Clinical applications of the caspars instruments: Boys who act out sexually

This article, part two of a two-part series, demonstrates the uses of the Clinical Assessment Package for Risks and Strengths (CASPARS), newly-developed clinical rating scales that incorporate research on resilience and social work's strengths perspectives. The CASPARS are composed of five instruments: Family Relationships, Emotional Expressiveness, Peer Relationships, Sexuality, and Family Embeddedness in Community. Part one reported on the instruments' conceputal base and their reliabilities and validities. In the present article, we show through case studies how these instruments can be useful for assessment intervention planning, predicting outcome of interventions, and the evaluation of the effects of treatment. The structure of the instruments and the theory behind them have implications beyond the assessment of children and their families. The instruments provide a model for the development of other strengths-based instruments that could be customized to a variety of social work practice settings and populations.