Status report for the field of social work: a content analysis of its racial/ethnic/cultural-focused research

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes scholarly articles in four broad-audience social work journals, examining racial/ethnic/cultural-focused studies published in the discipline. Growth in quality and quantity of research is demonstrated, although there is room for improvement in terms of several topics (e.g., multicultural competence). African American and Latinx groups were most-often studied, with much more limited attention to Asian Americans and Native Americans. The focused articles were funded at a higher rate (48.4%) than the non-focused articles (25%); however, the topics funded were not necessarily representative of minority population needs. Unfortunately, no single minority group saw a significant increase across time and, as such, additional efforts are certainly warranted.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnic minorities
• content analysis
• social work research
• cultural competency
• status report

Acknowledgments

We are very appreciative of the many students who contributed to this project as coders.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by internal grants from the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences and the School of Family Life, Brigham Young University.