. Comparison of students' pretest and posttest scores showed slight gains in knowledge about relationships. Analysis based on characteristics associated with risk and protective factors for relationship outcomes (gender, academic performance and parental divorce history) found significant differences. Implications for expanding high school relationship education and recommendations for social work involvement in these programs are discussed.

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