Social Work Majors Research Articles

Assessing Academic Advising: A Developmental Approach

This article describes one program's efforts at assessing academic advising as a part of the implicit curriculum. Following an initial survey undertaken by faculty members, student researchers were engaged to qualitatively study academic advising. Research, data, and statistics were evaluated to determine advising strengths and challenges for social work majors enrolled in a small public institution. Although most interviewees reported having good advising experiences, they suggested additional advisor contact, more handouts, expanded office hours, and monthly group meetings as possible improvements. University-sponsored training sessions for advisors were also recommended. Ways in which this assessment model can be replicated and recommendations for future efforts are offered.

Gender, Fear of Crime, and Attitudes Toward Prisoners Among Social Work Majors in a Hong Kong University

Fear of crime has been a dominant area of criminological inquiry, yet it is has been examined only recently in a Chinese context, and it is virtually unexplored in Hong Kong. Using a sample of 170 Hong Kong college students majoring in social work, the current study aimed to investigate the effects of gender on fear of crime and their relationships to attitudes toward prisoners. In general, women reported a significantly greater fear of crime than men for all offenses except for being cheated. Fear of rape/sexual assault was found to be a significant predictor of fear of serious crimes for women but a less significant predictor of their fear of minor crimes. The shadow of the sexual assault hypothesis was supported in this study. Fear of crime had little impact on attitudes toward prisoners.

An Examination of College Students' Perceptions of Transformative and Culturally Competent Educators: Are Social Work Students Unique?

The purpose of this study was to examine college students' perceptions of transformative and culturally competent educators. Using data collected from a cross-section of 194 undergraduate (associate and bachelor level students) and graduate students in social work and other majors from four colleges or universities in the Midwest region of the USA, the findings indicate that transformative and culturally competent educators are important to college students. Using the Students' Perceptions of Transformative Educators Scale (SPTES), the data revealed that the overall mean for the SPTES was high, with a score of 198.24. The range was 131–233. The standard deviation [SD] was 21.55. This mean suggests that students place a high level of importance on attributes of transformative educators. When examining the culturally competent subscale of the SPTES, the data also revealed that students want educators who personify culturally competent attributes. The data illustrated a mean for cultural competence of 63.27. The range was 36–70. The standard deviation was 7.89. This mean suggests that students also place a high level of importance on this attribute in educators. ANOVA results indicate that respondents do not significantly differ along the lines of age or race on the SPTES. Student rank (associate, bachelor and graduate), however, did reveal significant differences on the cultural competence [F(2, 174) = 3.280, p < 0.040] and socialization [F(2, 187) = 4.172, p < 0.017] subscales of the SPTES. Social work students also demonstrated statistically significant differences in their slightly higher scores related to the perceptions of the overall SPTES (mean = 202.17, SD: 22.88, p < 0.01); the cultural competence subscale (mean = 65.03, SD: 6.64, p < 0.00) of the SPTES; and the socialization subscale (mean = 26.21, SD: 3.06, p < 0.02) of the SPTES.

Life is Experienced Until We Die: Effects of Service-Learning on Gerontology Competencies and Attitudes Toward Aging

This mixed methods study examined the effects of service learning in an undergraduate gerontology course on student learning outcomes. Eleven of thirteen students chose to provide companionship and practical help to community-dwelling older adults and link course assignments to this experience. Participating students were mostly female and social work majors or minors, of various races and ethnicities, and of traditional and nontraditional ages. Self-ratings using the Geriatric Social Work Competency Scale showed significant skill improvements for students from pretest to posttest. Analysis of student journals indicated improvement in interaction skills, knowledge of aging processes, dismantling of stereotypes, awareness of issues affecting healthy aging, valuing older adults, and cultural competence. Career plans were positively affected for most students. Letters offering advice to their 70-year old selves appeared to impact students’ plans for self-care. Service-learning is recommended to increase students’ gerontology competencies and attitudes toward aging in others and themselves.

Baccalaureate Student Perceptions of Challenging Family Problems: Building Bridges to Acceptance

This study explored the attitudes of 147 undergraduate social work majors to working with difficult families. Students indicated which problems (from a list of 42, including hot topics such as homosexuality, transgender issues, abortion, and substance abuse) they believed they would find most difficult to work with and provided information regarding their own experience with these problems (personal or family, knowing of others with this situation, and no previous knowledge). Student reactions emerged in three qualitative domains: affective, cognitive, and experiential. Affective reactions tended to be strong and were reported in regard to issues such as abortion, religious differences, and abuse. Cognitive reactions tended to be categorized as “not knowing how” to work with the client or lack of training, while experiential reactions related to either personal experience or, the converse, no experience with the population. A better understanding of the nature of student barriers to working with particular family problems is useful for developing approaches that can reduce this reluctance through more inclusive educational experiences.

