Social Group Work: International and Global Perspectives

Abstract

This article reviews the literature on international social group work and makes some observations about the current state of the field. The authors used a multipronged search strategy to examine the literature on international social group work. These search strategies yielded approximately 1,000 abstracts and citations that were then reviewed closely for content related to social group work. The search revealed four broad categories of articles, book chapters, and conference presentations: (1) descriptive studies of social group work done in countries outside the United States; (2) surveys of practitioners, educators, or databases about social group work practices; (3) descriptions of the development of social group work models in non-U.S. countries; (4) cross-cultural comparisons of social work group model implementation in two or more specific countries; and (5) the implementation and delivery of group work training and educational models in an international/global context.