social work methods of research

Social Work Research Methods That Drive the Practice

Social workers advocate for the well-being of individuals, families and communities. But how do social workers know what interventions are needed to help an individual? How do they assess whether a treatment plan is working? What do social workers use to write evidence-based policy?

Social work involves research-informed practice and practice-informed research. At every level, social workers need to know objective facts about the populations they serve, the efficacy of their interventions and the likelihood that their policies will improve lives. A variety of social work research methods make that possible.

Data-Driven Work

Data is a collection of facts used for reference and analysis. In a field as broad as social work, data comes in many forms.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative

As with any research, social work research involves both quantitative and qualitative studies.

Quantitative Research

Answers to questions like these can help social workers know about the populations they serve — or hope to serve in the future.

• How many students currently receive reduced-price school lunches in the local school district?
• How many hours per week does a specific individual consume digital media?
• How frequently did community members access a specific medical service last year?

Quantitative data — facts that can be measured and expressed numerically — are crucial for social work.

Quantitative research has advantages for social scientists. Such research can be more generalizable to large populations, as it uses specific sampling methods and lends itself to large datasets. It can provide important descriptive statistics about a specific population. Furthermore, by operationalizing variables, it can help social workers easily compare similar datasets with one another.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative data — facts that cannot be measured or expressed in terms of mere numbers or counts — offer rich insights into individuals, groups and societies. It can be collected via interviews and observations.

• What attitudes do students have toward the reduced-price school lunch program?
• What strategies do individuals use to moderate their weekly digital media consumption?
• What factors made community members more or less likely to access a specific medical service last year?

Qualitative research can thereby provide a textured view of social contexts and systems that may not have been possible with quantitative methods. Plus, it may even suggest new lines of inquiry for social work research.

Mixed Methods Research

Combining quantitative and qualitative methods into a single study is known as mixed methods research. This form of research has gained popularity in the study of social sciences, according to a 2019 report in the academic journal Theory and Society. Since quantitative and qualitative methods answer different questions, merging them into a single study can balance the limitations of each and potentially produce more in-depth findings.

However, mixed methods research is not without its drawbacks. Combining research methods increases the complexity of a study and generally requires a higher level of expertise to collect, analyze and interpret the data. It also requires a greater level of effort, time and often money.

The Importance of Research Design

Data-driven practice plays an essential role in social work. Unlike philanthropists and altruistic volunteers, social workers are obligated to operate from a scientific knowledge base.

To know whether their programs are effective, social workers must conduct research to determine results, aggregate those results into comprehensible data, analyze and interpret their findings, and use evidence to justify next steps.

Employing the proper design ensures that any evidence obtained during research enables social workers to reliably answer their research questions.

Research Methods in Social Work

The various social work research methods have specific benefits and limitations determined by context. Common research methods include surveys, program evaluations, needs assessments, randomized controlled trials, descriptive studies and single-system designs.

Surveys involve a hypothesis and a series of questions in order to test that hypothesis. Social work researchers will send out a survey, receive responses, aggregate the results, analyze the data, and form conclusions based on trends.

Surveys are one of the most common research methods social workers use — and for good reason. They tend to be relatively simple and are usually affordable. However, surveys generally require large participant groups, and self-reports from survey respondents are not always reliable.

Program Evaluations

Social workers ally with all sorts of programs: after-school programs, government initiatives, nonprofit projects and private programs, for example.

Crucially, social workers must evaluate a program’s effectiveness in order to determine whether the program is meeting its goals and what improvements can be made to better serve the program’s target population.

Evidence-based programming helps everyone save money and time, and comparing programs with one another can help social workers make decisions about how to structure new initiatives. Evaluating programs becomes complicated, however, when programs have multiple goal metrics, some of which may be vague or difficult to assess (e.g., “we aim to promote the well-being of our community”).

Needs Assessments

Social workers use needs assessments to identify services and necessities that a population lacks access to.

Common social work populations that researchers may perform needs assessments on include:

• People in a specific income group
• Everyone in a specific geographic region
• A specific ethnic group
• People in a specific age group

In the field, a social worker may use a combination of methods (e.g., surveys and descriptive studies) to learn more about a specific population or program. Social workers look for gaps between the actual context and a population’s or individual’s “wants” or desires.

For example, a social worker could conduct a needs assessment with an individual with cancer trying to navigate the complex medical-industrial system. The social worker may ask the client questions about the number of hours they spend scheduling doctor’s appointments, commuting and managing their many medications. After learning more about the specific client needs, the social worker can identify opportunities for improvements in an updated care plan.

In policy and program development, social workers conduct needs assessments to determine where and how to effect change on a much larger scale. Integral to social work at all levels, needs assessments reveal crucial information about a population’s needs to researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders. Needs assessments may fall short, however, in revealing the root causes of those needs (e.g., structural racism).

Randomized Controlled Trials

Randomized controlled trials are studies in which a randomly selected group is subjected to a variable (e.g., a specific stimulus or treatment) and a control group is not. Social workers then measure and compare the results of the randomized group with the control group in order to glean insights about the effectiveness of a particular intervention or treatment.

Randomized controlled trials are easily reproducible and highly measurable. They’re useful when results are easily quantifiable. However, this method is less helpful when results are not easily quantifiable (i.e., when rich data such as narratives and on-the-ground observations are needed).

Descriptive Studies

Descriptive studies immerse the researcher in another context or culture to study specific participant practices or ways of living. Descriptive studies, including descriptive ethnographic studies, may overlap with and include other research methods:

• Informant interviews
• Census data
• Observation

By using descriptive studies, researchers may glean a richer, deeper understanding of a nuanced culture or group on-site. The main limitations of this research method are that it tends to be time-consuming and expensive.

Single-System Designs

Unlike most medical studies, which involve testing a drug or treatment on two groups — an experimental group that receives the drug/treatment and a control group that does not — single-system designs allow researchers to study just one group (e.g., an individual or family).

Single-system designs typically entail studying a single group over a long period of time and may involve assessing the group’s response to multiple variables.

For example, consider a study on how media consumption affects a person’s mood. One way to test a hypothesis that consuming media correlates with low mood would be to observe two groups: a control group (no media) and an experimental group (two hours of media per day). When employing a single-system design, however, researchers would observe a single participant as they watch two hours of media per day for one week and then four hours per day of media the next week.

These designs allow researchers to test multiple variables over a longer period of time. However, similar to descriptive studies, single-system designs can be fairly time-consuming and costly.

Learn More About Social Work Research Methods

Social workers have the opportunity to improve the social environment by advocating for the vulnerable — including children, older adults and people with disabilities — and facilitating and developing resources and programs.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Social Work Research Methods

Introduction.

• History of Social Work Research Methods
• Feasibility Issues Influencing the Research Process
• Measurement Methods
• Existing Scales
• Group Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Evaluating Outcome
• Single-System Designs for Evaluating Outcome
• Program Evaluation
• Surveys and Sampling
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• Advanced Aspects of Inferential Statistics
• Qualitative Research Methods
• Qualitative Data Analysis
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• Teaching Social Work Research Methods

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• Community-Based Participatory Research
• Economic Evaluation
• Evidence-based Social Work Practice
• Evidence-based Social Work Practice: Finding Evidence
• Evidence-based Social Work Practice: Issues, Controversies, and Debates
• Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs
• Impact of Emerging Technology in Social Work Practice
• Implementation Science and Practice
• Interviewing
• Measurement, Scales, and Indices
• Meta-analysis
• Occupational Social Work
• Postmodernism and Social Work
• Qualitative Research
• Research, Best Practices, and Evidence-based Group Work
• Social Intervention Research
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Social Work Research Methods by Allen Rubin LAST REVIEWED: 14 December 2009 LAST MODIFIED: 14 December 2009 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389678-0008

Social work research means conducting an investigation in accordance with the scientific method. The aim of social work research is to build the social work knowledge base in order to solve practical problems in social work practice or social policy. Investigating phenomena in accordance with the scientific method requires maximal adherence to empirical principles, such as basing conclusions on observations that have been gathered in a systematic, comprehensive, and objective fashion. The resources in this entry discuss how to do that as well as how to utilize and teach research methods in social work. Other professions and disciplines commonly produce applied research that can guide social policy or social work practice. Yet no commonly accepted distinction exists at this time between social work research methods and research methods in allied fields relevant to social work. Consequently useful references pertaining to research methods in allied fields that can be applied to social work research are included in this entry.

This section includes basic textbooks that are used in courses on social work research methods. Considerable variation exists between textbooks on the broad topic of social work research methods. Some are comprehensive and delve into topics deeply and at a more advanced level than others. That variation is due in part to the different needs of instructors at the undergraduate and graduate levels of social work education. Most instructors at the undergraduate level prefer shorter and relatively simplified texts; however, some instructors teaching introductory master’s courses on research prefer such texts too. The texts in this section that might best fit their preferences are by Yegidis and Weinbach 2009 and Rubin and Babbie 2007 . The remaining books might fit the needs of instructors at both levels who prefer a more comprehensive and deeper coverage of research methods. Among them Rubin and Babbie 2008 is perhaps the most extensive and is often used at the doctoral level as well as the master’s and undergraduate levels. Also extensive are Drake and Jonson-Reid 2007 , Grinnell and Unrau 2007 , Kreuger and Neuman 2006 , and Thyer 2001 . What distinguishes Drake and Jonson-Reid 2007 is its heavy inclusion of statistical and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) content integrated with each chapter. Grinnell and Unrau 2007 and Thyer 2001 are unique in that they are edited volumes with different authors for each chapter. Kreuger and Neuman 2006 takes Neuman’s social sciences research text and adapts it to social work. The Practitioner’s Guide to Using Research for Evidence-based Practice ( Rubin 2007 ) emphasizes the critical appraisal of research, covering basic research methods content in a relatively simplified format for instructors who want to teach research methods as part of the evidence-based practice process instead of with the aim of teaching students how to produce research.

Drake, Brett, and Melissa Jonson-Reid. 2007. Social work research methods: From conceptualization to dissemination . Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

This introductory text is distinguished by its use of many evidence-based practice examples and its heavy coverage of statistical and computer analysis of data.

Grinnell, Richard M., and Yvonne A. Unrau, eds. 2007. Social work research and evaluation: Quantitative and qualitative approaches . 8th ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

Contains chapters written by different authors, each focusing on a comprehensive range of social work research topics.

Kreuger, Larry W., and W. Lawrence Neuman. 2006. Social work research methods: Qualitative and quantitative applications . Boston: Pearson, Allyn, and Bacon.

An adaptation to social work of Neuman's social sciences research methods text. Its framework emphasizes comparing quantitative and qualitative approaches. Despite its title, quantitative methods receive more attention than qualitative methods, although it does contain considerable qualitative content.

Rubin, Allen. 2007. Practitioner’s guide to using research for evidence-based practice . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

This text focuses on understanding quantitative and qualitative research methods and designs for the purpose of appraising research as part of the evidence-based practice process. It also includes chapters on instruments for assessment and monitoring practice outcomes. It can be used at the graduate or undergraduate level.

Rubin, Allen, and Earl R. Babbie. 2007. Essential research methods for social work . Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks Cole.

This is a shorter and less advanced version of Rubin and Babbie 2008 . It can be used for research methods courses at the undergraduate or master's levels of social work education.

Rubin, Allen, and Earl R. Babbie. Research Methods for Social Work . 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks Cole, 2008.

This comprehensive text focuses on producing quantitative and qualitative research as well as utilizing such research as part of the evidence-based practice process. It is widely used for teaching research methods courses at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels of social work education.

Thyer, Bruce A., ed. 2001 The handbook of social work research methods . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

This comprehensive compendium includes twenty-nine chapters written by esteemed leaders in social work research. It covers quantitative and qualitative methods as well as general issues.

Yegidis, Bonnie L., and Robert W. Weinbach. 2009. Research methods for social workers . 6th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

This introductory paperback text covers a broad range of social work research methods and does so in a briefer fashion than most lengthier, hardcover introductory research methods texts.

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Scientific Inquiry in Social Work

(9 reviews)

Matthew DeCarlo, Radford University

Copyright Year: 2018

ISBN 13: 9781975033729

Publisher: Open Social Work Education

Language: English

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Reviewed by Shannon Blajeski, Assistant Professor, Portland State University on 3/10/23

This book provides an introduction to research and inquiry in social work with an applied focus geared for the MSW student. The text covers 16 chapters, including several dedicated to understanding how to begin the research process, a chapter on... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This book provides an introduction to research and inquiry in social work with an applied focus geared for the MSW student. The text covers 16 chapters, including several dedicated to understanding how to begin the research process, a chapter on ethics, and then eight chapters dedicated to research methods. The subchapters (1-5 per chapter) are concise and focused while also being tied to current knowledge and events so as to hold the reader's attention. It is comprehensive, but some of the later chapters covering research methods as well as the final chapter seem a bit scant and could be expanded. The glossary at the end of each chapter is helpful as is the index that is always accessible from the left-hand drop-down menu.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The author pulls in relevant current and recent public events to illustrate important points about social research throughout the book. Each sub-chapter reads as accurate. I did not come across any inaccuracies in the text, however I would recommend a change in the title of Chapter 15 as "real world research" certainly encompasses more than program evaluation, single-subject designs, and action research.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Another major strength of this book is that it adds currency to engage the reader while also maintaining its relevance to research methods. None of the current events/recent events that are described seem dated nor will they fade from relevance in a number of years. In addition, the concise nature of the modules should make them easy to update when needed to maintain relevancy in future editions.

Clarity rating: 5

Clarity is a major strength of this textbook. As described in the interface section, this book is written to be clear and concise, without unnecessary extra text that detracts from the concise content provided in each chapter. Any lengthy excerpts are also very engaging which lends itself to a clear presentation of content for the reader.

Consistency rating: 5

The text and content seems to be presented consistently throughout the book. Terminology and frameworks are balanced with real-world examples and current events.

Modularity rating: 5

The chapters of this textbook are appropriately spaced and easily digestible, particularly for readers with time constraints. Each chapter contains 3-5 sub-chapters that build upon each other in a scaffolding style. This makes it simple for the instructor to assign each chapter (sometimes two) per weekly session as well as add in additional assigned readings to complement the text.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The overall organization of the chapters flow well. The book begins with a typical introduction to research aimed at social work practitioners or new students in social work. It then moves into a set of chapters on beginning a research project, reviewing literature, and asking research questions, followed by a chapter on ethics. Next, the text transitions to three chapters covering constructs, measurement, and sampling, followed by five chapters covering research methods, and a closing chapter on dissemination of research. This is one of the more logically-organized research methods texts that I have used as an instructor.

Interface rating: 5

The modular chapters are easy to navigate and the interface of each chapter follows a standard presentation style with the reading followed by a short vocabulary glossary and references. This presentation lends itself to a familiarity for students that helps them become more efficient with completing reading assignments, even in short bursts of time. This is particularly important for online and returning learners who may juggle their assignment time with family and work obligations.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical errors were noted.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

At first glance at the table of contents, the book doesn't seem to be overtly committed to cultural representation, however, upon reading the chapters, it becomes clear that the author does try to represent and reference marginalized groups (e.g., women, individuals with disabilities, racial/ethnic/gender intersectionality) within the examples used. I also am very appreciative that the bottom of each introduction page for each chapter contains content trigger warnings for any possible topics that could be upsetting, e.g., substance abuse, violence.

As the author likely knows, social work students are eager to engage in learning that is current and relevant to their social causes. This book is written in a way that engages a non-researcher social worker into reading about research by weaving research information into topics that they might find compelling. It also does this in a concise way where short bits of pertinent information are presented, making the text accessible without needing to sustain long periods of attention. This is particularly important for online and returning learners who may need to sit with their readings in short bursts due to attending school while juggling work and family obligations.

Reviewed by Lynn Goerdt, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin - Superior on 9/17/21

Text appears to be comprehensive in covering steps for typical SWK research class, taking students from the introduction of the purpose and importance of research to how to design and analyze research. Author covers the multitude of ways that... read more

Text appears to be comprehensive in covering steps for typical SWK research class, taking students from the introduction of the purpose and importance of research to how to design and analyze research. Author covers the multitude of ways that social workers engage in research as way of building knowledge and ways that social work practitioners conduct research to evaluate their practice, including outcome evaluation, single subject design, and action research. I particularly appreciated the last section on reporting research, which should be very practical.

Overall, content appears mostly accurate which few errors. Definitions and citations are mostly thorough and clear. Author does cite Wikipedia in at least one occasion which could be credible, depending on the source of the Wikipedia content. There were a few references within the text to comic or stories but the referenced material was not always apparent.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The content of Scientific Inquiry for Social Work is relevant, as the field of social work research methods does not appear to change quickly, although there are innovations. The author referenced examples which appear to be recent and likely relatable to interests of current students. Primary area of innovation is in using technology for the collection and analysis of data, which could be expanded, particularly using social media for soliciting research participants.

Style is personable and content appears to be accessible, which is a unique attribute for a research textbook. Author uses first person in many instances, particularly in the beginning to present the content as relatable.

Format appears to be consistent in format and relative length. Each chapter includes learning objectives, content advisory (if applicable), key takeaways and glossary. Author uses color and text boxes to draw attention to these sections.

Modularity rating: 4

Text is divided into modules which could easily be assigned and reviewed in a class. The text modules could also be re-structured if desired to fit curricular uniqueness’s. Author uses images to illuminate the concepts of the module or chapter, but they often take about 1/3 of the page, which extends the size of the textbook quite a bit. Unclear if benefit of images outweighs additional cost if PDF version is printed.

Textbook is organized in a very logical and clear fashion. Each section appears to be approximately 6-10 pages in length which seems to be an optimal length for student attention and comprehension.

Interface rating: 4

There were some distortions of the text (size and visibility) but they were a fairly minor distraction and did not appear to reduce access to the content. Otherwise text was easy to navigate.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

No grammatical errors were noted but hyperlinks to outside content were referenced but not always visible which occasionally resulted in an awkward read. Specific link may be in resources section of each chapter but occasionally they were also included in the text.

I did not recognize any text which was culturally insensitive or offensive. Images used which depicted people, appeared to represent diverse experiences, cultures, settings and persons. Did notice image depicting homelessness appeared to be stereotypical person sleeping on sidewalk, which can perpetuate a common perception of homelessness. Would encourage author to consider images representing a wider range of experiences of a social phenomena. Content advisories are used for each section, which is not necessarily cultural relevance but is respectful and recognizes the diversity of experiences and triggers that the readers may have.

Overall, I was very impressed and encouraged with the well organized content and thoughtful flow of this important textbook for social work students and instructors. The length and readability of each chapter would likely be appreciated by instructors as well as students, increasing the extent that the learning outcomes would be achieved. Teaching research is very challenging because the content and application can feel very intimidating. The author also has provided access to supplemental resources such as presentations and assignments.

Reviewed by elaine gatewood, Adjunct Faculty, Bridgewater State University on 6/15/21

The book provides concrete and clear information on using research as consumers, It provides a comprehensive review of each step to take to develop a research project from beginning to completion, with examples. read more

The book provides concrete and clear information on using research as consumers, It provides a comprehensive review of each step to take to develop a research project from beginning to completion, with examples.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

From my perspective, content is highly accurate in the field of learning research method and unbiased. It's all there!

The content is highly relevant and up-to-date in the field. The book is written and arranged in a way that its easy to follow along with adding updates.

The book is written in clear and concise. The book provides appropriate context for any jargon/technical terminology used along with examples which readers are able to follow along and understand.

The contents of the book flow quite well. The framework in the book is consistent.

The text appears easily adaptable for readers and the author also provides accompanying PowerPoint presentations; these are a good foundation tools for readers to use and implement.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The contents of the book flow very well. Readers would be able to put into practice the key reading strategies shared in the book ) because its organization is laid out nicely

Interface rating: 3

The interface is generally good, but I was only able to download the .pdf. This may present issues for some student readers.

There are no grammatical errors.

The text was culturally relevant and provided diverse research and practice examples. The text could have benefited from sexamples of intersectional and anti-oppressive lenses for students to consider in their practice.

This text is a comprehensive introduction to research that can be easily adapted for a BSW/MSW research course.

Reviewed by Taylor Hall, Assistant Professor, Bridgewater State University on 6/30/20

This text is more comprehensive than the text I currently use in my Research Methods in Social Work course, which students have to pay for. This text not only covers both qualitative and quantitative research methods, but also all parts of the... read more

This text is more comprehensive than the text I currently use in my Research Methods in Social Work course, which students have to pay for. This text not only covers both qualitative and quantitative research methods, but also all parts of the research process from thinking about research ideas to questions all the way to evaluation after social work programs/policies have been employed.

Not much to say here- with research methods, things are black and white; it is or isn't. This content is accurate. I also like to way the content is explained in light of social work values and ethics. This is something our students can struggle with, and this is helpful in terms of showing why social work needs to pay attention to research.

There are upcoming changes to CSWE's competencies, therefore lots of text materials are going to need to be updated soon. Otherwise, case examples are pertinent and timely.

Clarity rating: 4

I think that research methods for social workers is a difficult field of study. Many go into the field to be clinicians, and few understand (off the bat) the importance of understanding methods of research. I think this textbook makes it clear to me, but hard to rate a 5 as I know from a student's perspective, lots of the terminology is so new.

Appears to be so- I was able to follow, seems consistent.

Yes- and I think this is a strong point of this text. This was easy to follow and read, and I could see myself easily divvying up different sections for students to work on in groups.

Yes- makes sense to me and the way I teach this course. I like the 30,000 ft view then honing in on specific types of research, all along the way explaining the different pieces of the research process and in writing a research paper.

