Social Work Students Research Articles

Association of trauma informed service learning with students’ knowledge, attitudes and confidence

AbstractUp to 90% of American adults have had prior exposure to trauma but medical education in Trauma Informed Care (TIC) remains limited. We integrated a TIC curriculum into a pre-clerkship medical student service learning program and measured its association with TIC knowledge, attitudes and confidence after year 1. 353 students participated in the pretest. 103 matched pairs are included in the final analysis. To assess gains from the curriculum, we utilized three instruments: Attitudes Towards Trauma Informed Care, a confidence instrument originally designed for social work students, and a knowledge assessment. We used paired t-tests to assess for score differences between administrations and fit a predictive model for change in score using a generalized estimating equations model. The average unadjusted sum score on the pretest was high—23.5 out of 30 (IQR 22.0–25.3). 69.7% of students somewhat or strongly agreed they had previously heard of TIC. Statistically significant negative associations were found between sum score, Black, Asian/PI, and biracial identities, second-year medical student status and prior familiarity with TIC. Average posttest scores in the matched cohort increased by 1.37 points (95% CI, 0.82–1.91). In the GEE model, Asian/PI race, biracial identity and being a second-year medical student remained statistically significant predictors of lower TIC scores, while identifying as a woman was positively associated. Further study is needed to contextualize these scores and to continue seeking effective resources for increasing clinicians’ capacity to practice TIC.

Strengths Perspective: How Social Work Students Use Mindfulness as a Self-Care Strategy

(1) Background: As helping professionals, social workers are more susceptible to compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout due to regular exposure to clients’ trauma, traumatic situations, and heavy caseloads. Social work students also face similar experiences during their field placement as they prepare to enter the profession. In addition, stress, a significant factor affecting academic performance, is prevalent among social work students. Prolonged stress can lead to chronic health conditions, emphasizing the need to develop effective stress management practice techniques. (2) Objective: To examine the impact of a four-week mindfulness strengths-perspective synchronous series and the impact on social work students’ personal strengths, self-care, stress, and coping strategies. (3) Methods: The purpose of this study was to examine social work students’ experiences with using mindfulness from a strengths perspective. Twenty-three (n = 23) social work students participated in a four-week synchronous mindfulness series that incorporated a strengths perspective, focusing on stress reduction and self-care practices. The series consisted of weekly mindfulness activities and writing prompts, concluding with a focus group in the final week. A thematic analysis was utilized to identify key themes. (4) Results: The researchers identified six themes: consistency and commitment, affirmations and self-love, a caring community, mindfulness strategies, physical restoration, and enrichment and learning. (5) Conclusion: Students were able to develop a better understanding of self-care and the benefits of taking time to incorporate practices for their health and wellness.

Factors Associated with the Intention to Work with Older Adults Among First Year Social Work Students in Israel

ABSTRACT This study examined a model based on the Terror Management Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to identify factors associated with social work students` intention to work with older adults. A cross-sectional study with a sample of 375 first-year Israeli social work students was undertaken. Attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were directly associated with this intention. Contact with older adults was related to anxiety about older adults, which along with anxiety about self-aging, was related to the TPB constructs. The model explained 63% of the variance of the students` intention to work with older adults.

Integrating the Grand Challenges for social work into an undergraduate capstone course

ABSTRACT Over the last decade, social work has focused on identifying widespread societal problems that should drive research, teaching, and practice in the coming years. There are very few scholarly articles about the integration of the Grand Challenges into curricula, despite reports that about half of social work academic institutions have done so. This study provides pre-post data from a cohort of social work students who focused their undergraduate capstone experiences on the Grand Challenges. The vast majority of undergraduate social work students were initially unaware of the Grand Challenges. Students felt that they had significantly more perceived competence to address almost all of the Grand Challenges at the end of the course. There was increased interest in addressing smart decarceration. Integration of the Grand Challenges into undergraduate curricula should occur, especially as social workers prioritize work on restorative justice and mass incarceration.

What has been done for social workers’ self-care practice? A systematic review of interventions

Improving mental well-being is essential for social workers. Self-care services are often facilitated to enhance it, but there is limited research exploring their characteristics and effectiveness. We conducted a systematic review of self-care interventions targeting the mental well-being of social workers. A comprehensive search of four English and one Chinese databases yielded 2969 studies for initial screening. Fourteen eligible studies were finally included and reviewed. The results underscored mindfulness as prevalent and effective, with social work students being the main service recipients. Although with limitations, the findings inform future research and self-care services for social workers.

