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

Abstract

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. values | family problems | attitudes | baccalaureate students | undergraduate students |

The State of the Social Work Profession: A Systematic Review of the Literature on Antigay Bias

“…Specifically, seven studies examined heterosexism or antigay bias (Black, Oles, & Moore, 1998;Floyd & Gruber, 2011;Logie, Bridge, & Bridge, 2007;Raiz & Saltzburg, 2007;Snively, Kreuger, Stretch, Watt, & Chadha, 2004;Swank & Raiz, 2007, 2010a. Floyd and Gruber (2011) evaluated attitudes toward working with "difficult" families (homosexuality, transgendered, abortion, etc.). Logie and colleagues (2007) examined cultural competence, phobias, and attitudes.…”

“…Ten of the studies had samples composed of only undergraduate students (Black et al, 1999;Cluse-Tolar et al, 2004;Floyd & Gruber, 2011;Raiz & Saltzburg, 2007;Sun, 2002;Swank & Raiz, 2007, 2010aTate, 1991). Eight studies had samples representing graduate students only (Bassett & Day, 2003;Cramer, 1997;Dongvillo & Ligon, 2001;Logie et al, 2007;Newman et al, 2002;Seelman & Walls, 2010;Snively et al, 2004;Wallenberg et al, 2011).…”

“…Four studies indicated 50% or more, but less than 70%, white participants in the study sample (Black et al, 1996;Black et al, 1998;Logie et al, 2007;Sun, 2002). Three studies did not report race (Dongvillo & Ligon, 2001;Floyd & Gruber, 2011;Tate, 1991). Similar to the disparities in racial composition, most of the studies had an overrepresentation of women.…”

“…Eight studies included year in school (Black et al, 1996;Black et al, 1998;Cluse-Tolar et al, 2004;Floyd & Gruber, 2011;Raiz & Saltzburg, 2007;Snively et al, 2004;, 2010a, and five included family income (Black et al, 1999;Cramer, 1997;Cramer et al, 1997;Swank & Raiz, 2007;. Six studies also asked about urbanicity (Cramer, 1997;Seelman & Walls, 2010;Snively et al, 2004;Swank & Raiz, 2007;Tate, 1991), and another five inquired about region of the country (Black et al, 1998;Black et al, 1999;Cramer, 1997;Cramer et al, 1997;Wallenberg et al, 2011).…”

“…Sixteen of the 22 studies used standardized scales (Bassett & Day, 2003;Black et al, 1996;Black et al, 1998;Black et al, 1999;Cramer, 1997;Cramer et al, 1997;Dongvillo & Ligon, 2001;Newman et al, 2002;Raiz & Saltzburg, 2007;Seelman & Walls, 2010;Snively et al, 2004;Sun, 2002;, 2010aTate, 1991;Wallenberg et al, 2011), while the other six relied solely on author-created items (Cluse-Tolar et al, 2004;Floyd & Gruber, 2011;Logie et al, 2007;Swank & Raiz, 2007, 2010b. One study used case vignettes along with survey questions to determine attitudes toward GL individuals (Cramer, 1997), and another study used open-ended questions in conjunction with the questionnaire (Raiz & Saltzburg, 2007).…”