Research Training, Institutional Support, and Self-Efficacy: Their Impact on Research Activity of Social Workers

Mark Thomas Lynch,Wynne S Korr,Lening Zhang

doi:10.18060/219

Abstract

While the expectations for social work practitioners to do research have increased, their involvement is still limited. We know little about what factors influence involvement in research. The present study proposes a theoretical model that hypothesizes research training and institutional support for research as the exogenous variables, research self-efficacy as an intervening variable, and research activity as the endogenous variable. The study tests the model using data collected from a random sample of social workers. To a large degree the data support the model. Research self-efficacy has a significant effect on research activity. It is also an important mediating variable for the effect of institutional support on research activity. Although institutional support for research has no direct effect, it has an indirect effect via self-efficacy on research activity. However, research training has no effect on research activity and self-efficacy in research. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Highlights

For some time, authors have expressed concern about the level of research activity among social workers (Cheetham, 1997; Rosen, 2003; Rosen, Proctor & Staudt, 1999; Shaw and Lishman, 1999; Thyer, 1991)
The results show that institutional support has a significant effect on research self-efficacy (Beta = .27 for institutional support)
The results indicate that institutional support is no longer a significant predictor of research activity when the self-efficacy is controlled

Summary

Introduction

Authors have expressed concern about the level of research activity among social workers (Cheetham, 1997; Rosen, 2003; Rosen, Proctor & Staudt, 1999; Shaw and Lishman, 1999; Thyer, 1991). We need to accumulate evidence about the effectiveness of social work interventions (Evidence-based interventions) and to be able to demonstrate the profession’s contributions to solving the problems of individuals as well as larger social systems. With this increased emphasis on accountability and on measuring if treatment is effective, social work research is considered more important than ever (Cheetham, 1997). It is difficult to show that the social worker is acting in the best interest of the consumer unless the social worker has evidence of the effectiveness of treatment, based on the social worker’s own research or the research of others (Kutchins, 1998)

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion