Social Work Research

Hawkins, Robert L

doi: 10.1093/swr/svaf021pmid: N/A

Roberts, J Dontaè; Motley, Robert O; McDowell, Melvin

doi: 10.1093/swr/svaf022pmid: 41716466

This study focuses on how African American men experience race-based traumatic stress (RBTS) and the coping strategies they employ. Data were collected from a purposive sample of African American emerging adults (N = 148) who resided in St. Louis, Missouri. Descriptive, univariate, and multiple linear regression analyses assessed RBTS symptom severity and its relationship with various coping behaviors, controlling for sociodemographic factors like age, income, and employment. The study revealed that anger, avoidance, and intrusive thoughts were common RBTS symptoms, with average scores for these symptoms ranging from 48.2 to 49.4. Income was found to be a significant predictor of coping strategies, particularly religious coping and substance use, suggesting that socioeconomic factors influence how African American men manage RBTS. Findings highlight the critical need for culturally relevant mental health interventions that incorporate economic and coping dimensions to support African American men effectively. Future research should explore these relationships longitudinally to understand how coping mechanisms evolve and inform targeted interventions.

Evans McGinn, Polly; Nordanger, Dag Øystein; Mæhle, Magne Olav; Christiansen, Øivin; Braarud, Hanne Cecilie

doi: 10.1093/swr/svaf017pmid: N/A

Expert assessments have significant influence in child welfare decision making in Norway. Insight into expert assessment is therefore critical to ensure a sound basis for such decisions, yet knowledge about the process of expert assessments is lacking. To close this knowledge gap, authors have developed a codebook to quantitatively explore expert assessment reports in child welfare cases in Norway. The aim of this article is to provide a transparent account of the development of the codebook. Authors describe how codebook reliability and validity were established. The value of the team approach is emphasized. Insight into the process may be of particular value to other researchers considering quantitative content analysis of qualitative reports in both child welfare research and other contexts. This is a potentially important study in developing a tool that provides empirical oversight regarding the practice of experts in the field of child welfare.

Du, Wenbin; Hua, Fengrui; Xie, Yu

doi: 10.1093/swr/svaf020pmid: N/A

Using the concept of consistency matching in person–environment fit theory, this study explored the relationship between social workers’ organizational cultural identification and job burnout and the mediating effect of job satisfaction. For the empirical analysis, this study used 1,174 cross-sectional sample data points from the China Social Work Longitudinal Study published in 2019. The results show that organizational cultural identification has a negative predictive effect on job burnout and that job satisfaction has a mediating effect on the relationship between organizational cultural identification and job burnout. This study clarified the intermediate mechanisms by which job satisfaction affects the relationship between organizational cultural identification and job burnout, and expanded the research on the association between organizational cultural identification and job burnout. Finally, this study proposes some positive countermeasures and suggestions for enhancing the cultural identity of social work organizations, increasing concern for social workers’ job satisfaction, and encouraging and cultivating social workers’ positive work emotions.

Baldwin-White, Adrienne; Legerski, Elizabeth

doi: 10.1093/swr/svaf019pmid: N/A

Sexual harassment on college campuses is a pervasive problem. Students of social work are not exempt from these experiences and may in fact be at heightened risk for sexual harassment given the nature of their work and requirements for field training experiences. Indeed, many social work programs report dealing with instances of student harassment during field placement. Therefore, it is important to know how social work programs prepare students for the possibility of encountering sexual harassment in their field placements, how field offices respond when instances are reported, and the policies and procedures that guide those actions. In addition, because of the potential need to implement policies specific to field placement contexts, it is important to identify the perceived challenges to effective training and policy development. To answer these exploratory research questions authors analyzed qualitative interview data from 14 field directors in U.S. schools of social work. Authors find that schools of social work often rely heavily on university Title IX offices and other university systems to respond to reports of sexual harassment in student field placements. The article discusses some of the perceived challenges of current training, policies, and processes, and considers the social justice implications of these findings.

Conrick, Kelsey M; McCollum, Olivia; Porter, Sarah F; St. Vil, Christopher; Kanuha, V Kalei; Rowhani-Rahbar, Ali; Moore, Megan

doi: 10.1093/swr/svaf018pmid: 41281388

doi: 10.1093/swr/svaf024pmid: N/A