The importance of the social work degree in working with families and children: implications for China's growing social work profession

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore how social work education for child welfare professionals in the United States can be used to inform the Chinese social work curriculum. The recent proliferation of social work education programs in China may be encouraging news to child welfare scholars, but the infrastructure needed to develop a professionalized child welfare work force in China remains lacking. In the United States, social work education for child welfare professionals is supported by Title IV-E funding, which is consistent with the prevailing philosophy that workers with social work education achieve better outcomes for maltreated children than do those without social work degrees. The authors of this article conducted a recent evaluation of public child welfare workers' performance in the state of Texas, which substantiates this belief. Results from this study are presented along with a discussion of how Chinese social work scholars might apply the conclusions to improve child welfare in China.