Taking the measure: a participatory approach to measuring and monitoring psychological empowerment in social work practices

ABSTRACT

For years, the professional field has been searching for methods that could be used to chart the effectiveness of social services. Social workers report that their current systems for registration and measurement do not provide an accurate reflection of their practice. The measurement of client empowerment might offer an alternative method that could improve the evaluation of social services. This method links the need for measuring instruments to the paradigm of empowerment, which has shaped contemporary social work. A scale for measuring psychological empowerment was developed in consultation with social workers and people in poverty, based on validated and reliable measurement scales. It was subsequently tested in two Public Centres for Social Welfare in Flanders (Belgium). Results of confirmatory factor analysis indicate that the measurement model provides a good fit for the data and that the various latent factors are reliable and valid. We conclude that the factors emerging from the factor analysis reflect the three dimensions that form the concept of psychological empowerment: the intrapsychic, interpsychic and behavioural components. Results from the post-test survey indicate that this measurement instrument is promising, and that it could offer a response to current needs, although additional efforts are needed in order to improve the instrument’s handling.

ABSTRACT

Het werkveld is al jaren op zoek naar methoden om effecten van sociaal werk in beeld te krijgen. Sociaal werkers zijn de mening toegedaan dat de bestaande metingen en registraties er niet in slagen hun praktijk correct weer te geven. Meten van empowerment bij cliënten biedt mogelijk een alternatief voor de gangbare meet- en registratiesystemen. We koppelen met de ontwikkeling van dit meetinstrument de vraag naar transparantie aan het empowermentparadigma dat hedendaags sociaal werk kleurt. Een meetschaal psychologisch empowerment werd in samenspraak met sociaal werkers en mensen in armoede geconstrueerd op basis van eerder gevalideerde en betrouwbaar bevonden meetschalen. De schaal werden vervolgens uitgetest in twee Openbare Centra voor Maatschappelijk Werk in Vlaanderen (België). Uit de confirmatorische factoranalyse blijkt dat het meetmodel goed bij de data past en de verschillende latente factoren betrouwbaar en valide zijn. We herkennen in de factoren die uit de factoranalyse naar voor komen de drie dimensies van psychologisch empowerment: de intrapsychische, inter-psychische en de gedragscomponent. Uit de kwalitatieve bevraging achteraf blijkt dat de schaal beloftevol oogt en ze gedeeltelijk een antwoord biedt op verzuchtingen tegenover de huidige registraties en metingen, maar dat bijkomende inspanningen nodig zijn om de gebruiksvriendelijkheid ervan te verbeteren.

KEYWORDS:

• Empowerment
• measurement scale
• clients
• social work
• confirmatory factor analysis

SLEUTELWOORDEN:

• Empowerment
• meetschaal
• cliënten
• sociaal werk
• confirmatorische factoranalyse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Jan Depauw is a Master in Social Work. He has 22 years of experience as a social worker at a Flemish Public Centre for Social Welfare (abbreviated in Dutch to OCMW). Since 2011 he is a researcher at the Centre of Expertise in Strengths-Based Social Work, and lecturer research methods at the department of social work at the Karel de Grote University College, Antwerp, Belgium. His expertise is in the area of research methodology, scale construction and empowerment.

Kristel Driessens is a professor in the Master Social Work, University of Antwerp and Head of the Centre of Expertise in Strengths-Based Social Work at the Karel de Grote University College of Antwerp. Her research interests are poverty and social work, qualitative research on the client perspective, and evaluation of social interventions.

Notes

1 This study was carried out within the framework of the Policy Research Center on Poverty, and it was financed by the Flemish Ministry of Welfare, Health and Family. The conclusions of the study do not necessarily reflect the views of the financing body, not do they represent any commitment on the part of the financing body.