I sometimes struggle with online platforms versus in person texts to read, and this OER is visually appealing- there is not too much text on the pages, it is spaced in a way that makes it easier to read. Colors are used well to highlight pertinent information.

Not something I found in this text.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

This is a place where I feel the text could use some work. A nod to past wrongdoings in research methods on oppressed groups, and more of a discussion on social work's role in social justice with an eye towards righting the wrongs of the past. Updated language re: person first language, more diverse examples, etc.

This is a very useful text, and I am going to recommend my department check it out for future use, especially as many of our students are first gen and working class and would love to save money on textbooks where possible.

Reviewed by Olubunmi Oyewuwo-Gassikia, Assistant Professor, Northeastern Illinois University on 5/5/20

This text is an appropriate and comprehensive introduction to research methods for BSW students. It guides the reader through each stage of the research project, including identifying a research question, conducting and writing a literature... read more

This text is an appropriate and comprehensive introduction to research methods for BSW students. It guides the reader through each stage of the research project, including identifying a research question, conducting and writing a literature review, research ethics, theory, research design, methodology, sampling, and dissemination. The author explains complex concepts - such as paradigms, epistemology, and ontology - in clear, simple terms and through the use of practical, social work examples for the reader. I especially appreciated the balanced attention to quantitative and qualitative methods, including the explanation of data collection and basic analysis techniques for both. The text could benefit from the inclusion of an explanation of research design notations.

The text is accurate and unbiased. Additionally, the author effectively incorporates referenced sources, including sources one can use for further learning.

The content is relevant and timely. The author incorporates real, recent research examples that reflects the applicability of research at each level of social practice (micro, meso, and macro) throughout the text. The text will benefit from regular updates in research examples.

The text is written in a clear, approachable manner. The chapters are a reasonable length without sacrificing appropriate depth into the subject manner.

The text is consistent throughout. The author is effective in reintroducing previously explained terms from previous chapters.

The text appears easily adaptable. The instructions provided by the author on how to adapt the text for one's course are helpful to one who would like to use the text but not in its entirety. The author also provides accompanying PowerPoint presentations; these are a good foundation but will likely require tailoring based on the teaching style of the instructor.

Generally, the text flows well. However, chapter 5 (Ethics) should come earlier, preferably before chapter 3 (Reviewing & Evaluating the Literature). It is important that students understand research ethics as ethical concerns are an important aspect of evaluating the quality of research studies. Chapter 15 (Real-World Research) should also come earlier in the text, most suitably before or after chapter 7 (Design and Causality).

The interface is generally good, but I was only able to download the .pdf. The setup of the .pdf is difficult to navigate, especially if one wants to jump from chapter to chapter. This may present issues for the student reader.

The text was culturally relevant and provided diverse research and practice examples. The text could have benefited from more critical research examples, such as examples of research studies that incorporate intersectional and anti-oppressive lenses.

This text is a comprehensive introduction to research that can be easily adapted for a BSW level research course.

Reviewed by Smita Dewan, Assistant Professor, New York City College of Technology, Department of Human Services on 12/6/19

This is a very good introductory research methodology textbook for undergraduate students of social work or human services. For students who might be intimidated by social research, the text provides assurance that by learning basic concepts of... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This is a very good introductory research methodology textbook for undergraduate students of social work or human services. For students who might be intimidated by social research, the text provides assurance that by learning basic concepts of research methodology, students will be better scholars and social work or human service practitioners. The content and flow of the text book supports a basic assignment of most research methodology courses which is to develop a research proposal or a research project. Each stage of research is explained well with many examples from social work practice that has the potential to keep the student engaged.

The glossary at the end of each chapter is very comprehensive but does not include the page number/s where the content is located. The glossary at the end of the book also lacks page numbers which might make it cumbersome for students seeking a quick reference.

The content is accurate and unbiased. Suggested exercises and prompts for students to engage in critical thinking and to identify biases in research that informs practice may help students understand the complexities of social research.

Content is up-to-date and concepts of research methodology presented is unlikely to be obsolete in the coming years. However, recent trends in research such as data mining, using algorithms for social policy and practice implications, privacy concerns, role of social media are topics that could be considered for inclusion in the forthcoming editions.

Content is presented very clearly for undergraduate students. Key takeaways and glossary for each section of the chapter is very useful for students.

Presentation of content, format and organization is consistent throughout the book.

Subsections within each chapter is very helpful for the students who might be assigned readings just in parts for the class.

Students would benefit from reading about research ethics right after the introductory chapter. I would also move Chapter 8 to right after the literature review which might inform creating and refining the research question. Content on evaluation research could also be moved up to follow the chapter on experimental designs. Regardless of the organization, the course instructors can assign chapters according to the course requirements.

PDF version of the book is very easy to use especially as students can save a copy on their computers and do not have to be online. Charts and tables are well presented but some of the images/photographs do not necessarily serve to enhance learning. Image attributions could be provided at the end of the chapter instead of being listed under the glossary. Students might also find it useful to be able to highlight the content and make annotations. This requires that students sign-in. Students should be able to highlight and annotate a downloaded version through Adobe Reader.

I did not find any grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Content is not insensitive or offensive in any way. Supporting examples in chapters are very diverse. Students would benefit from some examples of international research (both positive and negative examples) of protection of human subjects.

Reviewed by Jill Hoffman, Assistant Professor, Portland State University on 10/29/19

This text includes 16 chapters that cover content related to the process of conducting research. From identifying a topic and reviewing the literature, to formulating a question, designing a study, and disseminating findings, the text includes... read more

This text includes 16 chapters that cover content related to the process of conducting research. From identifying a topic and reviewing the literature, to formulating a question, designing a study, and disseminating findings, the text includes research basics that most other introductory social work research texts include. Content on ethics, theory, and to a lesser extent evaluation, single-subject design, and action research are also included. There is a glossary at the end of the text that includes information on the location of the terms. There is a practice behaviors index, but not an index in the traditional sense. If using the text electronically, search functions make it easy to find necessary information despite not having an index. If using a printed version, this would be more difficult. The text includes examples to illustrate concepts that are relevant to settings in which social workers might work. As most other introductory social work research texts, this book appears to come from a mainly positivist view. I would have appreciated more of a discussion related to power, privilege, and oppression and the role these play in the research topics that get studied and who benefits, along with anti-oppressive research. Related to evaluations, a quick mention of logic models would be helpful.

The information appears to be accurate and error free. The language in the text seems to emphasize "right/wrong" choices/decisions instead of highlighting the complexities of research and practice. Using gender-neutral pronouns would also make the language more inclusive.

Content appears to be up-to-date and relevant. Any updating would be straightforward to carry out. I found at least one link that did not work (e.g., NREPP) so if you use this text it will be important to check and make sure things are updated.

The content is clearly written, using examples to illustrate various concepts. I appreciated prompts for questions throughout each chapter in order to engage students in the content. Key terms are bolded, which helps to easily identify important points.

Information is presented in a consistent manner throughout the text.

Each chapter is divided into subsections that help with readability. It is easy to pick and choose various pieces of the text for your course if you're not using the entire thing.

There are many ways you can organize a social work research text. Personally, I prefer to talk about ethics and theory early on, so that students have this as a framework as they read about other's studies and design their own. In the case of this text, I'd put those two chapters right after chapter 1. As others have suggested, I'd also move up the content on research questions, perhaps after chapter 4.

In the online version, no significant interface issues arose. The only thing that would be helpful is to have chapter titles clearly presented when navigating through the text in the online version. For example, when you click through to a new chapter, the title simply says "6.0 Chapter introduction." In order to see the chapter title you have to click into the contents tab. Not a huge issue but could help with navigating the online version. In the pdf version, the links in the table of contents allowed me to navigate through to various sections. I did notice that some of the external links were not complete (e.g., on page 290, the URL is linked as "http://baby-").

Cultural representation in the text is similar to many other introductory social work research texts. There's more of an emphasis on white, western, cis-gendered individuals, particularly in the images. In examples, it appeared that only male/female pronouns were used.

Reviewed by Monica Roth Day, Associate Professor, Social Work, Metropolitan State University (Saint Paul, Minnesota) on 12/26/18

The book provides concrete and clear information on using research as consumers, then developing research as producers of knowledge. It provides a comprehensive review of each step to take to develop a research project from beginning to... read more

The book provides concrete and clear information on using research as consumers, then developing research as producers of knowledge. It provides a comprehensive review of each step to take to develop a research project from beginning to completion, with appropriate examples. More specific social work links would be helpful as students learn more about the field and the uses of research.

The book is accurate and communicates information and largely without bias. Numerous examples are provided from varied sources, which are then used to discuss potential for bias in research. The addition of critical race theory concepts would add to this discussion, to ground students in the importance of understanding implicit bias as researchers and ways to develop their own awareness.

The book is highly relevant. It provides historical and current examples of research which communicate concepts using accessible language that is current to social work. The text is written so that updates should be easy. Links need to be updated on a regular basis.

The book is accessible for students at it uses common language to communicate concepts while helping students build their research vocabulary. Terminology is communicate both within the text and in glossaries, and technical terms are minimally used.

The book is consistent in its use of terminology and framework. It follows a pattern of development, from consuming research to producing research. The steps are predictable and walk students through appropriate actions to take.

The book is easily readable. Each chapter is divided in sections that are easy to navigate and understand. Pictures and tables are used to support text.

Chapters are in logical order and follow a common pattern.

When reading the book online, the text was largely free of interface issues. As a PDF, there were issues with formatting. Be aware that students who may wish to download the book into a Kindle or other book reader may experience issues.

The text was grammatically correct with no misspellings.

While the book is culturally relevant, it lacks the application of critical race theory. While students will learn about bias in research, critical race theory would ground students in the importance of understanding implicit bias as researchers and ways to develop their own awareness. It would also help students understand why the background of researchers is important in relation to the ways of knowing.

Reviewed by Jennifer Wareham, Associate Professor, Wayne State University on 11/30/18

The book provides a comprehensive introduction to research methods from the perspective of the discipline of Social Work. The book borrows heavily from Amy Blackstone’s Principles of Sociological Inquiry – Qualitative and Quantitative Methods open... read more

The book provides a comprehensive introduction to research methods from the perspective of the discipline of Social Work. The book borrows heavily from Amy Blackstone’s Principles of Sociological Inquiry – Qualitative and Quantitative Methods open textbook. The book is divided into 16 chapters, covering: differences in reasoning and scientific thought, starting a research project, writing a literature review, ethics in social science research, how theory relates to research, research design, causality, measurement, sampling, survey research, experimental design, qualitative interviews and focus groups, evaluation research, and reporting research. Some of the more advanced concepts and topics are only covered at superficial level, which limits the intended population of readers to high school students, undergraduate students, or those with no background in research methods. Since the book is geared toward Social Work undergraduate students, the chapters and content address methodologies commonly used in this field, but ignore methodologies that may be more popular in other social science fields. For example, the material on qualitative methods is narrow and focuses on commonly used qualitative methods in Social Work. In addition, the chapter on evaluation is limited to a general overview of evaluation research, which could be improved with more in-depth discussion of different types of evaluation (e.g., needs assessment, evaluability assessment, process evaluation, impact/outcomes evaluation) and real-world examples of different types of evaluation implemented in Social Work. Overall, the author provides examples that are easy for practitioners in Social Work to understand, which are also easily relatable for students in similar disciplines such as criminal justice. The book provides a glossary of key terms. There is no index; however, users can search for terms using the find (Ctrl-F) function in the PDF version of the book.

Overall, the content inside this book is accurate, error-free, and unbiased. However, the content is limited to the Social Work perspective, which may be considered somewhat biased or inaccurate from the perspective of others in different disciplines.

The book describes classic examples used in most texts on social science research methods. It also includes contemporary and relevant examples. Some of the content (such as web addresses and contemporary news pieces) will need to be updated every few years. The text is written and arranged in such a way that any necessary updates should be relatively easy and straightforward to implement.

The book is written in clear and accessible prose. The book provides appropriate context for any jargon/technical terminology used. Readers from any social science discipline should be able to understand the content and context of the material presented in the book.

The framework and use of terminology in the book are consistent.

This book is highly modular. The author has even improved upon the modularity of the book from Blackstone’s open text (which serves as the basis of the present text). Each chapter is divided into short, related subsections. The design of the chapters and their subsections make it easy to divide the material into units of study across a semester or quarter of instruction.

Generally, the book is organized in a similar manner as other texts on social science research methods. However, the organization could be improved slightly. Chapters 2 through 4 describe the process of beginning a research project and conducting a literature review. Chapter 8 describes refining a research question. This chapter could be moved to follow the Chapter 4. Chapter 12 describes experimental design, while Chapter 15 provides a description and examples of evaluation research. Since evaluation research tends to rely on experimental and quasi-experimental design, this chapter should follow the experimental design chapter.

For the online version of the book, there were no interface issues. The images and charts were clear and readable. The hyperlinks to sources mentioned in the text worked. The Contents menu allowed for easy and quick access to any section of the book. For the PDF version of the book, there were interface issues. The images and charts were clear and readable. However, the URLs and hyperlinks were not active in the PDF version. Furthermore, the PDF version was not bookmarked, which made it more difficult to access specific sections of the book.

I did not find grammatical errors in the book.

Overall, the cultural relevance and sensitivity were consistent with other social science research methods texts. The author does a good job of using both female and male pronouns in the prose. While there are pictures of people of color, there could be more. Most of the pictures are of white people. Also, the context is generally U.S.-centric.

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1: Introduction to research
• Chapter 2: Beginning a research project
• Chapter 3: Reading and evaluating literature
• Chapter 4: Conducting a literature review
• Chapter 5: Ethics in social work research
• Chapter 6: Linking methods with theory
• Chapter 7: Design and causality
• Chapter 8: Creating and refining a research question
• Chapter 9: Defining and measuring concepts
• Chapter 10: Sampling
• Chapter 11: Survey research
• Chapter 12: Experimental design
• Chapter 13: Interviews and focus groups
• Chapter 14: Unobtrusive research: Qualitative and quantitative approaches
• Chapter 15: Real-world research: Evaluation, single-subjects, and action research
• Chapter 16: Reporting and reading research

Ancillary Material

• Open Social Work Education

About the Book

As an introductory textbook for social work students studying research methods, this book guides students through the process of creating a research project. Students will learn how to discover a researchable topic that is interesting to them, examine scholarly literature, formulate a proper research question, design a quantitative or qualitative study to answer their question, carry out the design, interpret quantitative or qualitative results, and disseminate their findings to a variety of audiences. Examples are drawn from the author's practice and research experience, as well as topical articles from the literature.

There are ancillary materials available for this book.  

About the Contributors

Matt DeCarlo earned his PhD in social work at Virginia Commonwealth University and is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Radford University. He earned an MSW from George Mason University in 2010 and a BA in Psychology from the College of William and Mary in 2007. His research interests include open educational resources, self-directed Medicaid supports, and basic income. Matt is an Open Textbook Network Campus Leader for Radford University. He is the founder of Open Social Work Education, a non-profit collaborative advancing OER in social work education.

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Article Contents

Introduction, what is practice research and why (and for whom) does it matter, practice research as an organisationally rooted participatory research methodology, practice research frameworks, how can service users benefit from participating in practice research, integrating practice research processes into social service organisational analysis, applications of practice research for social service organisations, methodological and ethical considerations for practice research-based organisational analysis, implications and an agenda for social work researchers, acknowledgements.

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Practice research methods in social work: Processes, applications and implications for social service organisations

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Bowen McBeath, Michael J Austin, Sarah Carnochan, Emmeline Chuang, Practice research methods in social work: Processes, applications and implications for social service organisations, The British Journal of Social Work , Volume 52, Issue 6, September 2022, Pages 3328–3346, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcab246

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Although social work research is commonly rooted within social service settings, it can be difficult for social work researchers and practitioners to develop and sustain participatory studies that specifically promote knowledge sharing and service improvement involving organisational practice. One participatory approach is practice research (PR), which involves social work researchers and practitioners collaborating to define, understand and try to improve the delivery of health and social care services and organisational structures and processes. The two goals of this commentary are to introduce essential methods and approaches to PR and to identify points of connection involving PR and social service organisational studies. Our specific focus on PR in statutory, voluntary and private social service organisations reflects efforts to connect practice, theory and qualitative and quantitative research methods to develop and share organisationally-situated knowledge.

This paper offers an overview of practice research (PR) that focuses on the delivery of social work services in social service organisations. PR is a participatory method used by researchers to address the needs of vulnerable populations, notably poor communities of colour, who receive health and social care services in formal organisational settings. PR is ‘a knowledge development process that focuses primarily on the roles of the service provider, service user, and the service researcher who all participate in defining the research questions and interpreting the findings’ ( Fisher et al. , 2016 ). PR therefore seeks to improve social work and other social services and promote the well-being of service users; and functions as a collaborative process that minimises power differentials between participants ( Austin, 2020 ).

The macro-organisational context of PR studies includes concerns of managerialism amidst neoliberalism, involving increased professionalisation, the use of evidence-based practices and the structuring of service programmes around carefully defined performance measures in response to administrative and policy requirements ( Hasenfeld and Garrow, 2012 ; Harlow et al. , 2013 ; Yan et al. , 2017 ). The meso-organisational context of PR studies involves the development and sustainment of organisational spaces for reflection and sharing that support practitioner engagement in evidence-informed practice ( Carnochan et al. , 2017 ; Brandt et al. , 2020 ). The immediate context for PR is the bureaucratic encounters that involve staff and service users as well as practitioner use of research to promote organisational learning ( Austin and Carnochan, 2020 ). With its specific focus on statutory, voluntary and private social service organisations, PR aims to strengthen the collaborative capacity of practitioners and researchers to support service improvement and responsiveness to the perspectives of service users (capturing the expertise of experience).

In order to describe PR within organisations providing health and social care services, our paper is divided into four sections. First, we provide a brief introduction to PR to characterise its core elements. We also provide a brief review of the major approaches to PR, distinguishing between PR frameworks at different levels of practice and in different geographic contexts. We then identify how service users can benefit from PR. Secondly, we identify how PR processes can be integrated within social service organisational analysis, focusing in particular on how practice researchers and their agency partners (notably front line staff and managers) collaboratively seek to improve social service delivery, support organisational learning and promote interorganisational knowledge sharing. We also summarise PR processes that are based on the core concepts embedded in the science of the concrete (SOC) ( Flyvbjerg, 2001 ). Thirdly, we illustrate the applications of PR for local authorities/counties and voluntary social service organisations with the use of three brief examples featuring methodological and ethical considerations for researchers using PR approaches. Finally, we conclude by identifying implications for social work organisational researchers participating in PR studies and proposing a future research agenda.

At its core, PR is a negotiated process involving multiple stakeholders ( Uggerhøj, 2011 ). These stakeholders include statutory, voluntary and private social service organisations; managers, staff and service users within the organisation; researchers; and policymakers and community leaders. They all function within the context of intergroup communications, negotiation and shared learning needed to address the gap between research and practice and support learning across role-based social, cultural and organisational distances ( Austin and Carnochan, 2020 ).

In order to address this gap, PR involves elements of both practice and research. The elements of practice include: (1) engaging and including diverse types of stakeholders; (2) an effort to rebalance power relationships across organisational contexts, by validating the experiences and expertise of participants at different levels of the organisation; (3) open and frequent conversations to promote dialogue and sustain norms of trust and reciprocity; and (4) an appreciation for the critical role of organisational supports (notably managers) for exploring service innovation ( Uggerhøj, 2011 ).

Essential research elements of PR include the use of quantitative and qualitative data, as well as the reliance on evidence collected within the agency setting. The use of different types of evidence can generate two major research tensions; namely, balancing the breadth (as seen in large organisational surveys and administrative service databases) and depth (e.g. analysis of client case records, in-depth interviews) of research while navigating the tension between research rigour and practice wisdom displayed by practitioners and service users ( Julkunen, 2011 ).

These practice and research elements are integrated into PR studies that evolve in response to ongoing and changing agency needs and priorities. Facilitated group dialogue is used to collaboratively identify practice concerns, conduct research in response to the concerns, and share findings with a focus on assessing current social work practices and identifying opportunities for improvement ( Austin, 2020 ). PR involves power sharing and role shifting through reciprocal learning, as traditionally less-engaged stakeholders explore new roles (e.g. from service user to PR partner); and as managers and researchers reframe their traditional roles (e.g. exploring the emergence of practice-informed management research and research-informed management practice) ( Fisher et al. , 2016 ).

As one of several participatory social science research methods, PR reflects the emphasis of researchers on practice-in-context. In particular, PR shares a number of characteristics with participatory action research (PAR) and empowerment evaluation. In each method, collaboration with service users and other stakeholder groups is central to identifying basic research questions that relate to practices, programmes and/or policies as expressions of larger institutional forces. Furthermore, these approaches draw on diverse sources of literature, including practice and policy reports as well as academic research studies, to inform research questions. Lastly, collaborative collection and analysis of qualitative and/or quantitative data is carried out by research and practice partners across the three research traditions ( Healy, 2001 ; Fetterman et al. , 2017 ).

However, while PR shares many similarities with PAR and programme evaluation principles, it also differs in several important ways related to goals, data sources, data interpretation and the nature of knowledge development and dissemination (see Table 1 ). For example, a main goal of programme evaluation includes the central role of specifying programme objectives to inform funder or organisational decision making in a narrowly defined area (e.g. continue, modify or eliminate a programme). In contrast, PR goals may be much broader, and intended to inform participants’ conceptual thinking about current practice or service delivery and create dialogical opportunities without the same emphasis on direct implications for organisational decision making. Differences also appear in the area of research dissemination. Specifically, programme evaluation results are often used to support organisational planning in response to formal funding and policy requirements, and PAR is often used to support socio-political action or community change. In comparison, PR focuses more on service and practice improvement as well as the relationship between theory and practice, with the goal of encouraging more research-minded practitioners and more practice-minded researchers ( Saurama and Julkunen, 2012 ).

