Graduating BSW student attitudes towards vulnerable populations and their preferences towards interventions to serve them

Abstract

A one-time cross-sectional survey was administered to 78 fourth-year social work students at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus during the2000 /2001 academic year to explore graduating seniors’ attitudes towards poverty, delinquency and the elderly as well as students’ preferred interventions towards these vulnerable populations in the United States. Additional survey items included student perceptions towards individually-oriented versus socially-oriented goals of the social work profession, preferences regarding place of employment, and types of services, interventions and practices preferred. After calculating mean scores, ANOVA tests revealed statistically significant findings in student ideologies and practice preferences. The potential impact of these findings on social work education and practice will be discussed.