Has Social Work Met Its Commitment to Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders? A Review of the Periodical Literature

Abstract

Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders (NHOPIs) were recognized in the 2000 U.S. census as a distinct racial minority group, with unique histories, values, and traditions. The profession of social work, with its historical commitment to social and cultural diversity, has begun to establish a knowledge base on this population in the periodical literature. In a review of literature published from 1995 to 2004, 32 articles were found in 23 journals. This represents 0.64 percent of the more than 5,000 articles published in these journals. Much of this literature, however, combined information on this population with that of Asian Americans, thereby masking the distinctiveness of Pacific Islanders. These results suggest that although social work has demonstrated a commitment to NHOPIs by beginning to establish a knowledge base, refinement and expansion of knowledge is still needed. The authors recommend three steps to refine this knowledge base: (1) increase the number of publications, (2) disaggregate data so that Asian Americans will be considered separately from NHOPIs, and (3) ensure that information on this population be anchored in cultural values and culturally based models of practice.