African American Social Workers Research Articles

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Their Relationships with Perceived Stress and Self-Care Behaviors in African American Social Work Students: Insights from a Latent Class Analysis.

Based on stress sensitization theory and stress proliferation theory, this study was designed to identify adverse childhood experience (ACE) classes and their relationships with perceived stress and self-care behaviors. Hypotheses were that (a) there would be diverse ACE classes among African American social work students; (b) the identified classes embedded in high/multiple ACEs would have greater levels of perceived stress than those in low ACEs; and (c) the identified classes embedded in high/multiple ACEs would have lower levels of self-care behaviors than those in low ACEs. Recruited from one of the South's historically Black colleges and universities, 186 African American social work students completed an online survey. Latent class analysis found three classes fit the data best: low ACEs, high divorce/abuse/neglect, and high/multiple ACEs. Students in the high divorce/abuse/neglect class had the greatest levels of perceived stress and significantly greater perceived stress levels than the low ACEs class. The low ACEs class had greater self-care behaviors than students in the other two ACEs classes. The study revealed diverse ACE classes and the effect of more ACEs on greater perceived stress and lower self-care behaviors, supporting the importance of using a range of approaches to support African American social work students with different ACEs.

Perspectives of African American Social Workers Regarding Clinical Licensure

ABSTRACT Purpose This study was undertaken to illuminate the perspectives of African American MSWs, both licensed and unlicensed, concerning clinical licensure. Method In 2022, but prior to the time of the Association for Social Work Boards (ASWB) report release, the primary author interviewed 20 African Americans with Master of Social Work (MSW) degrees regarding their desire and attempts to attain licensure. The participants were selected utilizing non-probability, convenience sampling methods and self-selected in response to invitations extended via social media platforms. The interviews took place via Zoom and were recorded and analyzed utilizing qualitative methods. Results The findings suggested that many interviewees do view the test as biased in favor of White women and that they attribute lower test pass rates of African Americans in part to this bias. However, additional concerns, including the costs and difficulty of multiple test-taking efforts, the time limit between MSW and licensure, and the dearth of information available to MSWs about licensing credentials, among others, were also cited. Respondents also identified, in some cases, limitations in social support, particularly in work settings, for their professional development efforts. Significantly, many participants identified problems with supervision – securing supervision, the focus/content of supervision, or both. Discussion and Conclusions Recommendations for steps to increase access to the test and to information about the test are offered. Importantly, discussion regarding avenues to supervision and mentorship is initiated. This study offers a first step in the process of engaging with African Americans about their own experiences with the licensing process.

African American PhD Social Work Students’ Perspectives and Experiences on Qualitative Research Methods

African American PhD students are severely underrepresented in the attainment of PhDs compared with their White counterparts and, therefore, underrepresented as PhD professors. Key factors contributing to the lack of African American students seeking doctoral education include financial hardship, racial discrimination, and a lack of mentorship. The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate the experiences and meaning of African American social work students enrolled in a PhD qualitative research methods course at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). Results from this study will shed light on Black scholars’ experiences in obtaining a doctoral education, identify challenges and barriers in completing a doctoral program, and contribute to ideas on how to increase the number of Black scholars in HBCU PhD.

Political Advocacy Without a Choice

From social work’s early days, African American social workers were engaged in what today is termed as political social work, yet their work is often overlooked in both social work education and the broader retelling of our profession’s history. This article examines the early history of African American political social work, using Lane and Pritzker’s (2018) five domains of political social work. We outline ways in which African American social workers’ lived experiences led them to engage in political social work to support community survival and to challenge injustice during the Black Migration period post-slavery, the Jim Crow Era, and the Civil Rights Movement. Even as broader structural dynamics sought to exclude African Americans from the political arena, dynamic and influential African American social workers laid the groundwork for modern political social work. They politically engaged their communities, lobbied for legislation, worked in the highest levels of government, supported campaigns, and ran and held elective office to ensure that civil rights were given and maintained. This manuscript calls for a shift from social work’s white-dominant historical narrative and curricula (Bell, 2014; DeLoach McCutcheon, 2019) to assertive discussion of the historic roles African American political social work pioneers played in furthering political empowerment and challenging social injustice.

