Factors Influencing MSW Students' Interest in Public Child Welfare

ABSTRACT

Public child welfare agencies have long been perceived as key training and employment settings for professional social workers in the United States. Nonetheless, within the last 30 years, concern has been raised with respect to the perceived “de-professionalization” of many public social service jobs, making a large portion of social work positions in public child welfare unappealing to the professionally educated. In California, popular support for increasing the numbers of MSWs in public child welfare led to the creation of the California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC) in 1990. Using survey data collected between 1992 and 1998 from a complete population sample of all entering and exiting students in accredited graduate programs of social work in California (n = 5,793), this study examines the influence of a plethora of variables (socio-demographic variables, professional motivations, past practice experiences, and school/program attended) upon the likelihood that MSW students will be interested in a career in public child welfare. Further, the employment of stochastic models is used to examine the stability of MSW students' interest in public child welfare and the impact, if any, that graduate education and field education experiences (elements of professionalization) have on each respondent's desire to work in public child welfare.

Key Words:

• MSW students
• public child welfare
• professional education