Comparing PR with other research frameworks a

Adapted from Austin and Carnochan (2020 , p. 199).

Another critical factor that distinguishes PR from other participatory research methods is the connection between social work practice and social service managers. Compared to action research and empowerment evaluation methodologies, PR is more explicitly organisational in understanding how managers, front line staff and service users make sense of their diverse roles and often competing statuses. PR is also more attentive to the collaborative interrelationships of service users, front line agency staff and managers in their interorganisational and institutional context. Finally, PR demonstrates an awareness of how questions of service delivery reflect the professionalisation of social work and social services vis-à-vis questions of organisational learning ( Fisher et al. , 2016 ).

Finally, another key difference between PR and its related methodologies can be found in the relationship of organisationally situated theories vis-à-vis practice. For practice researchers, considerations of theory-informed practice and practice-informed theory are important ( Fisher, 2011 ). The exploration and development of diverse theories (e.g. cultural–historical activity theory; Foot, 2014 ) helps practice researchers and participants identify shared practice challenges and explore possible solutions. For example, practice researchers can share lessons learned and practice implications of different theories of group-based learning and relational work, so that managers, workers and service users can determine how each theory enhances shared understanding of service problems and possible solutions ( Austin, 2020 ; Muurinen and Kaarianen, 2021 ).

In sum, PR is explicitly rooted within social service organisations, with a basic goal of collaborating to improve the delivery of health and social care services and organisational capacity within and between organisations ( Austin and Carnochan, 2020 ). Practice researchers pay close attention to the delivery of front line services as well as multilevel practice issues relating to managers, staff and service users.

The evolution of PR has reflected theoretical and practical developments. Practice researchers have used person-in-organisation theories of practice in an effort to explain the ‘everyday actions’ ( Feldman and Orlikowski, 2011 , p. 1241) and ‘concrete activities’ ( Barley and Kunda, 2001 , p. 76) that capture the relationship between agency-based service providers and service users. Researchers have also proposed ways of enhancing the practical relevance of research that involves social work researchers and practitioners promoting shared learning, with a goal of resolving fundamental service delivery dilemmas ( Austin et al. , 2014 ).

In response to these developments, the interrelated streams of PR have been explored in the form of collaboration and negotiation. For example, the foundational perspective of PR invites practitioners and service users to collaboratively identify opportunities to improve social work practices and organisational processes—particularly in response to administrative requirements and statutory mandates ( Fook and Gardner, 2007 ; Epstein, 2009 ). Similarly, there are opportunities to negotiate across differing approaches and perspectives that practitioners, service users and researchers bring to the knowledge production process ( Uggerhøj, 2011 ).

Based on the original formulation of PR, Julkunen (2011) developed a typology of PR studies, distinguishing between practitioner-oriented, generative, method-oriented and democratic models. In the practitioner-oriented model, the practitioner reflectively dialogues with others in order to address pressing practice issues. The generative model involves cycles of agency practice and research designed to connect practical knowledge to action by testing and evaluating potential practice innovations. The method-oriented model involves the service user, practitioner and researcher collaboratively developing practice-based knowledge as well as knowledge that can inform theory development and application. Finally, the democratic model focuses specifically on service users, practitioners, researchers and organisational and system leaders using PR to advocate for practice reforms, thereby connecting PR to policy change (also see Fisher, 2013 ).

Although scholarship on PR has historically reflected the perspectives of Nordic and US academic institutions and social welfare states, a globally diverse body of PR literature is emerging ( Chan and Sim, 2020 ). This literature demonstrates that different PR studies may reflect different: political, policy and organisational contexts of social service delivery; research methods; understandings of service user and practitioner involvement and collaboration and understandings of practice ( Sim et al. , 2018 ).

Empirical research on benefits accrued by service users when engaging in PR is currently limited. However, preliminary evidence suggests that benefits can be organised in terms of empowerment processes and measurable outcomes built on the service user premise of ‘nothing about us, without us’ ( Beresford and McLaughlin, 2020 ). Such processes invite PR participants to learn how to participate in non-hierarchical relationships that ensure diversity, equity and inclusion among service users and providers. This partnership relationship often involves joint problem-solving as well as developing a critical consciousness leading to an alliance through the articulation of shared and different needs and challenges ( Fook and Gardner, 2007 ). Engaging in this process can help service users gain a greater understanding of the contextualised nature of social problems they face.

Another key benefit of participating in PR involves expanding the capacities of service users to amplify their own voices and assume the position of representing the perspectives of peer-colleagues ( Austin and Carnochan, 2020 ). Service users may advocate internally (in response to management directives) and externally (in response to policy dicta and fiscal requirements). As they engage in advocacy efforts, service users can also increase their skills in identifying and accessing community resources (e.g. job training programmes that enhance employability). The process of engaging in humanising power-sharing relationships using dialogical communications between service users, staff and managers can thus involve a shared search for community resources and organisational funding needed to maintain service delivery at needed levels ( Ramon et al. , 2019 ).

The benefits of service user involvement do not necessarily lead to major organisational changes when the focus is on modifying or improving direct service or managerial practice. However, service user involvement can lead to both changes in practice as well as changes in organisational policies and structures ( Julkunen, 2011 ; Fisher, 2013 ). Through involvement in PR, service users can also participate in training and other learning-oriented events as co-equals with staff and other community stakeholders. These opportunities can involve service users playing critical roles of knowledge navigation and translation within social service organisational contexts, particularly where service user perspectives are needed to translate deep knowledge of programme and policy gaps to staff, managers and policymakers ( Muurinen and Kaarianen, 2021 ). Such PR efforts can help spur organisational change and the development of new approaches to system transformation. For service users, skills acquired through participation in PR can also be leveraged in future advocacy efforts or employment opportunities (e.g. serving as a consultant or staff member based on their expertise of experience with a particular social issue) ( Voronka and Grant, 2021 ).

In summary, some of the major benefits derived from service user involvement have been documented ( Natland and Celik, 2015 ) by noting the transition of service user from functioning with a sense of shame or trauma to one of pride and empowerment, in addition to learning how services can be evaluated and improved based on timely and strategic input from service users. A major limitation related to service user involvement could be that their involvement in which their service user experiences are contextualised or revisited could result in being retraumatised (e.g. reliving the experiences of being homeless, incarcerated, unemployed, physically disabled or mentally disabled), especially when acquiring the ‘big picture understanding’ of the pervasiveness of social problems in the larger society ( Müller and Pihl-Thingvad, 2020 ).

The next section identifies common approaches for practice researchers to collaborate with agency-based practitioners and managers in support of service user preferences.

PR processes reflect the evolving interests of social service organisational researchers and practitioners, as seen in their concerns with the formal delivery of contract-based public services, with specific focus on service access and equity considerations ( Jindra et al. , 2020 ). In a similar way, PR processes capture the concerns of managerialism as a response to neoliberalism and austerity, especially in European, Australian and Asian social welfare contexts ( Yan et al. , 2017 ; Alexander and Fernandez, 2021 ). Underlying these interests is an abiding focus on studies that validate and feature the perspectives of service users and service providers ( Hasenfeld and Garrow, 2012 ; Harlow et al. , 2013 ). These studies reflect decades of organisational research, as seen in Table 2 (for a review, see Austin and Carnochan, 2020 ). The overarching effort is to democratise knowledge sharing within social service organisational settings by identifying complementary ways for service users, practitioners, researchers and advocates to contribute to social service delivery.

Complementary types of practice research with social service organisations

For social service organisational scholars, PR processes support exploratory, explanatory and interventive research aims. In exploratory research, PR is used to identify the diverse organisational experiences of service users and service providers ( Austin, 2020 ). These exploratory studies are analogous to participatory needs assessments. In contrast, explanatory PR examines connections between service, programme or policy logics, and identifies broken or missing logics reflecting needed resources (notably, time, funding and training). For example, the identification of gaps between needs and services often reflects historically and/or currently unaddressed service needs (as seen by service users), programme needs (as perceived by front line staff) and organisational learning and policy implementation needs (as viewed by agency leaders) ( Hasenfeld and Garrow, 2012 ; Spitzmueller, 2018 ). Finally, PR can support intervention studies that involve the co-design, co-development, refinement and sharing of new practices within programmes (e.g. practical innovations that benefit service users and front line workers) ( Schalock et al. , 2014 ).

PR-based social service studies can be viewed from the perspectives of the SOC ( Flyvbjerg, 2001 ) that invites researchers to propose person-oriented research questions related to those individuals and groups most impacted by the issues at hand. The SOC also asks researchers to focus on small practices that support big events or processes by exploring everyday activities and their contexts that connect people and their organisational milieu. Finally, the SOC involves engaging multiple stakeholders while reducing power differentials. In PR, managers are viewed as essential linchpins who facilitate shared learning, by validating the multiple organisational identities of participants.

Although social service organisational research based on the SOC can take many forms, it ordinarily begins with question formulation around one or more practical problems or concerns. As elucidated by Austin and Carnochan (2020) , PR questions can take a variety of forms but generally involve three fundamental questions: How can we improve social services and, more broadly, enhance opportunities for health and social care? How can we amplify the voices of service users? and How can we sustain small innovations and promising practices in social work, particularly in different organisational and policy settings? Jointly defining PR questions involves validating the perspectives of each type of participant. Questions derived from the perspectives of service users and staff require considerable outreach in order to engage and amplify service user and practitioner voices (e.g. via service user- and staff-led meetings) ( Uggerhøj, 2011 ).

In comparison, organisational and policy-focused research questions are often formulated by senior management in regards to intra-organisational issues (e.g. cross-departmental coordination and collaboration) and inter-organisational issues (e.g. contracting and implementation challenges involving statutory, voluntary and private social service organisations) ( Fisher, 2013 ). Negotiating among the diverse types of research questions involves explaining why the questions are relevant for different groups, how each envisioned research study can support mutually beneficial goals, and what benefits and challenges might arise as a result.

Other key concepts of the SOC that support PR studies include collaboration and engagement with partners based on persistent communication, representation of diverse memberships, fostering inclusiveness, engaging in difficult conversations and consensus building. Other needed skills involve managing critical tensions, often relating to the responsibilities and expectations of different PR stakeholders. Additional tensions reflect the evolving demands of the organisation vis-à-vis its institutional environment. These tensions need to be addressed through shared dialogue in PR teams ( Julkunen, 2011 ).

As the PR team coalesces, it informs research design, data collection, data interpretation and research dissemination and utilisation in unique ways ( Austin, 2020 ). For example, the more traditional use of literature reviews is to ensure that the research questions and study design are informed by the latest peer-reviewed research studies, by reflecting their findings, key concepts, research methods and implications for future research. In comparison, building on existing knowledge in PR may also involve review of organisational documents, grey literature and the practice wisdom of practitioners and service users ( Austin and Carnochan, 2020 ).

In PR, literature reviews can also become ends in themselves. For example, PR-informed literature reviews can assist in reframing service processes (i.e. identifying how service users and practitioners understand the theories of action underlying service logic models); help staff to become more evidence-informed by reflecting on diverse practice literature and inform managerial decision-making processes. Similarly, in contrast to the traditional scholarly approach of disseminating research findings via peer-reviewed publications in academic journals, practice researchers also share findings directly with service providers and service users in the form of reports and presentations so that practice partners can identify novel applications and more effective approaches to practice.

This section provides three brief examples of PR-based organisational studies. The institutional context of the examples reflects a longstanding PR centre located in a US public research university, a regional consortium of county organisations that administer statutorily required social services and a regional consortium of non-profit organisations that provide voluntary social services. Regionalisation of PR efforts is not uncommon, particularly when organised through academic–practice partnerships involving research, education and training and service functions (often in metropolitan areas).

PR centres serve as network hubs for developing service, workforce and programme studies in response to institutional and local demands (e.g. new policy implementation requirements impacting service delivery). They share PR-based knowledge in order to advocate with local and regional policy and practice bodies, and work to promote mutual support and shared leadership among social service organisations. From the social service organisational perspective, consortium membership and affiliation with the PR centre can advance knowledge development and utilisation that might not otherwise be possible due to considerations of cost, research capacity or timing ( Schalock et al. , 2014 ). Whilst some PR centres are university-based ( Austin et al. , 1999 ), others are located in public settings (e.g. ministries of health and social services) ( Muurinen and Kaarianen, 2021 ). However, the general purpose of PR centres is similar to centres providing applied evaluation and technical assistance.

For over twenty-five years, the PR centre from which the following examples are drawn has supported collaborative, usable knowledge related to the management and improvement of social work services across the public and non-profit social service sectors ( Austin, 2018 ). Its studies have involved research at the front line, organisational and inter-organisational levels, ranging from qualitative agency-based case studies to large quantitative surveys that span public and non-profit organisations across the region. The studies have supported the collection and sharing of three types of research evidence as noted by Nutley et al. (2007) . The first type relates to conceptual evidence that is often drawn from exploratory PR studies that are designed to support future applications. The second type includes persuasive research evidence that often involves explanatory PR, and is used to advocate (within organisations) and externally (notably, with policymakers, funders and civic leaders). And the third type involves instrumental evidence that often relates to explanatory or interventive PR that is designed to support practice improvements (notably in response to identified service and training needs).

To illustrate some of these PR-informed studies of service delivery, we note the purpose of each study, and then summarise its use by study partners and the consortia of local authorities/counties and non-profit social service organisations. As each study evolved, practice researchers attended to the perspectives of organisational partners through persistent communications, relational work centred in interpersonal and small group meetings, managing tensions in response to ongoing and new challenges and celebrating successes.

The first example involved an exploration of the attributes and sustainability of pioneering non-profit social service organisations through in-depth case histories ( Austin, 2013 ) and focused on the organisational developmental needs of long-serving nonprofits. The study partners and regional consortium of non-profit social service organisations expressed significant interest in findings, leading to requests for self-assessment-based organisational and management support tools designed to promote front line service improvement.

The second example was a survey-based study of how front line and management practitioners across eleven county-based public social service organisations engaged in evidence-informed practice. The quantitative aspect of the study noted the importance of organisational roles and resources, and individual practitioner attitudes towards practice and innovation, in supporting different levels of evidence use ( McBeath et al. , 2015 ). The qualitative component of the study identified the specific cognitive, interactive, action and compliance dimensions of evidence-informed practice that are embedded within agency-based social and organisational practices and priorities ( Carnochan et al. , 2017 ). This explanatory study resulted in the provision of recommendations to the eleven county social service organisations, focused on identifying needed resources and opportunities for peer sharing and social support.

The third example involved a mixed methods study examining the collaborative nature of non-profit contracting amidst technical challenges that reflect the underlying complexity of social service delivery. Qualitative, comparative case study analysis was used to explore the multiple dimensions of relational contracting between non-profit and county social service organisations in three counties ( McBeath et al. , 2017 ). The quantitative component of the study entailed surveying non-profit and county social service organisations across different counties to assess the importance of cross-sector communications, trust-building and shared client accountability for collaborative contracting and social service outcome achievement ( Carnochan et al. , 2019 ; Chuang et al. , 2020 ). Study findings identified the need for public-non-profit social service contracting support structures and processes, including: regularly scheduled cross-sector meetings to identify emergent needs and promising service approaches; and cross-sector training and technical assistance to promote collaborative contracting and improved service outcomes.

Each example involved engagement with agency directors, division heads, senior managers and line staff. In each study, the research design and reporting process was iterative between levels, in support of facilitating communication on broadly relevant topics involving diverse staff groups. Overall, these and other studies from the specific PR centre have regularly featured critical information exchange sessions, involving agency staff presentations of local practices as well as research staff presentations of research syntheses, and in which the audience is cross-division and multi-level.

PR methods complement social service organisational research methodologies in at least two ways. First, PR offers an alternative to traditional organisational research that relies on quantitative analysis of elite surveys (notably agency directors). In comparison, PR studies incorporate diverse types of data (e.g. use of agency documents, interviews, focus groups, surveys) and the perspectives of individuals at different levels of analysis (including administrators and managers, front line staff and service users). These qualitative and quantitative data collection methods are intended to address common source bias and validity concerns. Mixed methods PR studies therefore need to anticipate concerns about the perceived trustworthiness, credibility, confirmability and dependability of the data (e.g. by pilot testing survey instruments and interview guides). (For a summative review concerning how to promote the rigour and relevance of PR studies, see Austin and Carnochan (2020 , pp. 183–189)).

Secondly, PR provides a balanced response to the understanding of researchers as either directing and managing the research process, or serving in subsidiary roles. In comparison, PR is a participatory process in which the research interests and perspectives of the researchers and practitioners are actively negotiated, and often reflect multiple objectives ( Fisher et al. , 2016 ). As noted previously, these include instrumental objectives (e.g. to use PR to enhance understanding of services and programmes, and/or to support organisational learning) along with process and interactional objectives (e.g. to support PR-based participation and collaboration). Among the most challenging aspects embedded in negotiations are values-based objectives that are designed to enhance equity and empowerment through PR projects.

Practice researchers therefore need to be prepared to take on co-facilitative roles on issues ranging from research question formulation to the interpretation, use and wider sharing of PR findings in organisations and broader contexts. These co-roles are essential for addressing group dynamics and cross-sector challenges, celebrating shared wins and fostering inclusiveness and active dialogue. Working through these critical tensions depends on power sharing—particularly for practice researchers and senior agency staff vis-à-vis front line staff and service users—and reflects key elements of intergroup dialogue amidst difference ( Austin, 2020 ).

Whilst there is a wide range of ethical issues associated with PR that draws heavily from social science research, some of the more prominent issues include service user and case record confidentiality, final report contributor equity, teamwork accountability derived from participatory decision making in search of consensus and adherence to data source protocols. The theme of confidentiality is wide ranging. It includes respecting the confidential nature of service user information collected as part of a PR project. It also involves the confidential discussions among research team members, who can include service users and staff. A final concern relates to the ethics of the timely reporting of the research to service users, other agency stakeholders and the larger community (e.g. elected officials, other organisations and researchers). In essence, PR involves the various ethical views of three different communities; namely, the research community, the service provider community and the service user community. The convergence of these three perspectives can be challenging for the various participants to both understand and accept.

These methodological and ethical considerations lead to four suggestions for social service organisational researchers when co-facilitating PR studies to enhance their ability to anticipate common PR challenges. First, PR presents communication-based coordination challenges (involving questions of trust, ethical dilemmas and available expertise), as practice and research partners may need to dialogue regularly amidst already-demanding work schedules. Secondly, partners may face changing and/or limited capacity for and engagement with PR, particularly as practice and research roles and priorities evolve. Thirdly, navigating PR projects requires attending to differing perspectives on the time frame to generate research results, viewed as fast by university standards and slow by agency standards. Fourthly, practice researchers need to demonstrate the capacity to convert research implications into practical recommendations for organisational change given the limited experience with the unique aspects of organisational cultures that differ across participating agencies and research institutions. Underscoring these suggestions is the importance of practice researchers and agency partners remaining flexible with respect to different role-based expectations and university versus agency-based priorities.

We conclude with two major recommendations for social work researchers and practitioners in the social service organisational milieu. First, developing, maintaining and supporting collaborative, trust-based relationships is essential for PR studies. Relationship-building involves recognising mutually beneficial capabilities and shared objectives across different organisational roles (e.g. service users, staff and managers within the agency, and practice-informed researchers inside and outside the agency) to advance collaborative planning. Supporting relationships can involve power-sharing to promote mutual respect and trust as well as social support, particularly amidst the complex dynamics of PR teams. Sustaining relationships calls for transparent information-sharing, consistent communication to address evolving practice and research dilemmas and reciprocal risk-taking that respects the negotiated boundaries of various partners. Finally, sustained relationships often require continuous boundary spanning within the organisation and between agency and university partners.

For productive PR relationships to evolve, an ongoing assessment of practice and research relationships includes monitoring evolving organisational and community contexts, revisiting shared goals in light of changes, and managing PR project expectations in response to evolving stakeholder needs and ethical challenges. Relational work is perhaps the most essential dimension of collaborative, participatory research with social service organisational partners.

Secondly, for practice researchers and agency-based practitioners, the balancing of diverse relational commitments requires sustained self-reflection . Self-reflection involves considering the tensions between the breadth and depth possible in empirical research as well as between the commitment to peer-reviewed empirical research and the investment in practice-based research (e.g. grey literature, agency statistics, practice wisdom). Self-reflection also relates to addressing the different expectations and emphases of service users, staff, managers and other agency stakeholders as well as the different collaborative roles that researchers are required to play when they are invited to step up as co-leaders or step back (e.g. comfortably serving as a research consultant), depending on the specific needs of the research team in its organisational context. These reflexive considerations are centred in an ethos of collaboratively improving service delivery to enhance service user well-being.

While reflecting on identified tensions is a critical aspect of the efforts of practice researchers in relationship with agency-based partners, it is also essential for researchers located in university-based settings. Self-reflection on these tensions can involve deeper questions of how to: (1) reconcile the often-competing expectations of one’s academic home, one’s social service organisational partners and one’s role as a scholar–researcher and (2) reframe these competing expectations into complementary aims. Regular dialogue involving practice and research partners concerning these two issues can involve iterative processes of shared debriefing, deconstructing and redefining key needs. The overall goal is to find win–wins that benefit the university, agency and oneself in carrying out research and disseminating practical knowledge in community-based organisational settings.

