Faculty Mentor(s)
Dr. David Van Heemst
Dr. Steve Lowe
Project Type
EdD Colloquium - ONU
Scholarship Domain(s)
Scholarship of Discovery
Presentation Type
Presentation
Abstract
Social workers have a unique opportunity to serve people by meeting basic human needs, combating oppression and marginalization, and advocating for social justice. The purpose of this correlational, quantitative study was to measure the relationship between attitudes and practices among social workers toward the LGBTQ community with a specific examination of the religiosity of social workers, in order to assess if a social worker provides appropriate, inclusive services, regardless of their attitude toward this community. 2,828 social workers were asked to complete a 42 question researcher-created survey, Social Workers Attitudes and Practices Assessment, assessing their attitudes and practices toward the LGBTQ Community. The participant size was 116 (n = 116). Social workers were found to have affirming attitudes (M = 1.90) and provide inclusive practices (M = 1.93) toward the LGBTQ community. In addition, utilizing a multiple regression analysis, religiosity correlates to social workers’ attitudes and practices toward the LGBTQ community: organized religious activity (ORA) (p < .001), non-organized religious activity (NORA) (p = .01) and intrinsic religiosity (IR) (p < .01) are each statistically significant predictors of one’s attitude and ORA (p = .03) and IR (p = .001) are statistically significant predictors of one’s practices. Attitude is a statistically significant predictor of practice toward the LGBTQ community (p < .001). The results of this study provide a point-in-time count and framework for future research to study the evolution of social workers’ religiosity, as well as their attitudes and practices toward the LGBTQ community.
Permission Type
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Included in
Attitudes and Practices of Social Workers Toward the LGBTQ Community
Other
Social workers have a unique opportunity to serve people by meeting basic human needs, combating oppression and marginalization, and advocating for social justice. The purpose of this correlational, quantitative study was to measure the relationship between attitudes and practices among social workers toward the LGBTQ community with a specific examination of the religiosity of social workers, in order to assess if a social worker provides appropriate, inclusive services, regardless of their attitude toward this community. 2,828 social workers were asked to complete a 42 question researcher-created survey, Social Workers Attitudes and Practices Assessment, assessing their attitudes and practices toward the LGBTQ Community. The participant size was 116 (n = 116). Social workers were found to have affirming attitudes (M = 1.90) and provide inclusive practices (M = 1.93) toward the LGBTQ community. In addition, utilizing a multiple regression analysis, religiosity correlates to social workers’ attitudes and practices toward the LGBTQ community: organized religious activity (ORA) (p < .001), non-organized religious activity (NORA) (p = .01) and intrinsic religiosity (IR) (p < .01) are each statistically significant predictors of one’s attitude and ORA (p = .03) and IR (p = .001) are statistically significant predictors of one’s practices. Attitude is a statistically significant predictor of practice toward the LGBTQ community (p < .001). The results of this study provide a point-in-time count and framework for future research to study the evolution of social workers’ religiosity, as well as their attitudes and practices toward the LGBTQ community.