COVID-19 and Structural Racial Inequity: Lessons Learned for Social Work Education

ABSTRACT This article examines how structural racism amplified the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 for African American, Asian/Asian American, and Latino/a/x and Hispanic social work students during the unplanned transition to synchronous and asynchronous education at three social work programs across the United States, creating additional educational barriers. The aim of the article is three-fold. First, centering Critical Race Theory, it discusses the experience of African Americans, Asian/Asian American, and Latino/a/x and Hispanic students at three different institutions across the country. Second, it highlights the structural challenges faced by social work students of historically, racially and ethnically oppressed communities and the lessons learned from the social work programs’ pandemic response. Third, social work faculty lessons learned suggest to better meet the needs of historically, racially and ethnically oppressed social work students; and, the integration of Critical Race Theory to diminish the effects of structural racism in social work programs’ future educational plans in response to COVID-19, or a similar health crisis.

There and Back Again: A Commentary on Social Welfare Policy in the Wake of 2020

There and Back Again: A Commentary on Social Welfare Policy in the Wake of 2020

Racial Uplift, Interracialism, and the Employment of African American Social Workers in North Carolina, 1925–1951

Racial Uplift, Interracialism, and the Employment of African American Social Workers in North Carolina, 1925–1951

Perceived Barriers to Interning Abroad: Perceptions from African American Social Work Students

This qualitative study was conducted at a small historically Black college and university (HBCU) in the southern region of the United States. It explored the perceived barriers to interning abroad for social work students. Twenty (n = 20) full-time students were recruited and data was collected using individual in-depth interviews. Findings from this study shed light on information that might lead to a deeper understanding of some barriers to interning abroad at an HBCU.

African American Social Work Faculty

Purpose: This study explored the scholarship experiences of top-ranked African American faculty in schools of social work. Method: Qualitative interviews were conducted with N = 10 top-ranked African American faculty identified as achieving considerable productivity and impact of scholarship. Findings: Four major themes were identified, each of which had 2–3 subcategories. These included (1) mentorship, (2) collaboration, (3) time, and (4) strategic planning. The data revealed that of these identified themes, mentorship was the most prominent, and collaboration, although important, was the least. Implications: The noted experiences and strategies highlighted in this study could be of great utility for those seeking to enhance their scholarly productivity and impact, particularly for (a) junior faculty, (b) African American faculty, and (c) doctoral student researchers and candidates.

Barriers to employment of African American professionals in hospice: a qualitative study with African American social work students.

A major barrier to African American hospice utilization is the lack of African American hospice professionals. This qualitative study with 10 female African American social work students in a Midwestern university explored whether the participants were interested in hospice employment. Results provided information about reasons for the overall lack of diversity in hospice, reasons for the lack of African American staff in hospice, reasons for the lack of African American patients in hospice, and avenues toward knowledge about hospice by African American professionals. Barriers to African American employment included a lack of hospice content in social work education, differences between African American cultural and religious beliefs and hospice philosophy, and that the lack of African American hospice patients resulted in a lack of desire for employment in hospice. Strategies for recruiting and retaining African American hospice social workers are proposed.

Equity and fairness perceptions in the child welfare workforce

The role ethnic identification plays in worker perceptions of workplace dynamics in child welfare services (CWS) organizations has not often been a topic of inquiry. The current study follows the unexpected finding from a previous study in which African American (AA) social workers were significantly less likely to report that they would remain in their CWS agencies than European American (EA) workers. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, the authors explored whether inequity from bias in CWS agencies related to ethnicity was a contributor to intentions to stay/leave. The results revealed no significant relationships between ethnicity and job satisfaction or intentions to stay in CWS agencies among EA, AA, or Hispanic/Latino (HL) workers. However, striking findings emerged related to worker perceptions of court duties concerning inequitable workloads and pay.

Embodying Social Work as a Profession

The purpose of this research is to highlight competing and contrasting definitions of social work that have been the subject of continuous ideological debate. These opposing interpretations have characterized public and professional discourse. It is the growth of, and struggle over, these conflicting versions of social work that we trace by exploring and expanding on the work of African American and White social work pioneers, feminist and empowerment epistemologies, and implications for social work practice and pedagogy. Our discussion emphasizes the construction of meaning through personal experiences by reuniting the head, hands, heart, and soul of our profession. We offer a reconstructed framework that echoes the groundbreaking work of our historical pioneers and collectively weaves their wisdom into contemporary social work practice.

