Mixed-race people and social work: a critical literature review

ABSTRACT

The social work profession has regulated ethical guidelines that require social workers to understand the impacts of service users’ racial and cultural affiliations and identities. However, social work practitioners have been under-informed regarding how mixed-race identity in a monoracial society affects mixed-race service users and the related impacts in social work practice with this population. This literature review evaluates the peer-reviewed, published social work literature on how mixed-race people have been represented to inform social work practice; of the literature analyzed, a majority of sources were from the U.S.A. and Canada. The authors identify key themes and provide critical discussion on the findings, followed by suggestions regarding how research gaps can be filled and the implications for practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Biracial or multiracial
• mixed-race
• identity development
• social work
• social work education and training

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).