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Abstract
This study draws on a survey of 126 graduate social work students from a large school of social work in the United States to investigate the impact of family problems on career choices. Sixty‐nine percent of the students indicated they had a family history of problems related to substance abuse (44%), psychopathology (43%), compulsive disorders (17%), and/or violence (35%). Students who report more indicators of psychopathology and violence were more likely to see their family history as influential in their career choice. These students were also more likely to select mental health/health as a practice area. However, no differences were found between students without a family history of problems and those who did not see their family history as influential. Students' history of family problems and their perceptions of its influence on career choice did not affect the likelihood of selecting a practice method. The authors discuss the implications of these findings and conclude with a series of recommendations for social work education.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Betty Kramer, Melissa Richter, and Phyllis Stillman for their constructive and critical readings of an earlier draft. The authors wish to thank the student respondents who participated in this study and the students in the 1998 Basic Research Methods class for their hard work.
Notes
1. In the US, an increasing number of social work professionals—about 40%—are choosing to work in clinical settings, serving middle‐class clients. There is some concern that this trend portends an abandonment of the core social work mission to help the poor and oppressed, and to build community (Specht & Courtney, Citation1994).