In order to identify mutually beneficial PR opportunities for social service organisational researchers, we propose a research agenda in the form of ten questions designed to promote speculation and dialogue as illustrated in Table 3 . The array of questions captures the tensions related to the different ways that practice researchers: engage and consider collaborating with possible agency partners; transition from the development of participatory research studies to their dissemination in complex agency contexts and sustain participatory studies in larger institutional settings. The questions seek to capture a lifecycle of participatory research projects at different stages of organisational development and across different contexts.

New directions for practice research-informed social service organisational analysis.

In summary, PR is a participatory, organisationally focused approach that combines the search for practice-relevant knowledge with qualitative and quantitative research methods in order to enhance services and promote organisational improvement in diverse contexts. PR therefore complements participatory methodologies as well as other applied social science methods used in social service organisational analysis. The future challenges include promoting more participatory studies of social service organisations as well as articulating additional perspectives on PR processes, applications and implications.

The authors would like to express their appreciation to the anonymous peer reviewers and Editors for their very helpful suggestions regarding the manuscript.

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1.4: Social work research

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• Matthew DeCarlo, Cory Cummings, & Kate Agnelli
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Learning Objectives

Learners will be able to...

• Differentiate between formal and informal research roles
• Describe common barriers to engaging with social work research
• Identify alternative ways of thinking about research methods

Formal and informal research roles

I’ve been teaching research methods for six years and have found that many students struggle to see the connection between research and social work practice. First of all, it’s important to mention that social work researchers exist! The authors of this textbook are social work researchers across university, government, and non-profit institutions. Matt and Cory are researchers at universities, and our research addresses higher education, disability policy, wellness & mental health, and intimate partner violence. Kate is a researcher at the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission in Virginia, where she studies policies related to criminal justice. Dalia, our editor, is a behavioral health researcher at RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, where she studies the opioid epidemic. The career path for social workers in formal research roles is bright and diverse, as we each bring a unique perspective with our ethical and theoretical orientation.

Formal research results in written products like journal articles, government reports, or policy briefs. To get a sense of formal research roles in social work, consider asking a professor about their research. You can also browse around the top journals in social work: Trauma, Violence & Abuse , Child Maltreatment ,  Child Abuse & Neglect , Social Service Review , Family Relations , Journal of Social Policy , Social Policy & Administration , Research on Social Work Practice , Health & Social Care in the Community , Health & Social  Work , British Journal of Social Work , Child & Family Social Work , International Journal of Social Welfare ,  Qualitative Social Work , Children & Youth Services Review , Social Work , Social Work in Health Care ,  Journal of Social Work Practice , International Social Work , Affilia Journal of Women and Social Work , and  Clinical Social Work Journal . Additionally, the websites to most government agencies, foundations, think tanks, and advocacy groups contain formal research often conducted by social workers.

But let’s be clear, studies show that most social work students are not interested in becoming social work researchers who publish journal articles or research reports (DeCarlo et al., 2019; Earley, 2014).\(^{17}\) Once you enter post-graduate practice, you will need to apply your formal research skills to the informal research conducted by practitioners and agencies every day. Every time you are asking who, what, when, where and why, you are conducting informal research. Informal research can be more involved. Social workers may be surprised when they are asked to engage in research projects such as needs assessments, community scans, program and policy evaluations, and single system designs, to name a few. Macro-oriented students may have to conduct research on programs and policies as part of advocacy or administration. We cannot tell you the number former students who have contacted us looking for research resources or wanting to “pick our brains” about research they are doing as part of their employment.

Research for action

Regardless of whether a social worker conducts formal research that results in journal articles or informal research that is used within an agency, all social work research is distinctive in that it is active (Engel & Schutt, 2016).\(^{18}\) We want our results to be used to effect social change. Sometimes this means using findings to change how clients receive services. Sometimes it means using findings to show the benefits of programs or policies. Sometimes it means using findings to speak with those oppressed and marginalized persons who have been left out of the policy creation process. Additionally, it can mean using research as the mode with which to engage a constituency to address a social justice issue. All of these research activities differ; however, the one consistent ingredient is that these activities move us towards social and economic justice.

Student anxieties and beliefs about research

Unfortunately, students generally arrive in research methods classes with a mixture of dread, fear, and frustration. If you attend any given social work education conference, there is probably a presentation on how to better engage students in research. There is an entire body of academic research that verifies what any research professor knows to be true. Honestly, this is why the authors of this textbook started this project. We want to make research more enjoyable and engaging for students. Generally, we have found some common perceptions get in the way of students (at least) minimally enjoying research. Let’s see if any of these match with what you are thinking.

I’m never going to use this crap!

Students who tell us that research methods is not useful to them are saying something important. As a student scholar, your most valuable asset is your time. You give your time to the subjects you consider important to you and for your career. Because most social workers don’t become researchers or practitioner-researchers, students may feel that a research methods class is a waste of time. As faculty members, we often hear from supervisors of students in field placements that research competencies “do not apply in this setting,” which further reinforces the idea that research is an activity performed only by academic researchers.

Our discussion of evidence-based practice and the ways in which social workers use research in practice brought home the idea that social workers play an important role in creating and disseminating new knowledge about social services. Furthermore, in the coming chapters, we will explore the role of research as a human right that is closely associated with the protection and establishment of other human rights. A human rights perspective also highlights the structural barriers students and practitioners face in accessing and applying scholarly knowledge in the practice arena. We hope that reframing research as something ordinary and easy to do will help address this belief that research is a useless skill.

One thing we can guarantee is that this class will be immediately useful to you. In particular, the skills you develop in finding, evaluating, and using scholarly literature will serve you throughout your graduate program and throughout your lifelong learning. In this book, you will learn how to understand and apply the scientific method to whatever topic interests you.

Research is only for super-smart people

Research methods involves a lot of terminology that may be entirely new to social work students. Other domains of social work, such as practice, are easier to apply your intuition towards. You understand how to be an empathetic person, and your experiences in life can help guide you through a practice situation or even a theoretical or conceptual question. Research may seem like a totally new area in which you have no previous experience. In research methods there can be “wrong” answers. Depending on your research question, some approaches to data analysis or measurement, for example, may not help you find the correct answer.

The fear is entirely understandable. Research is not straightforward. As Figure 1.1 shows, it is a process that is non-linear, involving multiple revisions, wrong turns, and dead ends before you figure out the best question and research approach. You may have to go back to chapters after having read them or even peek ahead at chapters your class hasn’t covered yet.

Figure 1.1 Research as a non-linear process

Moreover, research is something you learn by doing...and stumbling a few times. It’s an iterative process, or one that requires many tries to get right. There isn’t a shortcut for learning research, but if you follow along with the exercises in this book, you can break down a student research project and accomplish it piece by piece. No one just know s research. It’s something you pick up by doing it, reflecting on the experiences and results, redoing your work, and revising it in consultation with your professor and peers. Research involves exploration, risk taking, and a willingness to say, “Let’s see what we will find!”

Research is designed to suck the joy from my life

We’ve talked already about the arcane research terminology, so we won’t go into it again here. But students sometimes perceive research methods as boring. Practice knowledge and even theory are fun to learn because they are easy to apply and provide insights into the world around you. Research just seems like its own weirdly shaped and ill-fitting puzzle piece.

We completely understand where this perspective comes from and hope there are a few things you will take away from this course that aren’t boring to you. In the first section of this textbook, you will learn how to take any topic and learn what is known about it. It may seem trivial, but this is actually a superpower. Your social work education will teach you basic knowledge that can be applied to nearly all social work practice situations as well as some applied material applicable to specific social work practice situations. However, no education will provide you with everything you need to know. And certainly, no professor can tell you what will be discovered over the next few decades of your practice. Our work on literature reviews in the next few chapters will help you increase your skills and knowledge to become a strong social work student and practitioner. Following that, our exploration of research methods will help you understand how theories, practice models, and techniques you learn in other classes are created and tested scientifically. Eventually, you’ll see how all of the pieces fit together.

Get out of your own way

Together, these misconceptions and myths can create a self-fulfilling prophecy for students. If you believe research is boring, you won’t find it interesting. If you believe research is hard, you will struggle more with assignments. If you believe research is useless, you won’t see its utility. If you’re afraid that you will make mistakes, then you won’t want to try. While we certainly acknowledge that students aren’t going to love research as much as we do (we spent over a year writing this book, so we like it a lot!), we suggest reframing how you think about research using the following touchstones:

• All social workers rely on social science research to engage in competent practice.
• No one already knows research. It’s something I’ll learn through practice. And it’s challenging for everyone, not just me.
• Research is relevant to me because it allows me to figure out what is known about any topic I want to study.
• If the topic I choose to study is important to me, I will be more interested in exploring research to help me understand it further.

Students should be intentional about managing any anxiety coming from a research project. Here are some suggestions:

• Talk to your professor if you are feeling lost. We like students!
• Talk to a librarian if you are having trouble finding information about your topic.
• Seek support from your peers or mentors.

Another way to reframe your thinking is to look at Chapter 24, which discusses how to share your research project with the world. Consider the impact you want to make with your project, who you want to share it with, and what it will mean to have answered a question you want to know about the social world. Look at the variety of professional and academic conferences in which social work practitioners and researchers share their knowledge. Think about where you want to go so you know how to get started.

The structure of this textbook

The textbook is divided into five parts. In the first part (Chapters 1-5), we will review how to orient your research proposal to a specific question you want to answer and review the literature to see what we know about it. Student research projects come with special limitations, as you don’t have many resources, so our chapters are designed to help you think through those limitations and think of a project that is doable. In the second part (Chapters 6-9), we will bring in theory, causality, ethics to help you conceptualize your research project and what you hope to achieve. By the end of the second part, you will create a quantitative and qualitative research question. Parts 3 and 4 will walk you through how to conduct quantitative and qualitative research, respectively. These parts run through how to recruit people to participate in your study, what to ask them, and how to interpret the results of what they say. Finally, the last part of the textbook reviews how to connect research and practice. For some, that will mean completing program evaluations as part of agency-based practice. For others, it will mean consuming research as part of continuing education as a practitioner. We hope you enjoy reading this book as much as we enjoyed writing it!

If you are still figuring out how to navigate the book using your internet browser, please go to the  Downloads and Resources for Students page which contains a number of quick video tutorials. Also, the exercises in each chapter offer you an opportunity to apply what you wrote to your own research project, and the textbook is designed so that each exercise and each chapter build on one another, completing your proposal step-by-step. Of course, some exercises may be more relevant than others, but please consider completing these as you read

Key Takeaways

• Social workers engage in formal and informal research production as part of practice.
• If you feel anxious, bored, or overwhelmed by research, you are not alone!
• Becoming more familiar with research methods will help you become a better scholar and social work practitioner.
• With your peers, explore your feelings towards your research methods classes. Describe some themes that come up during your conversations. Identify which issues can be addressed by your professor and which can be addressed by students.
• Browse social work journals and identify an article of interest to you. Look up the author’s biography or curriculum vitae on their personal website or the website of their university.

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• Pocket Guides to Social Work Research Methods A series from Oxford University Press. In print at the library.
• APA Handbook of Research Methods in Psychology In three volumes, this handbook provides information on tools used in psychology research design, measurement, and analysis. These volumes describe many techniques psychologists and others have developed to help understand why humans, think, feel, and behave the way they do.

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13 Social Work Methods & Interventions for Helping Others

While social work as a profession has remained in a state of flux for some years, dedicated professionals continue to support individuals, families, and communities at their most troubled times.

Their professional dedication remains underpinned by core skills, including a “commitment to human, relation-based practice” and methods and interventions garnered from multiple disciplines (Rogers, Whitaker, Edmondson, & Peach, 2020, p. 9).

This article introduces how social workers select the best approaches and interventions for meeting the needs of their service users.

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This Article Contains:

Selecting an appropriate method & intervention, top 5 methods used by social workers, 8 best social work interventions, social work & domestic violence: 4 helpful methods, positivepsychology.com’s useful resources, a take-home message.

The “constantly evolving nature of social life” has made it difficult to build a single and standard model for social work (Parker, 2013, p. 311). A framework that offers a clear process for social workers to engage with service users and implement appropriate interventions is, however, vital.

As a result, social work has combined various interdisciplinary concepts and social work theories with firsthand, experiential knowledge to develop an evidence base for social workers’ decisions.

While more than one model is used to describe social work practice, Parker (2013) offers a simplified perspective built from three elements: assessment , intervention , and review.

The model is not linear; the stages merge, overlap, and require a degree of flexibility, analysis, and critical thinking to implement (Parker, 2013).

Although the final review stage is vital to social workers’ “statutory and legal obligations” and in ensuring care plans remain appropriate, this article focuses on choosing suitable methods of assessment  and intervention  (Parker, 2013, p. 317).

What is an assessment?

The assessment stage aims to understand the situation affecting the service user, directly or via referral. It can be complex, often involving many contributing factors, and sometimes seem as much art as science (Parker, 2013).

Typically, assessments are perspectives constructed at a particular time and place, and include the following elements (Parker, 2013):

• Preparation , planning , and engagement involve working with the individual requiring support to introduce the need to perform an assessment and agree how the social worker will carry it out.
• Collecting data and forming a picture help social workers understand the situation better.
• Preliminary analysis includes interpreting the data and testing out “thoughts and hunches” (Parker, 2013, p. 314).
• Deeper analysis and shared negotiation are required following testing to put together an interpretation. This can offer the client or referrer an alternative way of viewing the problem.
• Construct an action plan collaboratively.

Throughout the assessment, it is essential to engage and partner with all interested parties, sharing the reasons for the evaluation, how it will be used, and the rights of those involved.

“A good assessment allows the social worker to plan openly with service users what comes next” (Parker, 2013, p. 315). The plan forms the basis for selecting or putting together the intervention and how goals and objectives will be met.

What is an intervention?

The selection of methods and interventions is further influenced by the social worker’s underlying belief systems, value bases, and theoretical preferences.

The term intervention is sometimes challenged within social work because of its suggestion of doing something to others without their consent. As with counseling and therapy, it is most valuable when put together as part of an alliance between social workers and service users (Parker, 2013).

The process must be transparent, with the social worker able to explain the evidence base leading to informed decisions. Such openness requires a detailed understanding of the theories and knowledge underpinning the models chosen and why they are appropriate and effective (Parker, 2013).

Finding appropriate methods and models can help make sense of the experiences of others.

Care management

Popular in the United Kingdom, care management is closely linked to the use of community care to meet the needs of adult health and social care. Earlier implementations were managed from the top down and accessed via the benefits system, leading to ever-increasing governmental social security bills. Over time, more autonomy has been given to the community, encouraging independence, choice, and control at a local level (Hutchinson, 2013).

The most common care management approach within the UK is known as social entrepreneurship . The person’s needs are assessed by a care manager , who acts as a liaison to other services to meet the service user’s needs.

“One of the main strengths of the care management approach is the centrality of needs-led assessment from which all other plans and actions are negotiated” (Hutchinson, 2013, p. 321). However, the challenges of this approach involve the resource-limited system. Funding can be insufficient, often leading to ever-tightening eligibility criteria.

Strengths-based and solution-focused approaches

The strengths-based and solution-focused approaches to social care help develop alliances with service users while recognizing their uniqueness (Rogers et al., 2020).

These social work methods focus less on managing risk and what people lack, and more on their innate ability to grow and develop by building on their strengths.

The strengths-based method is based on several underlying principles, including (modified from Rogers et al., 2020):

• The individual, family, group, and community all have strengths.
• Trauma and adversity can provide opportunity and become a source of strength.
• Assumptions should not be made regarding the individual’s capacity to grow and change.
• Collaborative practice is best practice.
• Every environment is rich in resources.
• “Social work is about care, care-taking and hope” (Rogers et al., 2020, p. 244).

Crucially, these approaches work toward solving problems now while building resources and skills for the future. They are also flexible and efficiently combine with other social work methods and techniques (Rogers et al., 2020).

Narrative social work

Rather than professionals being seen as experts, who come in and give their (sometimes restricted) view of the situation, the narrative method takes an alternative approach (Cooper, 2020). It recognizes that problems are often found in the broader system of relationships rather than the individual.

The narrative approach states that the “problem is the problem, rather than a failing in the person themselves” (Cooper, 2020, p. 261).

However, narrative social work has received criticism. If we externalize the problem, are we absolving the individual and removing them from responsibility? Of course, that needn’t be the case.

A common approach within narrative social work is to ask the individual what advice they would give a friend when faced with a similar situation. Narrative therapy recognizes that actions are just that: ‘actions’ (they do not define a person). As such, they can be changed.

Groupwork is another essential method and  technique within social work; indeed, it has been a mainstay within the profession since the 1930s (Doel, 2013).

Groupwork offers several different functions, including social control, social action, education, and therapy. Some groups have expected outcomes or goals, while others are more organic, allowing the purpose to develop as the group evolves. For example, a social worker may create a group to support women in a particular neighborhood with severe mental health problems or veterans having trouble finding their place in society.

The group process involves an awareness of what is happening at two levels: first, the individual within the group, and second, the group itself. It includes considering the stages through which the group passes and the relationships and communication that form within (Doel, 2013).

Task-centered social work practice

The task-centered method favors developing skills in people so that they may use them to solve future problems and fostering increased autonomy (Edmondson, 2020).

Ultimately, the approach is “value-led, evidence-based and practical” (Edmondson, 2020, p. 271). It promotes positive change through forming partnerships with individuals, groups, and communities, rather than a more limiting focus on tasks (job, duty, and chores) defined by predictability and routine (Edmondson, 2020).

Task-centered social work is less about form filling and more about identifying and solving problems, and setting and achieving realistic changes and goals (Edmondson, 2020).

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With a large variety of methods and theoretical approaches available to social workers, there is an even greater choice surrounding interventions.

The following list contains some of our favorites, and while arising from several methodologies, they can be integrated and used as appropriate for the service user.

1. Problem-free talk

Problem-free talk can be used at any time, but it is particularly helpful at the start of an intervention as a reminder that “the person is more than the sum of their difficulties” (Rogers et al., 2020, p. 246).

The social worker encourages the service user to discuss aspects of their lives that are not a source of problems, adding a note of positivity often missed when focusing on obstacles and challenging aspects of their lives (Rogers et al., 2020).

2. Miracle questions

The miracle question encourages the individual to visualize their world without the problem they currently face and is often found in the toolkit of solution-focused practitioners (Rogers et al., 2020).

Imagining a better future is a powerful tool for thinking positively and motivating change.

3. Vision statement

Like the miracle question, the vision statement uses imagination to explore a possible future. Social workers can use it with families to compare where they are now versus where they would like to be (Rogers & Cooper, 2020).

For example, what might my children say about me now ? And what would I like my children to say about me 10 years from now ?

The process is a powerful intervention for identifying the changes that are needed and the obstacles to be overcome to reach happier times as a family.

How to create a personal vision statement – Pursuing Fulfillment

4. Circular questioning

Changing perspective can be a powerful and helpful process for service users. Putting someone in another’s shoes by using circular questioning , can introduce new ideas and information, and encourage a greater awareness of a situation (Rogers & Cooper, 2020).

For example, a family member might be asked to describe how a parent, sibling, or child would react to or feel about a situation. Sharing such thoughts can help them understand how others perceive them and improve their understanding of their role in the family.

5. Life-story book

A child whose life has been affected through social care involvement may be confused and unclear about what has happened and why (Cooper, 2020).

A story or book can be written for the child to explain why they were adopted or put in care to provoke open conversations and confirm that the situation was not their fault.

However, it is vital to consider that the story must be age appropriate and will most likely avoid certain factors of the decision making regarding care.

6. Later life letter

The reasons a child was taken from a family may be unsuitable for sharing with the child. Instead, a letter can be written that provides a complete picture (rather than the more edited life-story book) for opening sometime in the future, possibly near their 18th birthday (Cooper, 2020).

7. Exception seeking

We should not assume that a problem has always existed or that the individual can never handle similar situations.

Instead, through attentive and active listening, it is possible to pick up on coping skills or strategies that have worked in the past and may be transferable to existing or new situations. Ask the service user coping questions to identify times when they have “coped with a problem or uncover how a service user manages with a continuing issue” (Rogers et al., 2020, p. 247).

8. Competence seeking

To address or prepare for problems, it can be helpful for people to identify and understand what qualities, strengths, and resources they have available (Rogers et al., 2020).

When entrenched in a problem or difficult situation, we can remain single minded and lose sight of positive personal characteristics that can help (Rogers et al., 2020).

While there has been significant progress in multiple agencies working together to safeguard children, approaches to ensuring the safety of women and children remain fragmented (Humphreys, 2013).

However, there has been considerable success in increasing domestic violence awareness, which “has led to greater attention being paid to the development of legislation, policy and practice” (Humphreys, 2013, p. 155).

Several methods can be helpful in cases of domestic violence, including the following:

• Group work can offer a forum for groups of people who have experienced domestic violence. However, the facilitator must ensure that no one individual asserts power over the group and that there are no barriers to inclusion or participation (Rogers et al., 2020).
• Strengths-based approaches can help individuals recognize the resilience they showed in traumatic situations and how they could move on from a potentially harmful situation (Cooper, 2020).
• Good court skills “are central to social work practice” and can close the gap between the theory and practice of law surrounding domestic violence (Whitaker, 2020, p. 231).
• Self-awareness can help manage conflict between social workers and service users in cases of domestic abuse. Being aware of personal feelings and beliefs, maintaining focus, and being clear and direct can help when tensions rise (Edmondson & Ashworth, 2020).

Domestic violence is extremely damaging. It is, therefore, vital that good practice in social work is also reflected in cross-cultural practice principles and inter-agency collaboration and that an appropriate political and legal framework is in place (Edmondson & Ashworth, 2020).

