The Public's Attitudes towards Social Workers: The Role of Values, Opinions of Others and Personal Experience.

Tartakovsky, Eugene

The present study investigates the psychological factors affecting the public's attitudes towards social workers. The study was based on the theory of human values and aimed to investigate the role of personal motivational goals reflected in values on attitudes towards social workers. In addition, we tested the contact hypothesis in the context of social work. The study was conducted in Israel using a stratified representative sample that included individuals who had no contact with social workers during the last 3 years (n = 303) and those with such contact (n = 220). In the inexperienced population, values affected the perception of social workers indirectly through the opinions of others. In the experienced population, personal experience with social workers affected their perception and support of their struggle. Finally, a higher preference for self-transcendence vs. self-enhancement values was associated with stronger support of the social workers' struggle to improve their working conditions in both the experienced and inexperienced populations. The results of the present study advance the theory of human values and the contact hypothesis in the context of social work. In addition, they have important implications for social work practice, permitting social workers to understand their clients better.

ISRAEL; POWER (Social sciences); SOCIAL workers; RESEARCH funding; CRONBACH'S alpha; T-test (Statistics); PROFESSIONAL practice; CONFORMITY; DIVERSITY & inclusion policies; SOCIAL justice; SOCIAL services; WORK environment; QUESTIONNAIRES; PUBLIC opinion; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; CHI-squared test; SOCIAL worker attitudes; BEHAVIOR; SOCIAL attitudes; CLIENT relations; MOTIVATION (Psychology); MASS media; SOCIAL networks; CONFIDENCE intervals; DATA analysis software; FACTOR analysis; INTERPERSONAL relations; SOCIAL support; PRACTICAL politics; VALUES (Ethics)

British Journal of Social Work, 2024, Vol 54, Issue 6, p2717

0045-3102

Academic Journal

10.1093/bjsw/bcae045