Summary Social workers in China have been involved significantly in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This article introduces the innovative interdisciplinary remote networking framework which both provides a guide for medical and community social workers’ involvement during the COVID-19 outbreaks, and also to support interdisciplinary collaboration with the aim of helping individuals and families in need during the pandemic. Findings The implementation of interdisciplinary remote networking, developed by Chinese social workers, has effectively addressed the different domains of need experienced by the affected population and has established a new approach for social work in the field of health. The framework also provides an effective model for setting up a targeted and sustained service system that links social workers with psychological and medical resources, which capitalize on social resources to buffer the negative impacts of the disease. Social workers play an essential role during such a public health emergency, providing critical services for patients and families, medical workers, self-quarantined residents, and the general population. Applications The service mode of interdisciplinary remote networking, based on the frontline experiences of social work interventions in China, may serve as a framework for combating COVID-19 in other countries. The framework is among the initiatives that provide transferrable skills to social work practitioners working in network-based social work services during public health emergencies. Thus, the framework presents implications for future practice development in both disaster social work and also public health social work.

Background Women with depression disorder outnumber men, and health care and social service providers are mostly female. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study aims to examine the association between role conflicts and depression among health care and social service providers, and further investigate the mediating effect of burnout, as well as the moderating effect of marital status and motherhood. Methods The data come from the baseline of the ‘China Social Work Longitudinal Study’ conducted in 2019, which contains 1,219 female social workers who reported work-family conflict. The five items of the scale in our model were extracted from the existing literature to ensure the construct validity of potential variables, and confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were also conducted to ensure the validity and reliability of the scale. Descriptive analyses and correlation analyses were performed with SPSS 24, while the path analysis was conducted using Amos 24. The moderating effects of marital status and motherhood were further tested using multiple-group analyses. Results Female health care and social service providers experienced a high level of depression. Work-to-family conflict (WFC), family-to-work conflict (FWC), and organizational role conflict (ORC) were significantly and positively associated with female social workers’ depression. Exhaustion and cynicism fully mediated the effects of ORC on depression and partially mediated the effects of WFC on depression. In addition, FWC had only a direct effect on depression. A multiple-group analysis further indicated that both marital status and motherhood status may have played a moderating role in the conflict-burnout-depression link and that being unmarried and having no child were risk factors for depression in female health care and social service providers. Conclusions Marriage and motherhood have both negative and positive effects on the depression of female health care and social service providers. This suggests that marriage and motherhood may act as a form of “family clientelism” for female health care and social service providers who marry and have children.

Social work and public health have always shared a common mission and vision in promoting human health. However, existing research tends to view social work and public health as two separate fields at both practice and policy levels, and these studies have largely neglected the consideration of how to integrate public health and social work. In the context of the COVID-19 epidemic, the link between the two has been strengthened and health social work has been given more importance. The question addressed in this article is through what mechanisms or practices the social work profession can strengthen its professional status and engage in interprofessional collaboration. Based on key informant interviews and case studies (one community and two cabin Hospitals), this study points out that three legitimacy mechanisms are needed: operationalizing policy, extending value, and completing justification. Furthermore, the future and possible limitations in relation to the development of health social work in China are discussed and specific recommendations are provided. Health social work needs to conduct practices and summarize its experiences and methods, to create a more friendly political environment by translating its results into policies that are conducive to the development of health social work through a political agenda. It needs to improve upon its practical abilities and methodologies, as well as professional education relating to professional values and ethics, in addition to identifying the deeper social needs of residents and discovering new, undeveloped areas of service. Moreover, because long-term change is difficult to justify due to China’s policy agendas, the question of whether the professional status of health social work in the post-epidemic context can be improved is something that needs to be further explored in future studies.

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In recent years, career decision-making has attracted research attention, especially choosing careers among graduates. Making informed and appropriate career choices are positively related to work performance and career success. The present study investigates the factors influencing career choice among social work graduates. A sample of 417 social work graduates was recruited to complete the survey. Descriptive analysis, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data. Our results show that there is a positive correlation between environmental, interpersonal, institutional, external, internal factors and career choice. Additionally, multiple regression analysis indicates that external and internal factors influence career choice among graduates. The present findings contribute to the general discussion about the influential factors in graduates' career choices. University administrators must develop career guidance and counseling programs more broadly in universities to support graduates in making appropriate career choices.   Received: 27 December 2021 / Accepted: 31 March 2022 / Published: 5 May 2022

Although the requirements for nonprofit transparency are increasing worldwide, the implementation of disclosure practices remains questioned. Drawing on social network theory, this study proposed that the size of and position in interlocking board networks can increase the propensity of foundations to promote transparency.It also hypothesized that political embeddedness, measured by the presence of powerful government officials,

This article examines the current human rights situation and discusses the dilemmas of adhering and promoting the human rights principle in social work in China. Based on the development of human rights and social work in other countries and areas, it is argued that China’s social workers may strive with human rights activists, clients, and other stakeholders for human rights and be sensitive to the problems of illiberal democracy. It is also suggested that more research on human rights is critical in order to develop a better understanding of human rights and to promote the human rights principle in social work in China.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effects of professional autonomy (PA) and person–environment fit (person–job [PJ] fit and person–organization [PO] fit) on turnover intention (TI). Methods: We take a total of 1,133 professional social workers with formal educational background from the China Social Work Longitudinal Study 2019 as our sample and use structural equation modeling as our analysis method. Results: We find that an increase in person–environment fit is significantly associated with a decrease in Chinese social workers’ organizational TI, and this relationship is mediated by PA. However, PA has greater power to buffer the effects of PJ fit than those of PO fit on TI. Conclusions: This finding improves existing understanding of the paradox of social workers embedded in the community. An occupational environment that promotes PA is urgently needed to address this paradox and to prevent social workers’ TI.