Legal Education for Non-Lawyers as ‘Legal First Aid’: A Participatory Inquiry into Law for Social Work Students

The article documents the experience of the authors in creating and re-calibrating a compulsory legal module within a Bachelor of Social Work degree as a course in ‘legal first aid’. The article explores the pedagogical approach the authors developed, which is based on continually explaining to students the reason for studying law in a way that is tailored to skills they can use in their practical placements and profession. For social work students, the ‘legal first aid’ approach enabled them to develop confidence and skills in triaging the seriousness of particular situations, understanding what they can do in the short term, and knowing how and when to usefully engage with legal professionals. The article also illustrates the value of a participatory inquiry method when refining course aims and approaches. The article details the participatory inquiry undertaken by the students and teachers with the aim of improving future iterations of the course. The rich insights that can be obtained from a participatory inquiry method offered much more robust insights than mainstream course evaluation methods, providing clear direction for future course refinements. These insights may be useful to course coordinators of other programs who are wishing to design or redesign course content.

Social Media and the Levels of Stress of the Social Work Students in Misamis University

A descriptive correlational study was conducted to determine the influence of social media use on the stress levels of the Social Work students of Misamis University. Using different modified standardized surveys on stress and social media use, one hundred and thirty-six (136) students enrolled in the first semester of S.Y. 2020-2021 in the BSSW program were surveyed online using Google Forms. A focus group discussion was also done among the faculty members and students to corroborate and validate survey results and to ask for their recommendations for the enhancement of the school's welfare programs. Findings showed that students exposed to social media use are more affected by academic stress. The most popular social media site used is Facebook. Students also spend about 2 to 5.3 hours per day on social media sites, mostly for informational, conversational, and phatic purposes. Students' social stress is also affected by their frequent use of Twitter. The length of time spent on Twitter, on the other hand, has an inverse effect on students' psychological stress.

The benefit, harm, and complication of humor in social work: A qualitative inquiry

Summary The use of humor in social work is an underrecognized and underexplored area of practice despite its potential to heal, harm, and complicate communication. To date, very minimal scholarship has been published on humor in social work. Therefore, this qualitative study sought to examine how social workers use, perceive, and experience humor. Data were gathered from 22 participants who identified as social workers via an online survey. Data also included learning artifacts (e.g., discussion board posts, humor therapy treatment plans) from 19 graduate-level social work students who completed a humor in social work course in the northeast region of the United States. Both datasets were analyzed thematically. Findings Participants perceived social workers as using humor in clearly distinct ways, as a tool to promote generative growth, and as a weapon to harm already marginalized populations. In total, participant responses highlight the complexities of humor, including its subjective and dynamic nature, which can lead to multiple and sometimes conflicting experiences. Applications The findings suggest that social workers view humor positively, yet they engage in its use without adequate training, strategy, and reflection, sometimes violating professional ethics. Results further indicate that social workers will continue to employ humor in their professional work to the benefit and detriment of those around them. To support reflective and informed practice, additional research is needed on the use and misuse of humor in social work.

Immersive virtual environments as a tool to improve confidence and role expectancy in prospective social work students: a proof-of-concept study

ABSTRACT This paper explores the use of immersive technology in social work education, specifically through a virtual simulation called ‘Branch-VR’ designed for young people taking part in a Widening Participation Programme for entry into social work training. The study involved 24 participants aged 17–18, who interacted with a branching narrative simulation of a social work home visit, making decisions that influenced the outcome. Utilising a mixed-methods quasi-experimental design, the paper examines participants’ attitudes toward using immersive technology as a training tool, its impact on their role expectations when engaging with service users in a home environment, and its influence on their confidence in pursuing a career in social work. The findings suggest that immersive simulations like Branch-VR can bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. This approach also boosts learners’ confidence (W = 196.000, Z = 2.808, p = .005), providing a safe environment for experiential learning and decision-making. The paper underscores the importance of integrating immersive technology with traditional training methods, emphasizing its role as an augmentation to foundational social work education.

Digital competence in social work education: readiness for practice

ABSTRACT In line with the digital turn in service provision, social work students should acquire relevant knowledge and skills, preparing them for work within digitalized welfare services. In Norway, these expectations are articulated in a national learning outcome (LOC) that addresses digital competence and the ability to assist in developing and using technology. Previous research has revealed digital knowledge gaps between education and practice . Here, we explore how social work educators perceive of and engage with digital competence as expressed in the LOC. Through focus group interviews with social work educators in Norway, we discovered that the knowledge gap is linked to five key findings: (a) uncertainty about the content of the LOC, (b) unfamiliar technical language, (c) the rapid development of digitalization, (d) the distribution of responsibility and (e) critical reflection. Critical reflection is expressed as a solution to the challenges. We argue that there must be knowledge about the subject matter (digital competency) that provides a foundation for such critical reflection (digital literacy). More conceptual clarity is needed regarding the LOC and what digitalization means in an educational context, in order for both digital competency and digital literacy to take their natural place in education.