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Throughout our blog, you’ll find many free tools and worksheets to help you be a more effective social worker, including the following:

• Growing Stronger From Trauma This worksheet helps clients explore the silver linings of traumatic experiences while appreciating the strengths they have developed as a result.
• Strengths in Challenging Times This worksheet presents four questions exploring how clients can apply their strengths to a current life challenge and what they might gain or learn as a result.
• Forgiveness and Acceptance Worksheet This worksheet helps clients explore their negative feelings about a past transgression and make the conscious decision to forgive.
• Active Constructive Responding This handout presents a 2×2 matrix of communication styles ranging from destructive to constructive and passive to active, highlighting the differences between each with examples.
• 17 Positive Psychology Exercises If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others enhance their wellbeing, this signature collection contains 17 validated positive psychology tools for practitioners. Use them to help others flourish and thrive.
• Recommended Books 12 Social Work Books Every Practitioner Should Read is a great article full of highly recommended and engaging books. Helping others is made easier if you are empowered with knowledge, and a great way to start is simply by reading more.

“Social work and society are caught in an intense and changing relationship” (Cree, 2013, p. 3). The role and influence of familial, religious, and political frameworks have reduced, and social workers are increasingly called upon to help groups left at the margins and in need.

While social work may once have been informal and voluntary, it is now often enshrined in regulations and statutory agencies. As society moves forward, social work must keep up, advancing as a caring profession and collaborating with service users and other agencies to find the best outcome for all concerned.

With such growing demand and developing expectations, social workers must show professionalism while recognizing and promoting the fundamental principles of human rights. They require appropriate theories , knowledge, and methods to determine the needs of the people they support and to recognize what action will be most helpful (Rogers et al., 2020).

The methods adopted by professionals do not work in isolation but support other competencies while working with others and collaborating with the service user to provide a relation-based practice.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article and that it inspires you to learn more about this developing discipline. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free .

• Cooper, J. (2020). Narrative social work. In M. Rogers, D. Whitaker, D. Edmondson, & D. Peach, Developing skills & knowledge for social work practice (pp. 259–268). SAGE.
• Cree, V. (2013). Social work and society. In M. Davies (Ed.), The Blackwell companion to social work (pp. 151–158). Wiley Blackwell.
• Doel, M. (2013). Groupwork. In M. Davies (Ed.), The Blackwell companion to social work (pp. 369–377). Wiley Blackwell.
• Edmondson, D. (2020). Task-centered social work practice. In M. Rogers, D. Whitaker, D. Edmondson, & D. Peach, Developing skills & knowledge for social work practice (pp. 259–268). SAGE.
• Edmondson, D., & Ashworth, C. (2020). Conflict management and resolution. In M. Rogers, D. Whitaker, D. Edmondson, & D. Peach, Developing skills & knowledge for social work practice (pp. 259–268). SAGE.
• Humphreys, C. (2013). Domestic violence. In M. Davies (Ed.), The Blackwell companion to social work (pp. 151–158). Wiley Blackwell.
• Hutchinson, A. (2013). Care management. In M. Davies (Ed.), The Blackwell companion to social work (pp. 321–332). Wiley Blackwell.
• Parker, J. (2013). Assessment, intervention and review. In M. Davies (Ed.), The Blackwell companion to social work (pp. 311–320). Wiley Blackwell.
• Rogers, M., Whitaker, D., Edmondson, D., & Peach, D. (2020). Developing skills & knowledge for social work practice . SAGE.
• Rogers, M., & Cooper, J. (2020). Systems theory and an ecological approach. In M. Rogers, D. Whitaker, D. Edmondson, & D. Peach, Developing skills & knowledge for social work practice (pp. 259–268). SAGE.
• Whitaker, D. (2020). Court skills. In M. Rogers, D. Whitaker, D. Edmondson, & D. Peach, Developing skills & knowledge for social work practice (pp. 230–240). SAGE.

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• Published: 27 April 2024

Intersectionalities and im/mobilities in family and marriage: a comparative study of Germany and India

• Mayurakshi Chaudhuri   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0004-5797-1040 1 ,
• Saurav Karmakar 2 &
• Sakshi Shukla   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5228-8382 3  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  539 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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This article investigates comparative intersections of gender and family sociology internationally, with a specific focus on urban Germany and urban India. In particular, this research examines a central dynamic that informs family and marriage relations globally, and for this research context, in Germany and India: What are the nuanced ways of conceptualizing changing gender roles in marriage and in family in Germany and India? Bringing together a robust understanding of the theoretical frameworks of Intersectionality and of Mobility as large bodies of scholarship that examine geographic and symbolic power geometries, we adopt the lens of Intersectional Im/Mobilities to explore changing gender roles in family and marriage in Germany and India. We particularly focus on an intersectionality-based analysis of two primary themes that arise out of our primary and secondary data: (1) Women’s employment and impact on family life/work–life balance; and (2) Changing gender roles in marriage (through the lens of the division of household labor and aspects of agency and decision making), questions which influence and inflect complex intersectional realities.

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This article investigates comparative intersections of gender and family sociology internationally, with a specific focus on urban Germany and urban India. In particular, this research examines a central dynamic that informs family and marriage relations globally, and for this research context, in Germany and India: What are the nuanced ways of conceptualizing changing gender roles in marriage and in family in Germany and India? Over the past two decades, the nature of sociological inquiry for gender and family studies in both countries has witnessed considerable development, de-standardization, and has followed the “pluralization thesis” ( Pluralisierungsthese ) or “diversity” as is commonly understood in international debates (Richter, 2000 ; Konietzka et al., 2021 , Uberoi, 2000 , 2006 ). Not surprisingly, gender and associated social mobility are at the core of these debates.

The comparative analysis of family sociology in urban Germany and urban India discussed in this article, we believe, illustrates that gender roles in family and intimate relations such as marriage can be, and often are, strategic and fluid, even as many people view them as structural, static, and enduring. In this article, we particularly examine these questions using an intersectionality-based analysis of two primary themes that arise out of our primary and secondary data: (1) Women’s employment and impact on family life/work–life balance; and (2) changing gender roles in marriage (through the lens of the division of household labor and aspects of agency and decision making) (Table 1 ).

However, before proceeding to an argument for and discussion of the data through ‘big data’ (quantitative data) and ‘thick descriptions’ (Geertz, 1973 ) (qualitative data), it is important to address, albeit briefly, in order to adhere to the scope of this article, the intellectual history of family and marriage as social institutions in both geographic regions through an intersectional lens.

Literature on family and marriage in Germany and India

Gender and associated mobility dynamics echo in German family sociology literature in distinct ways, converging with or diverging from their South Asian contexts. Historically, in Germany and as scholars note, the male breadwinner model of family dynamics and policy prevailed until about the early 2000s (Leitner et al., 2008 ; Lewis et al., 2008 ; von Wahl, 2011 ; Windwehr and Fischer, 2021 ). For decades in Germany (particularly in its western parts), a strong male-breadwinner model represented the norm and normality, anchored in the gender pay gap, inadequate childcare provision, and the tax and social security systems, which favor families with one stay-at-home parent (Pfau-Effinger, 2005 ; Possinger, 2013 ; Shire and Nemoto, 2020 ). This single-breadwinner model found almost unanimous support by a largely conservative welfare regime until recently when it has been somewhat ‘modernized’. Most literature in this regard focuses on heterosexual-partner families to understand the extent to which male and female gender roles in the family are affected, negotiated, and even inflected. While the literature has explored that parenthood is a key process in adopting or maintaining traditional gender behavior (Chesley, 2017 ; Huinink and Reichart, 2008 ), research on female breadwinners has so far neglected the manner in which gender roles are performed or even reversed in these families.

However, what scholarship acknowledges is that the transitioning out of the conventional male breadwinner model of family has been a ‘path-shifting policy change’ (Morgan, 2013 , p. 90) or even a ‘paradigm shift’ (Henninger et al., 2008 , p. 289). In fact, socio-feminist literature such as Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies by Esping-Andersen ( 1999 ) argued Germany to be a conservative and familistic welfare state, and scholars globally and unanimously agree that conceptualizing the family and associated family policies guiding mobility in Germany were highly conservative until the early 2000s, as discussed above. This was highlighted by low female employment rates, and it was only in 2005 that major family-policy reforms were enacted in Germany (Konietzka et al., 2021 ).

The literature in this context has outlined two main themes with regard to the female breadwinner model: (1) the role of assertive education, particularly for women and girls, and (2) the changing job market precariously affecting the male labor force. Klesment and Van Bavel ( 2015 ) examine that in Europe, women’s higher educational attainments have increased the probability of female breadwinning through changing patterns of educational and marriage practices—from women “marrying up” (hypergamy) to women “marrying down” (hypogamy). In fact, it appears from this scholarship based on German statistics that in couples where female breadwinners are the norm, hypogamy seems to be perhaps the only avenue to achieve it. Further, the rise in the numbers of female breadwinners in families is seen as a result of rising unemployment rates, poor labor market positions, and lower earnings for low-skilled men alongside professional, highly qualified women (Drago et al., 2005 , Klammer et al., 2012 ). Scholars such as Brennan et al. ( 2001 ) assert the impact of earnings reversals within families for traditionally oriented men is linked with the latter having spouses who earn higher salaries and undermine the husband’s perception of their role as primary providers. Not surprisingly, this often leads to perceptions of a low marital role quality. Similarly, Rogers and DeBoer ( 2001 , p. 458) examine that “married men’s well-being is significantly lower when married women’s proportional contributions to the total family income are increased.” Couples’ self-identity in the family remains intertwined with total earnings in the family (Medved, 2009 ). By contrast, women were shown to often experience higher marital happiness when their income increases. Fulltime employed women in dual-earner couples also experienced high marital role quality when their partners played a greater role in child care (Brennan et al., 2001 ; Kanji and Schober, 2014 ; Rogers and DeBoer, 2001 ). However, and not surprisingly, this scholarship points out that most women’s identities tend to be rooted in mothering, and evidence shows that only in a few cases is female breadwinning motivated by ideals of gender equity and the majority driven by economic circumstances (Drago et al., 2005 ; Medved, 2009 ; Jurczyk et al., 2019 ), a situation not too distant from its South Asian particularly Indian scenario.

In South Asian contexts, vertical realities of social class operative in society historically and contemporaneously have influenced family and class construction and class subscription, which were heavily informed by, and in turn informed, their mobility. In India, the earliest studies on contemporary family described and examined the family in terms of its structure : the joint family (Gore, 1968 ). The joint family structure that this scholarship examines comprised elderly married (heterosexual) couple, their unmarried children, and/or their married sons and their families. This scholarship looks at the joint family as “a multiplicity of genealogically related units (akin to the nuclear family model) living under one roof and sharing in resources, rituals, and property” (D’cruz and Bharat, 2001 , p. 168). But they also raise an important social science question that literature has continued to examine and problematize: Who qualifies as a joint or extended family, and is the joint family an expression of extended family? Undoubtedly, families are social constructs, and so it is key to figure out the boundaries to the concepts of family in general and extended family, in particular, to understand when and why gender roles in family take on the front stage. Historically the systematic study of the family in India, has, by and large, been a study of family patterns (Bharat, 1994 ), rather than of family dynamics (Uberoi, 2000 , 2006 ; Banerji and Deshpande, 2021 ). Classic works include those by M.N. Srinivas ( 1942 ) and M.N. Banerjee ( 1944 –45) (see Bharat and Desai, 1995 for a comprehensive bibliography). However, the earlier scholarly conceptualization of the joint family failed to capture the dynamism (as opposed to structure) of the joint family, living under the control of one “patriarch”—the elderly married male in the family. This literature, therefore, was overwhelmingly silent in addressing the dynamics between various family members, such as between (immediate) family and extended family members, and was also quite silent about problematizing gender roles that defined relationships between these members. Existing scholarship has documented to some extent the relations in the joint family and thus captured some of the early ‘gendered geographies of power’ (GGP) (for more details on the theoretical framework of GGP, please see Mahler and Pessar, 2001 , 2006 ; Pessar and Mahler, 2003 ; and for application of GGP to Indian family and marriage, please see Mahler et al., 2015 ) that operated within joint families.

Scholarship examining the Indian family forms and patterns, particularly through the gender lens, reveals that familial and fraternal bonds were encouraged. Problems in the fraternal relationship could arise because of age differences (D’cruz and Bharat, 2001 ) or differences in caste, class, or levels of education (Bhattacharya, 2005 ; Chatterjee, 1994 ; Majumdar, 2020 ; Ray et al., 2020 ) and in turn could give rise to status differences in the family precipitating rivalry and conflict. However, historically these were often thwarted by the principle of deference to age. In sibling relationships, however, particularly between brother and sister, the brother was deemed to be the protector irrespective of age, and the sister was a source of affection and emotional support but clearly inferior to her brother in terms of family social status.

Drawing from the literature, some of which are discussed above, one important gender dynamic that can be understood from this scholarship is by following how conjugal relationships operated in the joint family and, by extension, how such relationships were simultaneously a contributor and a product for the paradigmatic ‘women’s question’ particularly in colonial South Asia. Scholars argue that the women’s question that defined historical (colonial) gender dynamics in South Asia and, not surprisingly, continues in various degrees and manifestations in contemporary India focused on the centrality of the figure of the South Asian/Indian woman within a culture that was pre-defined by an indigenous cultural elite, the ‘sentinels of culture’ (Bhattacharya, 2005 )—the middle-class (male) intelligentsia. Contextualizing the above, postcolonial theorist, Partha Chatterjee notes ( 1989 , p. 623),

“What we must note is that the so-called women’s question in the agenda of Indian social reform in the early 19th century was not so much about the specific condition of women within a determinate set of social relations as it was about the political encounter between a colonial state and the supposed ‘tradition’ of a conquered people—a tradition that, as Lata Mani ( 1986 , 1987 ) has recently shown in her study of the abolition of satidaha [widow burning], was itself produced by colonialist discourse. It was colonialist discourse that, by assuming the hegemony of Brahmanical religious texts, the complete submission of all Hindus to the dictates of those texts, and the necessary basis of practices such as widow burning in the sanctions of the texts, defined the tradition that was to be criticized and reformed. We will now see how Indian nationalism, in demarcating a political position opposed to colonial rule, took up the women’s question as a problem already constituted for it: namely, a problem of Indian tradition.”

Significant literature, including the above reflection on the women’s question by Partha Chatterjee ( 1989 ), brings to the fore the “problem of Indian tradition” (Chatterjee, 1989 , p. 623) around the women’s question and reveals an interesting power geometry: the debates and discussions around the ‘women’s question’ were never about the women , rather and in spite of the paradigmatic moniker, they were about patriarchal negotiations in private and public spheres. Conjugal relationships, which marked the intimate, private sphere, were platforms where the ‘women’s question’ was negotiated actively and was a requirement by the then private and political agenda in South Asia to remain peripheral in the joint family for the maintenance of the family institution. This was so because if conjugal relations were allowed to develop and take over, it was assumed that they could set the atmosphere for the creation of a nuclear family, which was undesired. In order to avoid the undesired, the joint family was structured and institutionalized according to gendered principles such as sex segregation manifested in a sexual division of roles and internalized through gender role socialization, the disapproval of the romantic complex prior to marriage through arranged alliances orchestrated by the family, the absence of courtship and the discouragement of overt manifestations of emotional behavior between the couple (Banerji and Deshpande, 2021 ; D’cruz and Bharat, 2001 ). Despite these mechanisms, physical and emotional intimacy between the spouses and a strong mother–child bond did develop and coexisted with joint family sentiments. Earlier scholars also examined authority and leadership patterns in earlier forms of the joint family and how they were decided along gender and age lines. In terms of gender, the joint family followed the terms of a typical patriarchal society—where men are the breadwinners and inheritors, assuming greater power than women, and this persists even where wives are wage earners as well, a complex intersectional question that plagued the German context historically and in current times too, as per statistics.

Given this brief intellectual history of scholarly examination on family and gender dynamics in Germany and India, we now turn to our theoretical framework in this article enroute to examining our data and their discussion.

Theoretical framework: from intersectionality to intersectional im/mobilities

Since the advent of third-wave feminism in the late 1980s, a crucial shift in gender theorization was noticed in the emergence of “Intersectionality” as a theoretical toolkit (Crenshaw, 1991 ; Ferree, 2009 ; Hooks, 2000 ; Hernandez and Rheman, 2002 ). This theoretical framework underscores the interconnectedness of various axes of social differences defining one’s identity and shaping gender relations, acknowledging the active interplay of race, social class, sexuality, gender, and age, to name a few, within societal institutions (Riley, 2004 ; Andersen, 2005 ; Shields, 2008 ; Ferree, 2010 ). The intersectionality paradigm originated from feminist scholars of color critiquing the exclusive focus on white, middle-class, educated women and provides an inclusive perspective, considering the intersections of gender with other social identities (Knudsen, 2004 ).

The history of intersectional perspectives thus stems from the early feminist recognition that the ties binding women are stronger than the lines dividing them. This perspective acknowledges that women’s experiences with gender are inseparable from intersections with race, ethnicity, sexuality, and beyond (Mahler et al., 2015 ). Intersectionality as a framework analyzes how social and cultural categories intersect (Crenshaw, 1991 ; Knudsen, 2004 ), adapting and addressing power relations, social inequalities, and social exclusions. The intersectional lens is crucial for examining gender dynamics across diverse social-geographic scales, from the nation to the family and the individual. In the context of families as institutions existing at the intersections of structural inequalities, family members negotiate complex gender roles within and beyond the household (Ferree et al., 1999 ; McCall, 2005 ; Ferree, 2010 ). Negotiations of gender relations across various scales are context-specific and vary cross-culturally, giving rise to socially constructed gendered geographies maintained through culture-specific power relations (Mahler et al., 2015 ). Globally and particularly in the context of South Asia/India, intersectionality faces challenges unraveling identity negotiations in gendered geographies marked by prolonged colonial histories. Literature on “Postcolonial Intersections” (Chaudhuri and Thimm, 2018 ) underscores that while the global rise of nation-states may suggest the waning of European colonialism, its historical and cultural consequences persist into the current millennium. Such consequences are also inflections of another emerging social science perspective: Mobilities .

The mobility perspective in social sciences emerged in the 1990s, focusing particularly on migration dynamics through qualitative methods. Research extended beyond households and related surveys, exploring employment dynamics and the state’s role in relation to migrants (Espiritu, 1999 ; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1992 ; Sassen, 1988 ). Saskia Sassen’s pioneering work, “The Mobility of Labor and Capital” ( 1988 ), identified globalization as feminized and highlighted the increasing feminization of migration. In the early 2000s, a “new mobilities turn” emerged across disciplines, exploring diverse movements like walking, virtual mobility, migration, and tourism (Hannam et al., 2006 ; Salazar, 2017 ; Sheller and Urry, 2016 ). This “turn” argued that mobile people, regardless of their position on the continuum from structural objects to cultural subjects, experience structure, agency, and identity negotiations influenced by factors like gender, race, ethnicity, class, religion, sexuality, and nationality. In colonial history, and as discussed above, such intersectionality-inflected mobility experiences were significant, shaping the portrayal of South Asian/Indian women and influencing their mobility in gendered spaces, as well as their nuptial and family ties (Chatterjee, 1989 ), which continues in nuanced ways to impact professional and intimate relationships. In this article, to examine gender and family dynamics, we adopt the “new mobilities” approach and “regimes of mobility,” arguing that power geometries induce or oppose gendered mobility beyond exploitative confinement (Glick Schiller and Salazar, 2013 ). Understanding mobility and immobility requires embedding these concepts within a larger framework of unequal global power relationships (Glick Schiller and Salazar, 2013 ) and adopting an intersectionality-based approach.

Bringing together a robust understanding of the theoretical frameworks and underpinnings of Intersectionality and Mobility as large bodies of scholarship that examine geographic and symbolic power geometries, we now adopt the lens of Intersectional Im/Mobilities (Shukla and Chaudhuri, 2021 ) toward understanding the data for this research. Intersectional Im/Mobilities (Shukla and Chaudhuri, 2021 ) comprises two theoretical pillars: (1) the geographic aspect of Intersectional Im/Mobilities draws from the analytical framework of GGP extensively used in the studies of gender and migration to examine social locations, geographic scales, and power geometries (Mahler and Pessar, 2001 ). This multiscalar approach expands our understanding of Intersectional Im/Mobilities, acknowledging its non-linear nature and connection to negotiations of diverse social locations and statuses (Shukla and Chaudhuri, 2021 ). Geographic Intersectional Im/Mobilities consider gender-based oppression globally, emphasizing the interconnectedness of gender, ethnicity, race, class, disability, and sexual orientation within socio-geographic contexts (Crenshaw, 1991 ); and (2) Symbolic Intersectional Im/Mobilities, on the other hand, draws from Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptualization of symbolic or ‘soft’ capital (Bourdieu, 1989 ), exploring the significance of “respectability” of family through gender negotiations across geo-social scales, influencing decision-making processes across geo-social scales—from the individual to professional networks.

With this toolkit of Intersectional Im/Mobilities, we now proceed to our data and research methods section, initiating with a brief discussion around mixed methods and then presenting detailed statistical and ethnographic cases from secondary and primary data collected between October 2018 and December 2022. Our analysis using the intersectionality lens illustrates how geographic im/mobilities and symbolic capital shape gender dynamics across historical and geographic contexts, as discussed above.