The Effects of Poverty Simulation, an Experiential Learning Modality, on Students' Understanding of Life in Poverty

This research examines the impact of the Poverty Simulation Project, an experiential learning modality, on students' understanding of life in poverty. A total of 101 students representing 5 undergraduate majors in the College of Health and Human Services completed measures of critical thinking, understanding of others, and the active learning scales. Results indicate that although students did not change their thinking about the causes of poverty, they changed their perceptions about the difficulties of the daily lives of the poor, increased their ability to analyze life situations, and stimulated their further thinking about poverty. Results demonstrate that social work majors did not differ from other majors in their gains from this experience. Implications for teaching about poverty and the poor, especially as it relates to experiential learning, are discussed.

Has Teacher Education Missed Out on the “Ethics Boom”? A Comparative Study of Ethics Requirements and Courses in Professional Majors of Christian Colleges and Universities

Scholars of higher education have noted an increased attention to ethics within professional disciplines such as business and journalism. This paper explores the hypothesis that the field of education has not followed that pattern. To test this hypothesis, we review our findings from a study of curricula for professional majors in 156 Christian colleges and universities associated with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and the Lilly Fellows Network. Overall, we found that a majority of business, nursing, and social work majors were either offered or required to take an ethics course in their respective fields. In addition, ethics courses were required for a significant number of communication, engineering, and computer science majors. Of all the professional majors surveyed, however, education majors were the least likely to have optional or required ethics courses.

Teaching Macro Practice

This paper presents a model for teaching an undergraduate social work macro practice course utilizing an experiential learning paradigm. The model provides a campus-based project with social work majors in simultaneous dual roles of students and grassroots leaders, focusing on rape and sexual assault prevention training for college students. This “case-to-cause” framework affords students the opportunity to integrate macro-level theory and practice skills, while conceptualizing the connections between a social problem, social policy, action research, and social action.

Developing Awareness of the Subtleties of Heterosexism and Homophobia among Undergraduate, Heterosexual Social Work Majors

Homophobia and heterosexism are inconsistent with social work values but have been reported in studies of social workers and social work students. This study analyzed and compared the responses to qualitative and quantitative items of 147 heterosexual undergraduate social work majors from twelve institutions throughout the United States. One open-ended item explored attitudes toward lesbians and gay men and support for relationship rights for this group. Herek's Attitudes toward Lesbians and Gay Men scale (ATLG) and a relationship rights scale, constructed for this study, provided quantitative data. Analysis of the open-ended item identified three thematic categories that represented acceptance; non-acceptance; and tolerance, but with conditions. The uniqueness of each of the three categories was supported by significant differences among them on Herek's ATLG and on the relationship rights scale. Numerous quotes from respondents underscore the subtle prejudice that can be missed by social work educators who are unaware of the nuances of language in this area. Implications for social work education are presented.

Perceptions of Social Work: Undergraduate Students Assess the Profession

This study explores social work student attitudes and continued misperceptions concerning the social work profession. Participants included students who were psychology, social work, and other majors. Students were administered questionnaires concerning their knowledge of key terms, degree requirements, disciplinary practices, and attitudes toward various social work-related employment settings. It was hypothesized that social work majors would have more knowledge and more positive attitudes toward the social work profession than other majors did. It was further hypothesized that student regard of social work-related agencies would vary across agencies being assessed. As might be expected, the findings show that students from other majors are less informed about social work and its professional functions. However, the data also indicate that social work students themselves continue to manifest misperceptions about their own discipline. The authors suggest that efforts to confront public misperceptions be augmented by proactive remediation efforts in social work curricula.

Retaining Social Work Majors: Targeting the “Influentials”

Targeting people who are influential in the lives of students is a marketing strategy that has potential to positively effect retention of students in social work. A first step to initiating this strategy is to identify the targets. This study addresses two key questions: Who supports students after their selection of social work as an undergraduate major and what level of support is provided? To answer these queries, the Majoring in Undergraduate Social Work: Level of Support Survey was developed and implemented. Results from the study indicate college advisors and mothers provide the most support whereas high school principals, counselors, and teachers provide the least support. Implications of these findings for marketing and retention strategies in BSW programs are presented.

CARIBBEAN STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARD OLDER ADULTS

Using an instrument constructed by Sanders, Montgomery, Pittman, and Balkwell (1984), this study found that the attitudes of a sample of 201 Caribbean university students toward older adults were in the neutral range. Analyses of the data revealed that students who had close relationships with older adults had more positive attitudes. In addition, social work majors had more positive attitudes when compared to sociology, psychology, and English majors. Those who had lived or worked with older adults did not have more positive attitudes. There were no differences in the attitudes of students of African, East Indian, or mixed ancestries. The finds of this study are discussed in relation to similar studies done in the United States.

Utilizing Adult Learning Principles to Teach Gerontological Social Work Practice

Gerontological practice classes in a social work curriculum ought to reproduce the standards of good practice in the classroom. Adult learning theory is ideally suited to act as a vehicle for learning these practice concepts. This article describes a gerontological practice course for undergraduate social work majors. The course's heavy use of adult learning theory resulted in a course which students found rewarding, both in the present and also with regards to their future employment in the aging field. After the semester-long experience, students felt that they would be more competent practitioners, focusing on clients' strengths, goals, and individual needs.