Barriers to and enablers for the success of postgraduate students in social work

ABSTRACT All over the world, higher education institutions (HEIs) are concerned about low enrollment, delayed completion rates, non-completion, and the subsequent smaller number of graduates of Master’s and doctoral programmes. This is also true for the postgraduate students in Social Work at a South African public university, with statistics showing a high dropout rate and extended completion times. The poor throughput rate of the postgraduate programme in Social Work motivated the exploration of barriers to and enablers for student success in this programme. This was done through a qualitative descriptive design, using an online questionnaire with open-ended reflective questions. The collected data was uploaded to Atlas.ti 9 and analyzed by means of inductive thematic analysis. The findings of this study indicated barriers pertaining to supervision, personal challenges, and the distance-learning delivery mode of academic programmes. External factors and enablers that impacted the success of postgraduate students were also identified.

Teaching note: assessing social work students on placement: a model for professional competence

ABSTRACT This teaching note describes how the author (a practice teacher and university lecturer) retrospectively considered and applied the work of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger; with a specific focus on situtaed learning, communities of practice and pre-qualifying social work education in Northern Ireland. Through this retrospective lens, this conceptual paper presents a new, inclusive model for practice teachers (practice educators) and social work students to use in professional supervision. The Social Work Placement Professional Competence (PPC) Model is presented as a supervisory tool to guide and frame professional discussions and critical analysis of student’s practice. The model can be used to critically reflect on the development of the students’ incremental learning, knowledge base, evidence of decision-making, assessment of need and ability to effectively manage risk.

Addressing gun violence through social work education

ABSTRACT Gun violence is a critical public health issue in the United States, with firearms involved in over 48,000 deaths in 2021. However, social workers receive limited training to address the risks and impacts of gun violence despite frequently working with affected populations. This paper examines how social work education can better prepare students through a framework developed by the Police Executive Research Forum categorizing gun violence into four types: suicide, criminal homicide, domestic violence homicide, and mass shootings. Each section explores prevention and intervention strategies related to each category and innovative recommendations for integrating these topics into social work curricula and field placements. A comprehensive approach addressing prevention and intervention strategies across the areas of suicide, homicide, domestic violence, and mass shootings is key to producing social workers ready to effectively address gun violence. This paper provides specific examples of assignments, class discussions, field experiences, and other educational strategies for training social work students to meet this urgent need. Enhanced education around gun violence will equip social workers to advocate for policy changes, educate communities, provide trauma-informed care, and collaborate with multidisciplinary partners to promote safety and well-being.

Critical whiteness theory and social work education: turning the lens inward

ABSTRACT The social work profession adheres to the values of social justice and equity, yet extensive literature suggests that anti-racism education in social work has room for growth. Research demonstrates that social work practitioners and educators often fail to recognize (1) how structural oppression creates racial inequities and (2) how social workers maintain and reproduce hegemonic power structures. Critical whiteness theory (CWT) seeks to reveal the invisible role of whiteness in constructing racial inequities. As a subject area, critical whiteness studies emerged in the late 1990s as an expansion of critical race theory. A variety of disciplines have incorporated critical whiteness studies as a framework for anti-racism education; however, CWT remains relatively absent from the social work literature. This paper proposes the incorporation of CWT in social work education as a tool to facilitate critical self-reflexivity and combat structural racism within the profession. Engaging with the concepts of white normativity, white ignorance, and white complicity allows social work educators and students to acknowledge and interrogate the formative ways in which social work pedagogy maintains and reproduces white supremacy.

Being, knowing and doing: aligning ontology, epistemology, and axiology to develop an account of social work as practice

This article takes as its starting point reflections from social work academics at a Scottish university around persistent tensions between the nature of social work practice and the ways in which social work students and social workers talk about it. Practice (perhaps by definition) is practical, whereas how it is spoken and written about often betrays instrumental, narrow or dated clinical orientations. Picking up on the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) definition of social work as a practice-based profession and drawing on the literature around the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL), we seek to (re)invigorate the case for social work as practice. We argue that this offers students and practitioners a conceptual framework through which they might articulate and validate what they do. We begin by critiquing current orientations to social work. We then come on to propose a broadly Aristotelean concept of practice. We make some suggestions for how this might better orient social work to the nature and demands of contemporary professionalism. We conclude by considering the implications of our argument for social work education and practice.

