American Social Work Student Attitudes Towards Foster Youth Empowerment

Abstract

This study was conducted to provide child welfare researchers and social work educators with a better understanding of social work student attitudes towards foster youth empowerment, a practice whereby the adolescent and workers in the foster care system share power with one another. In order to identify correlates of support for foster youth empowerment, American students across all levels of the undergraduate and graduate programmes within one school of social work were surveyed. Results indicated that support for foster youth empowerment was stronger among students who received specialised training in child abuse and neglect. In conclusion, support for foster youth empowerment may be more strongly cultivated by population‐specific material as opposed to the general social work curriculum. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.‘American students across all levels of the undergraduate and graduate programmes within one school of social work were surveyed’Key Practitioner MessagesA multiple regression model was constructed with the goal of identifying the variables that relate to social work student support for foster youth empowerment.In the multiple regression model, two variables, political party and training/education in child abuse and neglect, were significantly related to the dependent variable.Based on this study, the general social work curriculum does not appear to have as much impact on attitudes towards foster youth empowerment as population‐specific material.‘Two variables were significantly related to the dependent variable’