Data and methods

We adopt a mixed-method approach to explore changing gender roles in family and marriage in Germany and India. A mixed-method approach provides a comprehensive analysis, integrating multiple data sources and analysis techniques to capture the complexity of gender dynamics. Qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews and observation, delve into individual experiences and perceptions of gender roles, offering rich insights into their complexities. Quantitative methods provide a broader perspective, examining patterns and trends in a larger sample size. Synthesizing data from both methods enhanced the study’s understanding. Triangulation, comparing findings from different sources, boosted validity and reliability. The mixed method approach addresses each method’s limitations, combining qualitative depth with quantitative breadth. The use of both primary and secondary datasets responds to the ongoing debate on ‘big data’ and ‘thick data’ in humanities and social sciences (Jemielniak, 2020 ). While the methodological debate’s details are beyond this article’s scope, we acknowledge its impact on our findings, contributing to gender and family sociology in Germany and India, offering nuanced insights into changing gender roles in marriage and family within their social, cultural, and historical contexts (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2017 ; Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004 ), discussed further below.

Statistical (quantitative) data on family and changing gender roles

Our dataset for the statistical observations and analyses with regard to the research focus in this article is drawn from the Family and Changing Gender Roles IV—ISSP 2012 (International Social Survey Program) (Scholz et al., 2014 ). The ISSP Family and Changing Gender Roles series comprises four cross-national surveys conducted in 1988, 1994, 2002, and 2012. The ISSP Family and Changing Gender Roles datasets primarily deal with gender-related issues, such as popular and public attitudes towards women’s employment, marriage, children and financial support, household management, and partnership. From the ISSP 2012 dataset and based on our research questions, we identified the following ten parameters which we believe strongly inform our argument in this article:

V7—Q1c Working woman: Family life suffers when the woman has a full-time job

V10—Q2a Both [women and men] should contribute to household income

V11—Q2b Men’s job earn money, women’s job [is to] look after home

V41—Q18 Sharing of income between partners

V44—Q19c Division of household work: Care for sick family members

V45—Q19d Division of household work: Shops for groceries

V46—Q19e Division of household work: Household cleaning

V47—Q19f Division of household work: Preparing meals

V48—Q20 Sharing of household work between partners

V64—Q31 Who makes decisions on how to raise kids

“Working woman: Family life suffers when woman has full-time job”

For the data on the Indian sample, we find a higher agreement (strong and regular) trend in males compared to the females, and while combining both, we find a higher trend in agreement rather than disagreement; from the German counterpart, we see agreement and disagreement are of almost equal nature in terms of strength and in terms of gender, their numbers are close in comparison to each other: Therefore it shows that the dataset pertaining to Indian sample (and as well the masculine gender amongst the sample) agree to the statement (“Working woman: Family life suffers when woman has full-time job”) much stronger while dataset pertaining to German sample tally on agreement and disagreement count. With a contingency table analysis through χ 2 statistics, we found there is no relationship between the genders and the agreement categories for both the Indian and German data samples (Figs. 1 and 2 ).

Sex-wise agreement level plot (Indian data sample) of “Working woman: Family life suffers when woman has full-time job”.

Sex wise agreement level plot (German data sample) of “Working woman: Family life suffers when woman has full-time job”.

“Both [women and men] should contribute to household income”

From Figs. 3 and 4 , we see a high level of agreement rather than disagreement with this statement (“Both [women and men] should contribute to household income”) in consideration of the samples. For the Indian data sample, men agree more than women, for the German dataset women lead in count. With a contingency table analysis through χ 2 -statistics, we found there is a relationship between the genders and agreement categories, both for the Indian and German datasets.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (Indian data sample) of “Both [women and men] should contribute to household income”.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (German data sample) of “Both [women and men] should contribute to household income”.

“Men’s job earn money, women’s job [is to] look after home”

From the bargraphs of Figs. 5 and 6 , we see that the Indian dataset agrees more than disagrees with the statement (“Men’s job earn money, women’s job [is to] look after home”) in consideration and men dominating the response, while for the German dataset, we see an exact opposite: men disagree more to the statement than agree, and female counts are dominating in the response.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (Indian data sample) of “Men’s job earn money, women’s job [is to] look after home”.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (German data sample) of “Men’s job earn money, women’s job [is to] look after home”.

“Sharing of income between partners”

From this statement just above, the following Figs. 7 and 8 are the bar graphs we derive for gender-wise agreement categories from the data sample.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (Indian data sample) of “Sharing of income between partners”.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (German data sample) of “Sharing of income between partners”.

Here the categories of focus for these bar graphs as well as the coming ones, are presented in acronym format and they are:

IMAAGPHS: I manage all and give the partner his share

NAN: Not applicable number.

PMAAGMMS: Partner manages all and gives me my share

WEKOMS: We each keep our own money separate

WPAMETO: We pull all money, each take-out

WPSMRS: We pull some money, rest separate

The bar graph of Fig. 7 (for the Indian sample) shows even distribution for the categories with the high male count in each category except the spike in the unidentified (NAN) category but for the German sample (Fig. 8 ), “We pull all money, each take out” shows a stronger response than any other category.

“Division of household work: Care for sick family members”

The categories of focus for Figs. 9 and 10 are presented in the following acronym format:

Sex-wise agreement level plot (Indian data sample) of “Division of household work: Care for sick family members”.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (German data sample) of “Division of household work: Care for sick family members”.

AEBT: About equal or both together

AM: Always me

AMSP: Always my Spouse/partner

IDBATP: Is done by a third-person

UMSP: Usually, my spouse/partner

UM: Usually me

From Figs. 9 and 10, we see “Is done by a third person” has a very low count in the German data as well as in the Indian data and in every category, male responses are much higher other than the “Always me” or “Usually me” category for German data where female responses are leading.

“Division of household work: Shops for groceries”

Figures 11 and 12 are bar graphs that we derive for gender agreement categories from the data sample.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (Indian data sample) of “Division of household work: Shops for groceries”.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (German data sample) of “Division of household work: Shops for groceries”.

Here the categories of focus are presented in the following acronym format:

From Figs. 11 and 12 we see “Is done by a third person” has a very low count in German data as well as in Indian data, and in every category, male responses are much higher, except for “Always me” or “Usually me” category for German data as well as “Always me” category for Indian data where female responses are leading.

“Division of household work: Household cleaning”

Here the categories of focus for these bar graphs (generated from statement 7) are presented in the following acronym format:

From Figs. 13 and 14 , we see “Is done by a third person” has a very low count in German data as well as in Indian data, and in every category, male responses are much higher other than the “Always me” or “Usually me” category for German data as well as “Always me” category for Indian data where female responses are leading.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (Indian data sample) of “Division of household work: Household cleaning”.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (German data sample) of “Division of household work: Household cleaning”.

“Division of household work: Preparing meals”

Here the categories of focus for these bar graphs (generated from statement 8) are presented in the following acronym format and they are:

From Figs. 15 and 16 we see “Is done by a third person” has a very low count in German data as well as in Indian data and in every category, male responses are much higher other than the “Always me” or “Usually me” category for German data as well “Always me” category for Indian data where female responses are leading.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (Indian data sample) of “Division of household work: Preparing meals”.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (German data sample) of “Division of household work: Preparing meals”.

“Sharing of household work between partners”

Here the categories of focus for these bar graphs are presented in the following acronym format:

IDABLTMFS: I do a bit less than my fair share

IDABMTMFS: I do a bit more than my fair share

IDMLTMFS: I do much less than my fair share

IDMMTMFS: I do much more than my fair share

IDRMFS: I do roughly my fair share

Figures 17 and 18 record higher male responses except for “I do a bit more than my fair share” or “I do much more than my fair share” category for German data.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (Indian data sample) of “Sharing of household work between partners”.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (German data sample) of “Sharing of household work between partners”.

“Who makes decisions how to raise kids”

MM: Mostly me

MMSP: Mostly my spouse/partner

SMSMSP: Sometime me/sometimes my spouse, partner

WDDT: We decide/decided together

SE: Someone else

Figures 19 and 20 record higher responses for males in the Indian sample whereas male and female counts almost tally in the German data, and the category of “We decide/ decided together” is quite strong in the German sample data.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (Indian data sample) of “Who makes decisions how to raise kids”.

Sex-wise agreement level plot (German data sample) of “Who makes decisions how to raise kids”.

We now turn to examining the data through “thick descriptions” or a qualitative analytical lens.

Ethnographic (qualitative) data on family and changing gender roles in India

Based on grounded theory methodology developed by Strauss and Corbin in 1998, emphasizing simultaneous data collection and analysis, the ethnographic study was conducted in Bengaluru, Karnataka, and spanned three phases: pilot fieldwork (pre-pandemic), the first phase before the pandemic, and the second phase during the pandemic. A total of 56 semi-structured interviews with women I.T. professionals were conducted, lasting approximately 45 min each. Virtual interviews replaced in-person ones during the pandemic due to travel restrictions. Theoretical saturation was reached after about the 43rd interview, leading to the conclusion of fieldwork. Adopting a grounded theory lens provided a nuanced understanding of intersectional experiences, with a focus on women’s employment and changing gender roles in marriage and family.

MAXQDA, a qualitative data analysis software, facilitated concise analysis of thick data, focusing on women’s employment and changing gender roles in marriage and family. The software’s features provided flexibility in content analysis, generating visualizations and semantic networks for insightful interpretations. The research design’s inclusion of diverse social attributes contributes to the richness of findings.

For a more refined comprehension of this research, we have used data visuals such as code relation browser: intersections and proximity, document portrait, and semantic network relations: intersections and proximity. All visuals were generated using MAXQDA. In Figs. 21 and 22 , a Code Relation Browser visualizes the connections and co-occurrences of codes in the data.

Code relation browser: proximity.

Code relation browser: intersections.

In Fig. 21 Code relation browser: proximity, squares represent the proximity of the codes, and the larger the square, the more concurrences of the codes. The larger squares in the codes—FAMILY, COMMUNITY, and MARRIAGE, with respective to EDUCATION and EMPLOYMENT— show that women professionals continue to be interdependent on societal standards operating in the family for educational and professional decisions while constantly negotiating gender roles. The prominent relationship between EMPLOYMENT and MARRIAGE results from how women maintain the status quo created with the continuous burden of family and marital (social) duties along with professional responsibilities, neglecting any labeled terms such as ‘Un-ladylike’ and ‘Non-ambitious.’

A Code Relation Browser: Intersections, as shown in Fig. 22 , visualizes the linkages and co-existences of codes in the documents. The squares show the codes’ intersections, and the size of the square denotes higher or lower coinciding in the coded segments. The larger squares of the codes—FAMILY, MARRIAGE, and EMPLOYMENT—plainly illustrate that women seeking employment or actively employed continue to rely on their families and nuptial relations for critical decisions such as trajectories of education and pursuing certain kinds of career orientation while persistently augmenting gender roles prescribed and prevail in the society for an ideal woman.

Furthermore, the MAXQDA visual tool has a case-oriented function called Document Portraits (Fig. 23 ). This allows us to visualize the document as a dotted picture based on the defined code order and code colors. This tool exhibits coded segments as a portrait of either all or specific selected codes assigned throughout the document. For example, this analysis uses a particular color for EMPLOYMENT (green) or FAMILY (red). With a brief look, we can reveal which factors (codes) are predominantly contested throughout the documentation.

Document portrait.

The graphic representations of women’s employment and changing gender roles respective to family and marriage data in Document Portrait Fig. 23 are dominated by FAMILY, MARRIAGE, and COMMUNITY themes. Document Portrait (Fig. 23 ) is a visualization of data collected with women professionals constantly dealing with gender norms impacting their social and professional lives; that is why prominent themes such as EMPLOYMENT, FAMILY, and MARRIAGE indicate that despite being financially independent, women had to abide the assigned gender norms.

The gender arbitrations with professional aspirations and family/marital dynamics are addressed in Document Portrait. The gendering of roles is rooted in society’s standardized criterion for being ‘good’ or ‘ideal’ women (Shukla and Chaudhuri, 2021 ; Shukla, 2022 ). Therefore, women remain constantly navigating under rigid gender structures, as indicated by the document portrait. However, women professionals expressed hope for balanced transformation in the gender roles to have smooth navigation in personal and professional life.

Data visualization in Figs. 24 and 25 represent the semantic network relations of crossings and overlapping among codes. Visualization of codes in the document occurs as if they are created in a food web in the ecosystem. The more similar two segments have been coded, or the more similar two codes have been applied, the closer they are to each other in the semantic network relations. Therefore, Fig. 24 represents network relations of intersections among codes indicating that specific codes continued to overlap each other throughout the discussion. Semantic network relations (Figs. 24 and 25 ) denote the interdependency and concurrence of themes, affirming diverse narratives binding on standard functionality.

Semantic Network Relation: intersections of codes in a segment.

Semantic Network Relation: proximity of codes in segments.

Figure 25 represents the complex interconnectivity and proximity of codes that prominently occurred during data analysis. It is critical to note that the width expansion of connecting lines signifies the frequency of codes and their association with specific codes in Semantic Network Relations.

The visibility of significance for EMPLOYMENT in both Figs. 24 and 25 display immaculate relations with prominent codes of FAMILY and MARRIAGE. The proximity of codes in the network represents how the dynamics of family bonds, matrimonial relations, and professional endeavors are in unison for women. The importance of EDUCATION is visible in both semantic network relations. It also signals how COMMUNITY has an impeccable relationship with the significant codes of EMPLOYMENT, FAMILY, and MARRIAGE. This firm relationship link implies how the community’s (kith and kin) social regulations, such as pre-defined gender-assigned roles, continued to impact the dynamics of marriage, family, and profession. Therefore, the perpetual interactions of community, family, and marriage continued strong interplay for women’s employment and education.

This article acknowledges the interconnectedness of gender roles, societal expectations, and mobility experiences in family and marriage in Germany and India, considering how multiple dimensions of identity and power intersect to shape people’s lives and opportunities as gender roles and mobility experiences are deeply intertwined in societies worldwide. This study explores the concept of Intersectional Im/Mobilities, focusing on people’s experiences in two distinct contexts: India and Germany. By combining qualitative and quantitative data analysis, we discuss five themes emerging from our data and analyses, as discussed below, that shed light on the similarities and differences in how gender roles and societal expectations impact people’s lives and mobility experiences in these two countries.

Theme 1: Gender norms and societal expectations

In India and Germany, traditional gender norms and societal expectations continue to influence majority of women’s roles in family and marriage. The qualitative data (Figs. 24 and 25 ) reveal how women professionals navigate gender norms while making decisions about education and careers, often relying on family and societal standards. The quantitative data (see Figs. 5 , 6 ; 17 and 18 ) reinforces these findings, with male respondents in both nations adhering more to conservative views on gender roles within households. Despite shared traditional gender norms, the extent of adherence and the pace of change differ between India and Germany (see, Figs. 3 and 4 ; 15 and 16 ). Data on the Indian sample exhibit a higher level of agreement with traditional gender roles among respondents. In India, intersectionalities of caste, class, and gender impose rigid norms, resulting in a higher level of agreement with traditional gender roles. By comparison, the German (quantitative) sample reflects a more nuanced understanding of intersectionality, with supporting conventional views on gender roles and others challenging them. These differences highlight the ongoing debates and transformations of gender roles in both countries.

Theme 2: Family and marriage as influential social factors

Family and marriage significantly impact women’s education, career choices, and employment in India and Germany as they intersect with gender roles and professional mobility. The data reveal how women professionals in India and Germany navigate the expectations and constraints of their families and marital relations. Qualitative data (Figs. 21 and 22 ) illustrates how women professionals rely on family and marital ties when making critical life choices. The quantitative data (see Figs. 9 and 10 ; 11 and 12 ; 19 and 20 ) corroborate these findings, revealing the significant influence of family dynamics on the division of household work and childcare responsibilities. However, the impact of family and marriage on women’s decisions may be more pronounced in India due to stronger cultural and familial ties (see Fig. 13 ). In contrast, Germany’s (see Fig. 14 ) emphasis on individual choices and autonomy may lead to a more balanced distribution of household work and family decision-making. Germany’s contemporary egalitarian approach to gender roles may foster greater flexibility in defining family and professional responsibilities compared to India, where traditional gender norms often persist.

Theme 3: Intersectionalities of family, marriage, and employment

The intersectionalities of gender roles in family, marriage, and employment are evident through the data samples in both countries. In this research, qualitative data highlights how women professionals continuously negotiate gender roles within their careers and family dynamics. The interconnectedness of codes (Figs. 22 and 24 ) related to family, marriage, and employment indicates the inextricable link between these aspects in both countries. Cultural and historical contexts may lead to differences in the perception and experience of intersectionality in India and Germany. India’s prolonged and myriad versions of patriarchal structures may result in more rigid gender roles, leading to a stronger emphasis on women’s responsibilities within the family, limiting their mobility experiences compared to Germany (see Figs. 1 and 2 ). Where gender equality has progressed, the negotiation of gender roles may be less rigid, allowing for greater flexibility and individual agency in defining family and professional responsibilities.

Theme 4: Community influence on gender roles

Both India and Germany demonstrate that community influence significantly reinforces traditional gender roles. The qualitative data (Figs. 24 and 25 ) suggest that societal norms and expectations, especially those defined by the community, play a crucial role in shaping the dynamics of marriage, family, and profession. The quantitative data (see, Figs. 7 and 8 ; 19 and 20 ) also indicates that community norms influence respondents’ views on sharing household income and decision-making in raising kids. However, the influence of community norms may be more pronounced in India, where traditional customs and social expectations profoundly impact individuals’ choices and behaviors. In Germany, where individualism and personal autonomy are more emphasized, community influence may still be present but may not be as dominant in shaping gender roles.

Theme 5: Gender role transformation: Future promises

Despite the prevalence of traditional gender norms, women’s agency and resilience in challenging traditional norms in both India and Germany express hope for more balanced gender role transformations where Intersectional Im/mobilities recognize that women’s aspirations for change are shaped by their intersecting identities and for social-economic mobility experiences. The qualitative data (Fig. 23 ) highlights that women aspire to navigate personal and professional life more smoothly by challenging and redefining gender roles. Furthermore, the extent of hope and the pace of transformation may differ between India and Germany. In India, where traditional gender norms are deeply ingrained, women’s aspirations for change may face more significant societal resistance. In contrast, Germany’s more progressive attitudes towards gender equality may allow for a more favorable environment for achieving gender role transformation.

Conclusion: The road ahead

In the last forty years, following the gender theory approach, gender came to be understood as dynamic processes or what West and Zimmerman ( 1987 ) termed as “doing gender.” This conceptualization defines gender as a process that is implicated not only in demarcating “males” and “females” within the broader structures of society but also in how these categories of people relate to each other. The next significant stage in gender theorization came in the 1990s when feminist scholars argued that gender is not a property of an individual but is an emergent feature of social situations. Scholars argued that gender theorizing until now had been obscuring how gender is about relations and processes involving power and intersectionalities (West and Zimmerman, 1987 ; Lorber, 1994 ; Ferree, 2010 ; Ferree et al., 1999 ). Additionally, gender is one of the most important axes of differentiation that people use not only to distinguish themselves but as the basis for negotiating social status and hierarchies beyond families, that is, multiple and simultaneous intersectionalities.

Our aim in this article, then, has been to continue advancing intersectionality as an analytical approach to understanding gender dynamics in family and marriage by documenting that there are multiple, varied perceptions of people’s intersectional constellations and bringing it closer to intersectionality’s subtle relationship with social and geographical mobilities in people’s everyday life and lifestyle choices. We have consciously included a mixed method approach in this article to highlight the ‘thickness’ of data (ethnographic voices) together with statistical analyses, and we believe that the study may be extended to capture multiple mobilities and intersectionalities such as those entwined with gender roles in family and marriage. Here, we make a theoretical and applied case for Intersectional Im/Mobilities (Shukla and Chaudhuri, 2021 ), applying the framework to our data by adding to our own intersectional analyses. Although our work certainly has its limitations (for example, scalability of the qualitative model), we nonetheless advocate for intersectional researchers to move beyond conventional understandings of intersectionality or mobility to a more complex network where the two overlap, interact, and inflect each other, particularly in varied geo-social contexts. We hope that our illustrations here will encourage future scholarship to investigate meaningful and complex relations between intersectionality and mobility studies to examine gender relations, particularly in intimate spheres such as family and marriage, and across cultural and geographical contexts. As scholars from multidisciplinary backgrounds, we believe that power geometries of intersectionality and mobility studies, as discussed and exemplified in a limited capacity in this article, shall continue to prove their versatility and adaptability across time and territories.

Data availability

The quantitative dataset used in this research can be accessed at: https://www.gesis.org/en/issp/data-and-documentation/family-and-changing-gender-roles/2012 . The qualitative dataset is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research has benefited from a GESIS-EUROLAB fellowship and a research stay at GESIS—Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Cologne, Germany, in 2022. Qualitative Data Analysis for this research was made possible by a one-year MAXQDA Project Sponsorship by the MAXQDA Research Grants 2019.

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Mayurakshi Chaudhuri contributed to the theoretical and methodological argumentation, data identification for quantitative analyses, evaluation of the interview protocol used in the qualitative analysis, and analysis for the empirical qualitative cases and led the writing of this manuscript. Saurav Karmakar contributed to data identification for quantitative analyses and the methodological enhancements and data interpretation for quantitative analysis. Sakshi Shukla contributed to the data collection, methodological enhancements and data interpretation used as part of the qualitative analysis.

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Chaudhuri, M., Karmakar, S. & Shukla, S. Intersectionalities and im/mobilities in family and marriage: a comparative study of Germany and India. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 539 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03075-5

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A scoping review of academic and grey literature on migrant health research conducted in Scotland

• G. Petrie 1 ,
• K. Angus 2 &
• R. O’Donnell 2  

BMC Public Health volume  24 , Article number:  1156 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Migration to Scotland has increased since 2002 with an increase in European residents and participation in the Asylum dispersal scheme. Scotland has become more ethnically diverse, and 10% of the current population were born abroad. Migration and ethnicity are determinants of health, and information on the health status of migrants to Scotland and their access to and barriers to care facilitates the planning and delivery of equitable health services. This study aimed to scope existing peer-reviewed research and grey literature to identify gaps in evidence regarding the health of migrants in Scotland.