Research on the Structure of Adaptive Skills in the Profession of Social Work Students at the University of Labour and Social Affairs

Research on the Structure of Adaptive Skills in the Profession of Social Work Students at the University of Labour and Social Affairs

Approaching the Subject of Substance use in a peer-to-peer Education Project

Substance use is on the political agenda in Romania now more than ever. A new national plan regarding the prevention of consumption among teenagers has been drawn up. Training them in prevention programs is not easy, especially for those teenagers who are difficult to educate, coming from environments where dialogue is not encouraged. There is evidence that participatory education, in the form of peer education, can be a very effective way of preventing substance use among young people (Perry, 1989; Jarvis, 1993). Purpose: The purpose of this study was to probe the perceptions of some teenagers participating in peer education prevention programs about the effectiveness of this education model.Methods: 20 peer educators and first-year students in Psychology and Social Work were trained by anti-drug specialists to prevent substance abuse. The activities carried out within the framework of a program called From Peer to Peer in the Prevention of Substance Use, took place in informal environments (headquarters of some associations, youth clubs, in nature). 4 focus groups of 10 teenage participants were held. After analyzing the answers, the results were integrated into a questionnaire applied to several 400 teenagers. The overwhelming majority of participants (98%) considered this type of intervention to be attractive, and interesting; the participants were relatively easy to coopt, although they initially expressed their reservations regarding the trainers' potential to surprise them with new information or approaches. Their assessments concern the naturalness of the meetings that took place in the form of discussions, the informal character, the lack of pressure exerted by the status, the freedom of expression, the fact of being understood and looked at with respect, and the psychological closeness. However, they highlighted some conditions, risks, and limitations related to the efficiency of the development of these programs known by peer educators.

Social work students in Aotearoa New Zealand: the impacts of financial hardship on mental and social wellbeing

ABSTRACT In Aotearoa New Zealand, approximately 3000 people are enrolled in a recognized social work education programme at any one time. A collaboration between researchers at two social work education providers sought to understand the experiences of student financial hardship, and its impact on wellbeing, amongst current social work students and recent graduates. In total, 346 students and recent graduates participated in a survey that gathered information Glossary of te reo Māori terms regarding financial circumstances, caring responsibilities, mental health and social wellbeing. As social work qualifications require a significant component of unpaid field education, this study reflects growing interest in the financial impact of studying for a social work qualification. This article explores some of the findings with particular focus on the impact of financial hardship on mental and social wellbeing. In particular, the study found that nearly one in four respondents reported experiencing moderate or severe financial hardship while studying, and that this had a significant impact on their mental and social wellbeing. In addition, those with caring responsibilities, especially accumulative caring responsibilities for children and others, were more likely to experience financial hardship. These results add weight to the call for greater support for those preparing to enter the social work workforce.

The 5 + 1 Practice Research Model in Health Social Work: The “Eye of the Storm”

Purpose: The 5 +  1 Collaboration is an initiative where five teaching hospitals and a leading Melbourne university collaborate to promote and strengthen research, clinical practice in health social work, teaching, and collaboration. This collaboration fosters greater connection between academics, practitioners, and social work students. The 5 +  1 Collaboration provides a unique platform for the advancement of effective practice, practice-driven research, and student field education placements. Method: In a prospective study (2020 through 2021), employing the 5 + 1 model, at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 100 frontline hospital social workers from five Melbourne hospitals participated in this study to determine, in detail, how the pandemic had affected their work. Results: This provided at a granular level, significant insights relating to the impact of the pandemic on the provision of social work services in the acute hospital setting. Additionally, during the study period, academic social work student placements were made at the five participating hospitals, with the students actively participating as part of the research team and providing feedback about their own experiences. Discussion: The study documented the challenges to hospital social work practice because of the pandemic, how hospital social workers rose to the challenges, and, importantly, adapted their practice and acquired new skills. This information may inform future hospital social work practice. The study also demonstrated that effective on-line student placements were possible, even in the setting of a pandemic.

Mental health and biomedical neoliberalism: can creativity make space for social justice?

ABSTRACT In this article, we introduce a creative assessment task developed for postgraduate social work students studying critical perspectives on mental health. We discuss how moving beyond the constraints of text-based assignments generates space for students to explore new ways of thinking about mental health, beyond the limitations of dominant illness-based understandings. Through creativity, the task enables an exploration of social justice in practice, reflexivity, humility, complexity, and multiplicity. Students learn about the value of lived and embodied experience knowledges and the task generates opportunities for paradigm shifts away from biomedical discourses. We argue that the task is itself a subversion of neoliberal knowledge production within a tertiary education context.