Public Perception Survey for Social Workers in Turkey: What Do People Think?

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the public perception of social workers in the Eastern Black Sea Region, Turkey. In this research, a questionnaire developed by Bolgün and Şahin (2019)was employed, and using the convenience sampling method face-to-face interviews were held with a total of 600 participants. Using various statistical tests, normally distributed scores were compared. The independent samples t-test was used for gender, previous social service applications, and contact with social workers. ANOVA compared age, education, household size, income, and residence city, with LSD post hoc tests for significant differences. Pearson correlation assessed the relationship between knowledge and attitude toward social workers, while multiple regression analyzed the effect of knowledge on attitude. The participants’ knowledge of the working fields, client profiles, and roles of social workers, as well as the total score of the knowledge about social workers, was found to be at a moderate level. Their attitudes toward social workers were generally good level; however, the majority of the participants (n = 501) think that social workers are not well known in the society. Despite the positive attitude scores of the participants, there is a need for promotional activities, advertisements, meetings, and television and radio programs raising the social awareness of social workers to a higher level, which would raise public perception.

Keywords:

• Attitude
• Eastern Black Sea Region
• public perception
• social workers, Turkey

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Dr. Cemre Bölgün and Prof. Dr. Fatih Şahin for letting him use the scale developed by them. Also, the author would like to thank Dr. Emine Güzel for her comments and contributions on the statistical data.

Ethical approval

Ethical permission of this study is guaranteed by the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University Social and Human Sciences Ethics Committee’s meeting with the decision number 2020/6, dated 13.04.2020.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. All expenses within the scope of the research were covered by the researcher personally.

Notes on contributors

Bekir Güzel

Bekir Güzel is an associate professor in the Department of Social Work at Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University. His research interests include social work, refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants, migration policies, international migration movements, labor migration and child labor. He has worked as a researcher and technical staff in European Union projects such as Social Inclusive Skills for Health Professionals in European Level and Charter of Common Refugees Strategies.