A scoping review on the health of migrants in Scotland was carried out for dates January 2002 to March 2023, inclusive of peer-reviewed journals and grey literature. CINAHL/ Web of Science/SocIndex and Medline databases were systematically searched along with government and third-sector websites. The searches identified 2166 journal articles and 170 grey literature documents for screening. Included articles were categorised according to the World Health Organisation’s 2016 Strategy and Action Plan for Refugee and Migrant Health in the European region. This approach builds on a previously published literature review on Migrant Health in the Republic of Ireland.

Seventy-one peer reviewed journal articles and 29 grey literature documents were included in the review. 66% were carried out from 2013 onwards and the majority focused on asylum seekers or unspecified migrant groups. Most research identified was on the World Health Organisation’s strategic areas of right to health of refugees, social determinants of health and public health planning and strengthening health systems. There were fewer studies on the strategic areas of frameworks for collaborative action, preventing communicable disease, preventing non-communicable disease, health screening and assessment and improving health information and communication.

While research on migrant health in Scotland has increased in recent years significant gaps remain. Future priorities should include studies of undocumented migrants, migrant workers, and additional research is required on the issue of improving health information and communication.

Peer Review reports

The term migrant is defined by the International Organisation for Migration as “ a person who moves away from his or her place of usual residence, whether within a country or across an international border, temporarily or permanently, and for a variety of reasons. The term includes several well-defined legal categories of people, including migrant workers; persons whose particular types of movements are legally-defined, such as smuggled migrants; as well as those whose status are not specifically defined under international law, such as international students.” [ 1 ] Internationally there are an estimated 281 million migrants – 3.6% of the world population, including 26.4 million refugees and 4.1 million asylum seekers – the highest number ever recorded [ 2 ]. The UN Refugee Society defines the term refugee as “ someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence…most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so .” The term asylum-seeker is defined as “someone whose request for sanctuary has yet to be processed.” [ 3 ].

Net-migration to Europe was negative in the 19th century due to higher levels of emigration, however in the mid-20th century immigration began to rise, because of an increase in migrant workers and following conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa [ 4 ]. Current migration drivers include conflicts alongside world-wide economic instability, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic [ 5 ]. Environmental damage due to climate change is expected to inflate the number of asylum seekers entering Europe in future [ 6 ]. The increase in migration to Europe is not a short-term influx but a long-term phenomenon, and European nations must adapt and find solutions to resulting financial, safeguarding and health challenges [ 7 ].

Data on healthcare use by migrants in Europe is variable, which means cross-country comparisons are inadequate [ 8 ]. Many countries do not record migration information within health records and all use disparate criteria to classify migrant status. The lack of comparative data hinders public health surveillance and effective interventions [ 9 ]. Even where information is available, results can be contradictory due to the multifarious migrant population. Migrants have a wide range of origin countries, socio-economic position, age and journeys undertaken which can affect health status [ 10 ].

Migrants initially may have better health than the general population, known as the ‘Healthy Migrant effect’ [ 11 ]. However, health declines with increasing length of residence [ 12 ] and over time to levels comparable with the general population [ 13 ]. Second generation immigrants may have higher mortality than average [ 14 ]. The process of acculturation to the host country, with adoption of unhealthy lifestyle and behaviours, increases the risk for chronic disease [ 15 ]. In addition, inequalities in health of migrants compared to host populations has been confirmed by wide-ranging research [ 16 ].

Host countries may limit healthcare access, with undocumented migrants sometimes only entitled to emergency care [ 17 ]. Even when access is granted, inequitable services can affect quality of care due to language barriers and cultural factors [ 18 ]. Poor working/living conditions and discrimination can exacerbate health inequalities [ 12 ]. Processing facilities for asylum seekers are frequently overpopulated, stressful environments [ 19 ] and threat of deportation, lack of citizenship rights and integration can negatively affect health and access to care [ 20 ]. Undocumented workers are unprotected by health and safety legislation leading to dangerous working conditions and injuries [ 15 ].

A systematic review of migrant health in the European Union (EU) found migrants have worse self-perceived health than the general population [ 21 ]. Research evidence indicates increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health disorders and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Exposure to conflict, harsh travel conditions and suboptimal vaccine programmes can mean higher risk of communicable disease [ 22 ]. Scoping reviews have also been conducted to describe trends within migration health research in the United Kingdom (UK) [ 23 ] and identify gaps for future research agendas in the UK [ 23 ] and in the Republic of Ireland [ 24 ].

Almost three-quarters (73%) of published migration health research in the UK has been conducted in England, focusing primarily on infectious diseases and mental health. There is limited evidence on the social determinants of health, access to and use of healthcare and structural and behavioural factors behaviours that influence migrant health in the UK [ 23 ]. By contrast, a large amount of the migration research conducted in the Republic of Ireland has focused on the social determinants of health, and on health system adaptations, with a paucity of research focusing on improving health information systems [ 24 ].

Migration and Health in Scotland

Immigration to Scotland began to rise in 2003 with the expansion of the EU [ 25 ]. The population in Scotland increased from 5.11 million to 5.47 million between 2005 and 2020 and is predicted to continue rising until 2028 [ 26 ] despite low birth rates, with the increased population resulting from inward migration [ 27 ]. Scotland’s population is becoming more ethnically diverse [ 28 ] and susceptibility to different health conditions varies by ethnic group, which has implications for the planning and provision of health services [ 29 ]. 7% of the current Scottish population are non-UK nationals and 10% were born outside Britain. The commonest countries of origin were Poland, Ireland, Italy, Nigeria and India [ 30 ].

Within Scotland, linking health data to ethnicity is standard in order to monitor and improve health of minority groups [ 31 ]. Ethnic background can differ from country of birth which means migration status cannot be assumed [ 32 ], although health inequalities experienced by migrants often extend to affect all ethnic minority groups [ 33 ]. The Scottish Health and Ethnicity Linkage Study (SHELS) linked census data to health records of 91% of the population which has provided information on mortality and morbidity by ethnic group and country of birth [ 34 ]. SHELS research indicates that the white-Scottish population have a higher mortality rate than other ethnic groups. This may be consequent to the comparatively poor health of the Scottish population relative to other European nations: high mortality rates in the general population may cause a perception that the health of minorities is more advantageous than in reality [ 35 ].

Cezard et al’s [ 13 ] analysis of self-perceived health among people in Scotland found that being born abroad had a positive impact on health status. Health declined with increased length of residence, which may be explained by cultural convergence with the majority population. Allik et al. [ 36 ] compared health inequalities by ethnic background and found that with increasing age, health differences reduced thus people aged over 75 of all ethnicities had similar or worse health status than White-Scottish people. While working-age migrants appear to be healthier than the White Scottish population, it cannot be assumed that in future this would extend to older age groups.

Research has shown deprivation as a cause of heath inequalities among ethnic minority and migrant groups [ 37 ]. The socio-economic status of minority ethnic groups in Scotland is unusual, as most are of similar or higher status than the white-Scottish population [ 38 ]. Therefore, public health interventions targeting deprivation may not address risk-factors for ethnic minorities and migrants [ 36 ]. Further research on determinants of health in migrants can help with planning and design of inclusive policies.

The 2011 census indicated that 50% of immigrants lived in the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. Glasgow had a greater percentage of non-European immigrants due to participation in the Asylum dispersal programme [ 39 ]. 10% of UK asylum seekers are placed in Glasgow, but records are not kept following approval of asylum claims, therefore the size of the refugee population is unknown [ 40 ]. While immigration is controlled by the British government, in policy areas devolved to the Scottish government, refugees and asylum seekers have more rights than elsewhere in UK, including access to primary healthcare for undocumented migrants [ 40 ]. Despite the mitigating effect of Scottish policies, asylum seekers’ health is worsened by the asylum process and associated poverty, marginalisation, and discrimination [ 40 ]. Health deteriorates with increasing length of time in the asylum system [ 40 ] and asylum seekers and refugees have additional health needs and require enhanced support [ 41 ]. Research on the health needs of asylum seekers in Scotland is required to ensure adequate healthcare.

Aim and objectives

While scoping reviews on migrant health have been carried out in Europe [ 12 ], Ireland [ 24 ] and the UK [ 23 ] none are currently specific to the Scottish context. Given the devolved government of Scotland and demographics described above, a targeted review would help to clarify research priorities, with the aim of improving health and health care within the migrant community in Scotland. This work therefore builds on the published scoping review of migrant health in the Republic of Ireland [ 24 ]. The authors recommend replication of the study in other countries to facilitate cross-country comparison. Our aim was to scope peer-reviewed research and grey literature on migrant health conducted in Scotland and identify any gaps in the evidence. Our objectives were to: [1] understand the extent of the available research by topic area [2] summarise the types of research already conducted, populations studied, topics covered and approaches taken [3], map the existing research conducted in Scotland and [4] identify areas for future research based on any gaps in the evidence identified.

A scoping review was conducted as they can aid detection of evidence gaps [ 42 ] and allow incorporation of grey literature in topics with insufficient published research [ 43 ]. Arksey and O’Malley’s [ 44 ] five stage scoping review framework was used.

Stage 1: identifying the research question

Arskey and O’Malley [ 44 ] suggest maintaining a broad approach to identifying the research question, in order to generate breadth of coverage. On this basis, and in line with the research question identified in the Villarroel et al. [ 24 ] scoping review, our research question was framed as follows: What is the scope, main topics and gaps in evidence in the existing literature on health of international migrants living in Scotland? Arksey and O’Malley [ 44 ] highlight the importance of defining terminology at the outset of scoping reviews. For consistency, we used the broad definition of ‘migrant’ as per Villaroel et al. [ 24 ], from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) [ 1 ]. References to refugees or asylum seekers followed the United Nations Refugee Agency definitions [ 3 ].

Stage 2: identifying relevant studies

Electronic database searches identified reports alongside a grey literature search, in line with Arskey and O’Malley’s [ 44 ] guidance to search for evidence via different sources. CINAHL, Web of Science, SocIndex and Medline academic databases were selected with input from co-authors. Search terms for the review were based upon those used by Villaroel et al. [ 24 ] with additional relevant terms from Hannigan et al. [ 9 ] The strategy combined three sets of terms for: Migrants (e.g., refugee, migrant, immigrant or newcomer), Scotland and Health. Both free text terms and index terms were used and adapted to the 4 academic databases and searches were run on 10th March 2023 (see Additional File 1 for database search strategies). Thirteen Government, University, and third-sector websites in Scotland were scoped for selection then hand-searched for grey literature (listed in Additional File 1 ).

Stage 3: study selection

Net-migration to Scotland increased in the 2000s [ 27 ] hence a date range of January 2002-March 2023 was used to identify evidence. The search was limited to English only. Inclusion/exclusion criteria for the studies were based on those used by Villaroel et al. [ 24 ] and expanded upon following discussion with co-authors (see Table  1 ). Reports were included if based on primary or secondary research on the health of international migrants in Scotland and used qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods research design. International or UK based reports were only included if Scottish results were documented separately. Reports on the health of ethnic minority groups in Scotland was included if place of birth was recorded. Research on internal (non-international) migrants within Scotland, either moving from one Scottish area to another or from another part of the United Kingdom to Scotland, were excluded.

Stage 4: data charting

All records were saved to RefWorks for screening. Records were first screened at title/abstract stage with 10% independently checked by the co-authors. The remaining reports were single screened using full text by the first author. Data from the included records was extracted and organised in tabular form under the following headings, which were agreed by team members: article type (peer-reviewed article or grey literature), publication date, geographical setting, study/intervention’s target population, funding, primary research focus on migrant health (y/n), study objective, data collection method, study design (qualitative/quantitative/mixed) and main finding. Reports were not critically appraised in this scoping review.

Stage 5: collating, summarising and reporting results

A report (either a peer-reviewed journal article or grey literature report) is used as our unit of analysis. In order to present the range of research identified, reports were grouped by the different headings in our data charting table and the outcomes considered for relevance to our scoping review’s aim. Our Results summarise the recency, focus, study designs and funding sources of the identified research, followed by the geographical settings and whether Scotland was included in international research reports. Reports were grouped by their study population and further sub-divided by publication type and geographical area for summarising. Finally, the WHO’s European strategy and action plan (SAAP) for refugee and migrant health [ 7 ] is a policy framework designed to help governments and other stakeholders monitor and improve migrant health in Europe. There are nine strategic areas in the WHO’s SAAP, which prioritise the most salient issues. In line with Villaroel et al’s [ 24 ] approach and in order to compare scoping review outcomes, these areas were used to categorise the findings of this review. Each report was matched to the most appropriate SAAP:

Establishing a Framework for Collaborative Action.

Advocating for the right to health of refugees.

Addressing the social determinants of health.

Achieving public health preparedness and ensuring an effective response.

Strengthening health systems and their resilience.

Preventing communicable disease.

Preventing and reducing the risks caused by non-communicable disease.

Ensuring ethical and effective health screening and assessment.

Improving health information and communication.

The primary focus (aims and objectives) of each report was used to identify the relevant SAAP area/areas. To improve reliability, results were compared using coding criteria used in Villaroel et al’s study (MacFarlane 2023, personal communication, 31st May). 10% of the reports were checked by one co-author to ensure consistent coding to SAAP categories. Any instances of uncertainty in mapping reports to the relevant SAAP area/areas were discussed and resolved by team members.

This scoping review of the literature on migrant health in Scotland identified 2166 records from academic literature databases, following duplicate removal, and 170 records from website searches (see Fig.  1 ). Following screening, a total of 71 peer-reviewed journal articles and 29 grey literature studies (totalling 100 reports) were included for analysis (Results table and reference list are presented in Additional File 2 ).

Flow chart illustrating the identification of sources of evidence included in the scoping review

Overall findings

The majority of reports were published between 2013 and 2022. Fifty-eight reports (58%) focused exclusively on migrant health [ 18 , 39 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 ]. 23 centred on health but included other populations in addition to migrants – for example research on ethnic minorities or other vulnerable groups [ 13 , 31 , 35 , 103 , 104 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 , 119 , 120 , 121 , 122 ]. Seventeen reports were included where the sample population were migrants, but the primary topic was not health – for example destitution, integration, and service needs [ 27 , 73 , 74 , 123 , 124 , 125 , 126 , 127 , 128 , 129 , 130 , 131 , 132 , 133 , 134 , 135 ]. Health data was reported as part of the wider subject matter. One report [ 136 ] looked at the social determinants of breastfeeding including migrant status and one [ 137 ] compared attitudes to aging and family support between countries.

Funding sources were not declared for 35 (35%) of reports. The Scottish Government funded 20 reports (20%) [ 13 , 27 , 32 , 39 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 66 , 77 , 88 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 113 , 116 , 119 , 121 , 129 , 134 ]. Other common sources of funding included Government funded public bodies ( n  = 13) [ 45 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 104 , 107 , 113 , 116 , 131 , 136 ], the Scottish Health Service ( n  = 18) (either the National Health Service (NHS) [ 13 , 54 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 102 , 113 , 116 ], local NHS trusts [ 45 , 60 , 61 , 77 , 102 , 103 , 112 ] or by Public Health Scotland [ 13 , 113 ]) Eleven reports (11%) were funded by Universities. The charity sector financed 15 (15%) reports [ 53 , 63 , 66 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 103 , 111 , 123 , 125 , 132 , 138 ] and the EU and Scottish local authorities funded four reports each [ 45 , 62 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 102 , 125 , 135 ]. Professional bodies financed one report [ 126 ] as did the Japanese government [ 64 ]. No reports received funding from the business sector. The biggest sources of funding for grey literature were Refugee charities (40%) and the Scottish government (30%) (see Fig. 2 ).

Sources of funding for migrant health research in Scotland

Research methods and data collection

52% of reports used qualitative research methods. Forty-five reports (86%) collected data using 1–1 interviews and 24 (46%) used focus groups. Other methods of data collection included questionnaires (six studies (11%)), workshops (two studies (3.85%)) and observation (two studies (3.85%)). Oral/written evidence, guided play sessions, family case studies and participatory activity sessions were used in one report each.

28% of reports used quantitative research methods, most commonly cross section design (ten studies (36%)) and cohort design (18 studies (64%)). Information was obtained from databases including medical records, Census data and national records in 21 reports (75%). Questionnaires were used in six reports (21%). Other methods including body measurements, food diaries, blood samples, interviews and case reviews were used in 1 report each.

20% of reports used mixed methods. The most common method of data collection was questionnaires in 14 reports (70%), interviews in ten reports (50%), focus groups in seven reports (35%), workshops in three reports (13.6%), and databases in three reports (13.6%). Other methods included literature review in two reports (10%), case note reviews in two reports (10%) and one reports each used mapping and school records.

Geographical areas of study

Ninety-one reports were situated in Scotland, of which 35 (38.5%) covered the whole country and 56 (61.5%) specified a city or area where research was undertaken. Some UK and international reports also specified the area of Scotland. The largest share of research within Scotland overall was in Glasgow with 36 reports, followed by Edinburgh with 16 reports, Lothian with six reports, Aberdeen with five reports and Grampian with three reports. The Northeast, Stirling, Highlands, Inverness, Lanarkshire, Motherwell and Selkirk had one report in each area.

There were seven international reports, three on mortality by country of birth [ 75 , 76 , 78 ], one on cross cultural communication [ 79 ], one on maternity care in Poland and Scotland [ 99 ], one comparing attitudes to aging in China and Scotland [ 137 ] and one on the link between birthweights and integration of migrants [ 64 ]. The remaining two reports were UK based, one on immunisation of Roma and traveller communities [ 117 ] and one on the link between ethnic diversity and mortality [ 104 ]. All the included international and UK reports documented the Scottish data separately within results.

Migrant population

Thirty-one reports included all migrants in the study population. The remaining reports included 30 studies on asylum seekers/refugees, 11 on Polish migrants, ten on Africans, six each on South Asians/Chinese/European, three on Arabs, and two on Roma populations (see Fig.  3 ). Most reports did not specify the country of origin for Asylum seekers and refugees - where country of birth was specified, reports were also included in the appropriate category.

Migrant populations studied in health research in Scotland

Grey literature and peer-reviewed reports differed in population focus. The most common populations of interest in grey literature were asylum seekers/refugees consisting of 18 reports (62%) [ 27 , 47 , 54 , 55 , 59 , 63 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 123 , 125 , 127 , 128 , 132 , 134 , 138 ] while for peer-reviewed journals 24 reports (34%) focused on all migrants [ 13 , 35 , 45 , 48 , 64 , 76 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 104 , 105 , 108 , 109 , 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 , 118 , 120 , 121 , 122 , 136 ].

Migrant study population also differed by local area; Glasgow city, where the majority of research occurred, had 18 reports of 36 (50%) on Asylum seekers/refugees [ 47 , 48 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 58 , 63 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 82 , 83 , 127 , 128 , 130 , 138 , 139 ] eight reports (22%) on Africans [ 52 , 53 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 106 , 107 ], seven reports (19%) on all migrants [ 45 , 48 , 80 , 102 , 104 , 105 , 121 ] and two reports (5.5%) on Roma migrants [ 103 , 117 ]. Other populations had one reports each. In Edinburgh five reports of 16 (31%) were on the Polish population [ 56 , 67 , 68 , 89 , 90 ], and two reports (12.5%) on Asylum seekers/refugees [ 60 , 133 ], Chinese [ 62 , 137 ], South Asian [ 46 , 119 ], all migrants [ 105 , 121 ] and Africans [ 87 , 107 ]. The remaining migrant groups had one report each. Other areas of Scotland show no clear pattern with studies in disparate migrant population groups.

Number of reports per Strategic and Action Plan (SAAP) Area

SAAP Area mapping

1. establishing a framework for collaborative action.

Nine reports had a primary focus on collaborative action and were categorised under SAAP area 1 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 66 , 70 , 72 , 73 , 103 , 125 , 129 , 132 , 134 ]. Four reports (33%) used a mixed methods study design, the remaining five reports (67%) used a qualitative design. One report [ 66 ] focused on the epidemiology of female genital mutilation and a proposed intervention strategy. One report [ 66 ] focused on the epidemiology of female genital mutilation and a proposed intervention strategy. One report [ 103 ] evaluated service provision to the Roma community in Glasgow. The remaining reports focused on refugees and asylum seekers: four [ 73 , 125 , 132 , 134 ] evaluations of refugee integration projects, one [ 70 ] on services available to pregnant women, and one [ 72 ] an assessment of a peer-education service. One report [ 129 ] was a review of service provisions for migrants during the Covid-19 pandemic. All reports in SAAP area 1 were grey literature and three (37.5%) had a primary focus on migrant health while four (50%) focused on integration, one (11%) included data on ethnic minorities and one (11%) on services during the covid-19 pandemic. The majority (seven reports (78%)) were also categorised to another SAAP area most commonly area 2 (five studies (55%)) or area 5 (four studies (44%)).

2. Advocating for the right to health of refugees

Nineteen reports focused on SAAP area 2, advocating for the right to health of refugees (see Fig.  4 ) [ 47 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 63 , 70 , 71 , 83 , 103 , 123 , 124 , 125 , 127 , 128 , 129 , 134 , 138 , 140 ]. Sixteen reports (84%) had a qualitative study design and the remaining three (16%) reports used mixed methods. Nine reports (47%) focused on the health impact of the asylum system [ 52 , 55 , 71 , 74 , 123 , 127 , 128 , 129 , 138 ], five (26%) on health and access to care [ 47 , 54 , 83 , 103 , 124 ], two (10.5%) on maternity care [ 63 , 70 ], two (10.5%) on integration services [ 125 , 134 ] and one report on mental health in HIV positive migrants [ 53 ]. Nine reports (47%) had a primary focus on migrant health while the remaining 10 (53%) also involved wider social issues. The majority (15 (79%)) of reports were grey literature. All the articles in this group overlapped with another SAAP area. Area 3 is the most common joint category with ten reports (53%) followed by area 5 with seven reports (37%), area 1 shares five reports (26%), while areas 4 and 8 share one report each (5%).

