Legislative Advocacy Days: Building Political Self-Efficacy in Social Work Students

ABSTRACT

Legislative advocacy days are one strategy social work programs use to develop advocacy skills in students. This study examines how past experience, confidence in advocacy skills, and beliefs about the ability to affect change influence intent to advocate in the future among 111 undergraduate social work students who recently participated in a legislative advocacy day. Findings indicate that greater confidence and beliefs are significant predictors of intent to advocate in the future. These findings underscore the importance of fostering elements of political self-efficacy in students and the use of legislative advocacy days to achieve that goal.

KEYWORDS:

• legislative advocacy
• lobby day
• social work education

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Arielle Mastellar, an undergraduate student who assisted with the design and data collection as part of an independent study and Nicole Ennen, who as a Graduate Assistant assisted with some of the data analysis.