Attitudes towards Working with Older Adults: Differences between African American and White Social Work Students

Attitudes towards Working with Older Adults: Differences between African American and White Social Work Students

“A Breast Ain't Nothing but a Sandwich”: Narratives of Ella, an African American Social Worker Breast Cancer Survivor

Breast cancer mortality rates continue to increase among African American women making it imperative to develop culturally tailored programs to help reduce these rates. In this study, narratives of Ella an African American breast cancer survivor who is also a social worker were constructed. Prevalent themes were self-identity, perceptions of women living with cancer, and the socialization of African Americans in cancer prevention. Her perspective as a survivor and social worker offers insight on how the intersection of race and gender impacts breast cancer survival and has implications for future research in cancer awareness among African Americans.

African American Female Faculty in Predominantly White Graduate Schools of Social Work

This study of African American female faculty in predominantly White schools of social work was designed to examine the unique experience of these faculties. The examination also aimed to develop a better understanding of the challenges and the experiences of these faculty members. This exploratory study sampled African American female social work faculty from predominantly White schools of social work in the United States. The authors were specifically interested in identifying psychosocial factors that undergird the nature of the experiences of these women. The special challenges of these women are discussed from the framework of Kanter's theory of proportional representation and the tenets of relational/cultural theory.

Building an Institution Second to None: Dr. Inabel Burns Lindsay—A Social Work Leader in the Academy

ABSTRACT This article describes Dr. Inabel Burns Lindsay's leadership as the founding dean at Howard University School of Social Work during her 30 years of service from 1937 to 1967. It chronicles her efforts to build the School as well as her efforts to highlight social injustices of the time. Her lifelong efforts promoted the inclusion of African American social workers in the workforce and the need to understand sociocultural factors in working with different ethnic and racial groups. As a female dean, Dr. Lindsay was an avid promoter of social justice and a prolific writer and speaker on the topic. This article introduces the reader to this under-recognized social work pioneer, with emphases on the challenges of her time and her leadership style.

Forrester Blanchard Washington and His Advocacy for African Americans in the New Deal

Forrester Blanchard Washington (1887-1963) was an African American social work pioneer recruited to the first New Deal administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as director of Negro Work in the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. This role gave Washington a platform from which to object strenuously to the development of social policies that were predisposing African Americans to chronic dependence on welfare programs instead of creating equal opportunities for employment. Washington's policy analysis and recommendations represent social work's advocacy for equal employment opportunity long before the related civil rights legislation in the 1960s. An analysis is offered to explain Washington's decision to abort his federal career when the political agenda of the Roosevelt administration began to conflict with his values and professional goals. His actions are exemplary of resignation in protest--an aspect of advocacy more often discussed than used. This article is based on Washington's writings and materials found in the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland.

Oral Histories of Contemporary African American Social Work Pioneers

Contemporary African American social work pioneers are important sources of information; yet, knowledge about these scholars is not readily available and their perspectives have not been uncovered. This manuscript reports on four life story interviews conducted with such pioneers in an effort to profile them and share their collective recommendations to strengthen social work education. The result was five themes identified to enhance social work education, and documentation as to how to conduct life story interviews with other living social work pioneers.

African-American social workers and social policy

African-American social workers and social policy

The Relationship Between Optimism About Race Relations, Black Awareness, and Attitudes Toward Transracial Adoption

Social workers in the United States were queried on their attitudes toward transracial adoption (TRA), defined here as African American children being adopted by White parents. An analysis of 363 questionnaires found that optimism about the future of race relations was the most powerful predictor of TRA attitudes. For both African American and White social workers, more optimism about race relations was associated with positive attitudes toward transracial adoption. Among White respondents, optimism about race relations was also related to lower levels of conservatism and higher levels of altruism; among African American respondents, racial optimism was associated with less emphasis on Black awareness. For African American social workers, a stronger commitment to promulgating Black awareness was also associated with less support for TRA. Implications of the findings for social work practice were discussed.