Assessing Students' Values in an Era of Change

Although ours is a “value-laden” profession, it is often difficult to know when students have acquired appropriate values. This study reports on an effort designed to measure beginning BSW students' perceived ethical conflicts, to examine their values relative to third and fourth year students and employed social workers, and to determine if beginning students' values change during an introduction to social work course. Even before but especially after the Republican party began promoting its Contract with America, some social work educators began noticing a troubling conservatism among their students (Meyer, 1995). It may not be unusual today to find new social work majors who believe that women should not have the right to choose abortion, that most welfare recipients voluntarily elect not to work, and that AIDS is divine punishment for being gay. However, any trend toward conservatism should not be surprising. Land (1988) has noted that social work values have always vacillated with the era. For example, she found an emphasis on client adaptation in the social work literature of the 1950s instead of an emphasis on self-determination. Given the changing nature of both students and values, how does the profession begin to identify and teach the values common to social work? Indeed, what do we know about social work students and their values?

The Use and Evaluation of a Writing Lab for Undergraduate Social Work Students

This paper describes one program's experimental use of a writing lab for junior social work majors enrolled in a practice course. In addition to the three-hour social work course, students were required to take a one-hour writing lab each week. In the lab, students received guidelines for and assistance with each of the papers required in the social work course. The impact of the lab on students' writing abilities was evaluated. In general, the findings indicated that the lab had only a limited influence on students' writing abilities. The implications of these results are discussed, as are suggestions for future efforts in this area.

Does MicroCase Statistical Software Package Increase the Statistical Competence and Comfort of Undergraduate Social Work and Social Science Majors?

Does MicroCase Statistical Software Package Increase the Statistical Competence and Comfort of Undergraduate Social Work and Social Science Majors?

Math Anxiety

Social work students often complain and grumble about having to take courses in research methods and statistics. Do their complaints originate from deep-seated math anxiety? The current study investigated the math anxiety and math backgrounds of 163 undergraduate social work students and 256 non—social work majors. Social work majors were found to have much higher levels of math anxiety than a cross section of students enrolled in introductory statistics courses and found to have taken fewer math courses in high school and college.

Women's Content in Social Work Curricula: Separate but Equal?

There has been an ongoing debate on whether content on women's issues should be taught in a separate course or integrated throughout the social work curriculum. This study of the knowledge and attitudes of 70 undergraduate social work majors found that all the students had similar attitudes toward women's rights and feminism, but those who had taken a separate course had greater knowledge of female biological processes and the social and historical forces that have affected women.

UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS AIDS

Since its discovery in 1981, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has been the source of great fear and controversy. Fear stems from uncertain risks of contagion and almost certain death once the syndrome has fully developed. AIDS has produced a number of social issues because the majority of A~S victims have been homosexual men, parenteral drug users, and minorities such as Haitian refugees (McLeod & Miller, 1985). Rights have been denied to its vinms (to maintain employment or to go to school, for instance), and misinformation appears to be influencing attitudes towards blood donation and the gay lifestyle. With no known cure for AIDS and medical consensus that a vaccine is several ycars away, human service professionals will continue to have important roles in directly serving and advocating for ADS victims, as well as educating the ill-informed. Several authors have delineated the roles of helping professionals with regard to Ams (Furstenberg & Olson, 1984; Lopez & Geael, 1984; Caputo, 1985; Baumgartner, 1985). However, wich the exception of a study which essentially explored homophobia among physicians and nurses (Douglas, Kalman, & Kalman, 1985) there is practically no research on the attitudes of professionals or professionals in training regarding AIDS victims. The purpose of this research was to explore how fear of ADS may be associated with knowledge about AIDS and empathy towards AIDS victims, using an available sample of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at the University of Kentucky. The effects of age, sex, race, and years of education on fear of AIDS were also examined. In the sample of 219 respondents 86 (39%) were undergraduate social work majors and 79 (36%) were graduate students in social work. The balance of the respondents (54) had other undergraduate majors. The mean age of the respondents was 27.8 yr. (range, 19 to 59 yr.). The majority were white (86%) and women (74%) A questionnaire using a >-point Likert-type response scale was consuucted from 3. review of salient issues appearing in the popular press. Three scales, a Knowledge Scale, a Fear Scale, and an Empathy Scale were devised from items on the instrument. The Knowledge Scale was created by summing the responses to three items (a = 66). These items asked whether the respondent agreed or disagreed with statements regarding the possibility of getting A~S from toilet seats in public restrooms or from gay employees of restaurants. The third item asked the respondents to rate their agreement or disagreement with the statement, Over-all, I think I am well-informed about AIDS. Scores ranged from the possible 3 to 15 (M = 10.4, SD = 2.5). The Fear Scale had six items (a = .67) on which the respondent agreed or disagreed chat persons having AIDS should be quarantined, registered with the local health

Statistically Speaking: Social Work Students are Significant

This exploratory investigation examines some of the generally held assumptions and stereotypes about the attitudes of undergraduate social work majors toward research and about their quantitative skills. A comparison of social work majors and social science majors in a social statistics course produced results that raise serious doubts about some of these assumptions and stereotypes. Our findings showed that social work majors were not deficient in their quantitative aptitudes, did not hold negative attitudes about research, and performed better than social science majors.