3. Addressing the social determinants of health

Twenty-nine reports were categorised to SAAP area 3 – addressing the social determinants of health (see Fig.  4 ) [ 13 , 27 , 45 , 50 , 52 , 55 , 60 , 62 , 63 , 65 , 68 , 71 , 74 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 102 , 112 , 123 , 124 , 127 , 128 , 136 , 137 , 138 ]. The majority (14 (48%)) used a qualitative study method, eight (28%) used quantitative methodology and the remaining seven reports (24%) used mixed methods. Nineteen reports (65.5%) were peer-reviewed journals [ 13 , 45 , 50 , 52 , 60 , 62 , 63 , 65 , 68 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 104 , 112 , 124 , 136 , 137 ] and ten (34.5%) were grey literature [ 27 , 55 , 63 , 71 , 74 , 102 , 123 , 127 , 128 , 138 ]. Ten reports (34.5%) discussed the effects of the asylum system on health [ 27 , 52 , 63 , 71 , 74 , 123 , 124 , 127 , 128 , 137 ] and one (3.5%) migration and health [ 50 ]. Six reports (21%) focused on culture and ethnicity [ 82 , 92 , 102 , 104 , 112 , 137 ], five reports (17%) discussed economic and environmental determinants of health [ 13 , 45 , 67 , 81 , 93 ] and five reports (17%) the health impact of social activities [ 55 , 60 , 62 , 80 , 91 ]. Of the remaining reports, one [ 65 ] discussed Brexit and mental health of European migrants and one discussed the effect of coping strategies on wellbeing in Polish migrants [ 68 ]. Most reports, 18 (62%) had a primary focus on migrant health [ 45 , 50 , 52 , 55 , 60 , 62 , 63 , 65 , 67 , 68 , 71 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 102 ], six reports (21%) discussed wider social factors in addition to health [ 74 , 123 , 124 , 127 , 128 , 138 ]. Of the remaining reports three (10%) looked at ethnic background and country of birth [ 13 , 112 , 136 ], one [ 27 ] included other vulnerable groups and one [ 137 ] included people living in China and Chinese migrants to Scotland. Thirteen reports were also categorised to one or more additional SAAP area - ten (34%) were also applicable to area 2 [ 52 , 55 , 63 , 71 , 74 , 123 , 124 , 127 , 128 , 138 ], three (10%) to area 5 [ 63 , 82 , 92 ] and one (7%) to area 4 [ 27 ].

4. Achieving public health preparedness and ensuring an effective response

Twenty-one reports were assigned to SAAP area 4 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 27 , 31 , 35 , 39 , 47 , 57 , 64 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 94 , 104 , 108 , 109 , 111 , 113 , 114 , 116 , 120 , 135 ] of which fourteen (67%) used quantitative research methods, four (19%) mixed methods and three (14%) qualitative methods. Thirteen (62%) reports were peer-reviewed journals [ 35 , 59 , 64 , 75 , 78 , 104 , 108 , 109 , 111 , 113 , 114 , 116 , 120 ] and eight (38%) grey literature [ 27 , 31 , 39 , 47 , 57 , 77 , 94 , 135 ]. Most reports (12 (57%)) focused on morbidity and mortality in migrant populations [ 31 , 35 , 64 , 75 , 76 , 78 , 104 , 108 , 109 , 113 , 114 , 116 ]. Six (29%) investigated health status and healthcare needs in migrant groups in Scotland [ 39 , 47 , 57 , 77 , 94 , 135 ]. Two reports (9.5%) analysed the epidemiology of HIV infections [ 111 , 120 ] and the remaining report focused on the health needs of young people during the covid-19 pandemic [ 27 ]. Nine reports (43%) had a primary focus on migrant health [ 39 , 47 , 55 , 64 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 94 ] while eight (38%) also analysed data by ethnicity [ 31 , 35 , 104 , 108 , 109 , 113 , 114 , 116 ]. Of the remaining reports, three (14%) included other populations within Scotland [ 27 , 111 , 120 ] and one (5%) included other characteristics in addition to health information [ 135 ]. Ten reports (48%) were also categorised to another SAAP area; one to area 2 [ 47 ], one to area 3 [ 27 ], four to area 5 [ 47 , 57 , 77 , 135 ], two to area 6 [ 111 , 120 ] and two to area 9 [ 31 , 108 ].

5. Strengthening health systems and their resilience

Twenty-nine reports were assigned to SAAP area 5 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 18 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 54 , 57 , 63 , 69 , 70 , 72 , 77 , 79 , 82 , 83 , 92 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 99 , 101 , 103 , 118 , 119 , 126 , 129 , 131 , 133 , 135 , 141 ] of which 23 (79%) used qualitative research methods. Three reports used quantitative methods (10.3%) and the remaining three used mixed methods (10.3%). Twelve reports (41%) examined migrants needs and experiences of health care [ 47 , 49 , 54 , 57 , 58 , 77 , 83 , 95 , 103 , 119 , 129 , 135 ], eight (24%) focused on pregnancy and childcare [ 63 , 70 , 92 , 96 , 97 , 99 , 101 , 118 ] and two (7%) on barriers to healthcare access [ 48 , 131 ]. Two reports (7%) evaluated healthcare programmes [ 72 , 133 ] and two focused on communication in primary care [ 79 ] and maternity services [ 69 ]. The remaining three reports (10%) covered sexual health [ 82 ], health information needs of Syrian refugees [ 126 ] and general practitioner training [ 18 ]. Nineteen (65.5%) were peer reviewed journals [ 18 , 48 , 49 , 58 , 69 , 79 , 82 , 83 , 92 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 99 , 101 , 118 , 119 , 125 , 131 , 133 ] and ten (34.5%) were grey literature [ 47 , 54 , 57 , 63 , 70 , 72 , 77 , 103 , 129 , 135 ]. Twenty-one (72%) had a primary focus on migrant health [ 18 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 54 , 57 , 58 , 63 , 69 , 70 , 72 , 77 , 79 , 82 , 83 , 92 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 99 , 101 ]. Six reports (21%) included research on other characteristics or services [ 103 , 126 , 129 , 131 , 133 , 135 ]. The remaining two reports (7%) included ethnic groups as well as migrants in the data [ 118 , 119 ]. Nineteen reports (65.5%) were also assigned to one or more other category areas: five reports (17%) to area 1 [ 47 , 70 , 72 , 103 , 129 ], five reports (17%) to area 2 [ 54 , 63 , 83 , 103 , 129 ], three reports (10%) to area 3 [ 63 , 82 , 92 ], four reports (14%) to area 4 [ 47 , 57 , 77 , 135 ], one (3.5%) to area 7 [ 119 ] and one (3.5%) to area 9 [ 48 ].

6. Preventing communicable diseases

Fourteen reports were assigned to SAAP area 6 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 56 , 61 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 111 , 115 , 117 , 120 , 122 ] of which four (31%) used quantitative methods, five (38%) used qualitative methods and five (38%) used mixed methods. Five reports (38.5%) examined immunisation behaviour [ 56 , 61 , 89 , 90 , 117 ], five (38%) on epidemiology and treatment of HIV [ 106 , 107 , 111 , 120 , 122 ]. The remaining four reports (31%) focused on tuberculosis in healthcare workers [ 115 ], malaria [ 105 ] and sexual health services [ 87 , 88 ]. Only one reports was grey literature [ 88 ], the remainder were peer-reviewed journals. Six reports (46%) had a primary focus on migrant health [ 56 , 61 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 ] while seven reports (54%) also included other at-risk groups in the analysis. Four reports (31%) were also assigned to another SAAP category, two (15%) to area 4 [ 111 , 120 ] and two (15%) to area 8 [ 88 , 115 ].

7. Preventing and reducing the risks posed by non-communicable diseases

Eight reports were categorised to SAAP area 7 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 46 , 51 , 59 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 98 , 119 ] of which six (75%) used qualitative research methods, one (12.5%) used quantitative methods and one (12.5%) used mixed methods. Only one report (12.5%) was grey literature [ 59 ] the remaining seven reports (87.5%) were peer-reviewed journals [ 48 , 87 , 92 , 126 , 127 , 128 , 140 ]. Three reports (37.5%) focused on health behaviours [ 51 , 85 , 98 ], two (25%) on mental health, two (25%) on diabetes and one (12.5%) on chronic disease. Seven reports(87.5%) had a primary focus on migrant health [ 46 , 51 , 59 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 98 ], with the remaining report (12.5%) including ethnic minority groups [ 119 ]. One report (12.5%) was also assigned to SAAP area number 5 [ 119 ].

8. Ensuring ethical and effective health screening and assessment

There were six reports assigned to category 8 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 53 , 88 , 100 , 110 , 115 , 121 ] of which two (33%) used a quantitative research method, three (50%) used a qualitative method and one used mixed methods. One report (14%) was grey literature [ 88 ] the remaining five reports (83%) were peer reviewed journals [ 53 , 100 , 110 , 115 , 121 ]. Three reports (50%) focused on cancer screening in migrant women [ 21 , 100 , 110 ], one (17%) analysed access to HIV testing among African migrants [ 53 ], one (17%) on T.B in healthcare workers [ 72 ] and one (17%) on sexual health [ 36 ]. Three reports (50%) had a primary focus on migrant health [ 53 , 88 , 100 ] while the remaining three reports (50%) included other at-risk groups in the analysis [ 110 , 115 , 121 ]. There were three reports which overlapped with other SAAP areas: one [ 53 ] (17%) was categorised to area 2 while two [ 88 , 115 ] (33%) were categorised to area 6.

9. Improving health information and communication

Three reports were assigned to SAAP area 9 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 31 , 108 , 130 ]. One of these (33%) used a qualitative approach, one (33%) used a quantitative approach and one (33%) used mixed methods. Two [ 108 , 130 ] (66%) were peer-reviewed journal articles and one [ 31 ] (33%) was grey literature. Two reports (66%) focused on improving migrant demographics and health information using databases [ 31 , 108 ] while one (33%) described an information-needs matrix for refugees and asylum seekers [ 130 ]. Two [ 31 , 108 ] included ethnicities in the data while one [ 130 ] had a primary focus on migrant health. Two reports [ 31 , 108 ] (66%) also applied to SAAP area 4 while one report [ 130 ] (33%) was in SAAP area 9 only.

To our knowledge this is the first scoping review conducted on migrant health in Scotland. A previous rapid literature review [ 94 ] found most research focused on health behaviours, mental health, communicable disease and use of and access to healthcare; however, the review limited migrant definition to those who had immigrated within five years and asylum seekers were not included.

In our review, the majority of reports were published from 2013 onwards, aligning with the expansion in migrant research internationally [ 142 ]. 52% used qualitative research methods, 28% used quantitative methods and 20% used mixed methods. 58% focused on migrant health: the remaining papers included other populations or health as part of a wider remit. Research funding was mostly provided by the Scottish Government, NHS, refugee charities and Universities. No studies received funding from the private sector, although this sector has the potential resource and capacity to play a key role in funding future research to improve migrant health in Scotland. Geographically, most studies took place in Glasgow (36%), nationwide (38.5%) or Edinburgh (16%) – other areas were under-represented including Aberdeen (5%), despite being the city with the largest migrant population [ 30 ]. There was a lack of studies in rural localities. These findings concur with a UK migrant health review by Burns et al. [ 23 ] where research was concentrated in larger cities and data was sparse in rural areas relative to the migrant population.

Half of the research identified that was conducted in Glasgow focused on asylum seekers/refugees. Glasgow was previously the only Scottish city to host asylum seekers [ 143 ] and currently supports the most asylum seekers of any local authority in the UK [ 29 ]. In April 2022, the UK government widened the Asylum dispersal scheme to all local authorities [ 144 ]. Around 70% of Scotland’s refugee support services are based in Glasgow and the South-west [ 145 ]. As reduced access to services may impact the health of asylum seekers, research in Glasgow may not be generalizable to other regions of Scotland.

Almost one-third (30%) of all reports focused on asylum seekers and refugees – an overrepresentation given that only 18% of migrants to the UK are asylum seekers [ 146 ] and as low as 2% of all migrants in Scotland [ 147 ]. Asylum seekers and refugees are at risk of poor health due to trauma, difficult journeys, overcrowded camps, poor nutrition and lack of access to healthcare [ 148 ]. They have worse maternity outcomes and increased rates of mental illness [ 149 ]. Increased research on health of asylum seekers and refugees is necessary due to their additional vulnerabilities [ 142 ]. However, asylum seeker’s country of origin was generally not specified. Asylum seekers have heterogenic backgrounds [ 150 ] and nationality and trauma experience affect health status [ 151 ]. Further research focused on specific nationalities of asylum seekers would enhance understanding of the health needs in this population.

Almost one-third (31%) of studies did not specify a migrant group. This concurs with a Norwegian migrant health study by Laue et al. [ 152 ] where 36% of research did not identify country of birth. Where nationality was identified, Polish, African and South Asian were most prevalent. Poles are the largest migrant group in Scotland, however for the other most common immigrant groups of Irish, Italian and Nigerian [ 30 ] there was an absence of research. No studies took place on Nigerian migrants – nine studies indicated African populations, but country of birth was not specified. Since March 2022, 23,000 Ukrainians have migrated to Scotland [ 153 ], however no studies on Ukrainians were identified currently. Research may be underway which is yet to be published.

Only one study explored the impact of Brexit on European migrants’ health despite 56% of migrants to Scotland being EU nationals [ 30 ]. Again, research may be taking place currently, which is yet to be published. No studies involved undocumented migrants despite this populations’ high rates of poor physical/mental health exacerbated by poor housing and working conditions [ 154 ]. An estimated 7.2–9.5% of the workforce in the UK are migrant workers who have higher risks of poor working conditions and injury [ 155 ]. Scotland depends on a migrant workforce for some industries such as agriculture [ 156 ] but only two research papers specified migrant workers.

Most research papers related to the right to health of refugees (SAAP 2), social determinants of health (SAAP 3), public health planning (SAAP 4) and strengthening health systems (SAAP 5). Areas with less research were frameworks for collaborative action (SAAP 1), preventing communicable disease (SAAP 6), preventing non-communicable disease (SAAP 7) and health screening and assessment (SAAP 8). Only three studies related to improving health information and communication (SAAP 9). Lebano et al. [ 12 ] conducted a literature review of migrant health in Europe and found data collection unreliable and disorganised. There is a lack of data on the numbers and types of migrants entering Scotland and research tends not to differentiate between ethnic minorities and migrants [ 94 ]. As poor-quality information hinders surveillance and planning of services SAAP area 9 is an important consideration for increased research.

Villarroel et al. [ 24 ] also found more research in SAAP areas 3 to 5 and less in areas 6 to 9. However, their study returned no results in category 1, collaborative action, or 2, the right to health of refugees, while this study assigned 9% of articles to category 1 and 19% to category 2. Most articles in our study relating to categories 1 and 2 were grey literature, which was excluded from the original Irish scoping review. This highlights a potential difference in the focus of peer-reviewed articles compared to government/refugee charity commissioned reports. Collaborative action and the right to health of refugees and asylum seekers are entwined in Scotland due to the complex policy environment; the social determinants of health such as housing, education, welfare rights and social integration are influenced by a variety of UK and Scottish statutory bodies as well as third sector organisations [ 157 ]. Despite this complexity, organisations work well together [ 158 ]. Further academic research in this area would enhance joint working practices and networks.

A scoping review in the UK [ 23 ] found similar quantities of research corresponding to SAAP areas 3, 2 and 9. However in Scotland areas 1, 5 and 8 were a combined 44% of included papers compared with 27.8% of results on health systems and structures in Burns et al’s [ 23 ] study. Almost half of the articles in SAAP areas 1,5 and 8 were grey literature, which was not included in Burns et al’s [ 23 ] review. Conversely, Burns et al. [ 23 ] found 81.9% of research in the UK related to epidemiology, equivalent to SAAP categories 4,6 and 7. In a Norwegian scoping review of migrant health [ 152 ] 65% of research was related to epidemiological data on health and disease. Only 42% of the research in this current study related to epidemiological data; the quantity of evidence was reduced by excluding combined research from the UK. As Scotland has higher mortality and morbidity than elsewhere in the UK [ 29 ] it is important to undertake further epidemiological research limited to Scotland.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths of this review include the use of the WHO’s SAAP categories [ 7 ] to classify data, in accordance with the Villarroel et al’s [ 24 ] study: this means results are linked to policy on migrant health and facilitates comparability to the Irish study results. Additionally results include data on migrant groups, locality, and funding of included papers; these highlight potential omissions for future research consideration. Results include diverse research methods and published and grey literature giving a wide overview of available evidence, reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist (see Additional File 3 ) [ 159 ].

Limitations included the lack of an open-access protocol and search limitations of English language and selected databases. This means some relevant reports may be omitted. Due to time and resource limitations no quality appraisal was planned for included reports. Whilst we did not synthesise the findings for each topic area and migrant group, future systematic reviews could be undertaken to address this limitation and build on this work.

Conclusions

Immigration and ethnic diversity in Scotland have increased since 2002 which is reflected in the expansion of migrant health research. This review highlights evidence gaps including a lack of research in rural areas, undocumented migrants and migrant workers. There is a tendency to cluster asylum seekers together rather than differentiate between national groups. Within the SAAP areas there is less evidence relating to collaborative action, preventing communicable disease, preventing non-communicable disease and health screening and assessment. Further research is required on improving health information and communication for migrant populations in Scotland – a significant omission given the importance of accurate information for health service planning.

Availability of data and materials

All data analysed during this review comes from the papers listed in Additional file 2 .

Abbreviations

European Union

Human Immunodeficiency Virus

National Health Service

Strategy and Action Plan

The Scottish Health and Ethnicity Linkage Study

United Kingdom

World Health Organisation

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Acknowledgements

Thank-you to Professor Anne MacFarlane and PHD student Anne Cronin, of the University of Limerick, Ireland for sharing the coding guidelines currently used in an update to Villarroel et. al’s 2019 study on Migrant Health in the Republic of Ireland.

No funding was received for this work, which was undertaken as G. Petrie’s Master of Public Health dissertation module at the University of Stirling.

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KA, RO and GP finalised the study design collectively. GP conducted the searches, analysis and write up, with support from KA and RO. All three authors read and approved the manuscript prior to submission.

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Petrie, G., Angus, K. & O’Donnell, R. A scoping review of academic and grey literature on migrant health research conducted in Scotland. BMC Public Health 24 , 1156 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18628-1

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Patient mistreatment, social sharing of negative events and emotional exhaustion among Chinese nurses: the combined moderating effect of organizational support and trait resilience

• Wei Yan 1 ,
• Xiu Chen 1 ,
• Di Xiao 2 ,
• Huan Wang 3 , 4 ,
• Chunjuan Xu 7 &
• Caiping Song 8  

BMC Nursing volume  23 , Article number:  260 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Metrics details

As a primary form of work-related violence in the healthcare sector, patient mistreatment negatively impacts nurses’ well-being. To date, there has yet reached a definitive conclusion on the mediating mechanism and boundary conditions behind the influence of patient mistreatment on nurses’ emotional exhaustion.

This study employed a convenience sampling method to recruit a sample of 1672 nurses from public hospitals in Western China. The data were collected through anonymous self-report questionnaires and analyzed using hierarchical regression and conditional processes to investigate a theoretical framework encompassing patient mistreatment, emotional exhaustion, social sharing of negative events, organizational support, and trait resilience.

Patient mistreatment led to emotional exhaustion among nurses (β = 0.625, p  <.001), and social sharing of negative events mediated this positive relationship (effect = 0.073, SE = 0.013). The combined effects of organizational support and resilience moderated the mediating effect of the social sharing of negative events between patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion (β=-0.051, p  <.05). Specifically, nurses with a high level of resilience would benefit from organizational support to alleviate emotional exhaustion caused by patient mistreatment.

Conclusions

This study validated a significant positive association between patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion, which aligns with previous research findings. Integrating conservation of resources theory and goal progress theory, we addressed previous contradictory findings on the impact of social sharing of negative events on emotional exhaustion. Social sharing of negative events served as a mediator between patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion. Additionally, the moderating effect of organizational support on the relationship between social sharing of negative events and emotional exhaustion depended on individual trait of resilience.

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Introduction

Workplace violence is a worldwide concern and a major risk in healthcare work. It was defined as incidents in which staff members are mistreated, threatened, or assaulted in circumstances related to their work [ 1 ]. Over the last decades, it has been well documented that healthcare professionals around the world are at significant risk of violence exposure [ 2 ]. Studies have shown that the most vulnerable healthcare workers victimized are nurses and paramedics [ 3 , 4 ], with the most common perpetrators being patients, their relatives, or visitors [ 5 ]. A recent survey of 4263 nurses in the healthcare sector showed that 54% of respondents had experienced verbal violence by patients [ 6 ], including negative emotional behaviors exhibited by patients or their families, such as anger, swearing, insults, yelling, and speaking rudely toward nurses [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. All these negative emotional behaviors are known as “patient mistreatment”. A considerable amount of research conducted in healthcare organizations has shown that exposure to patient mistreatment is a strong predictor of stress, emotional exhaustion, turnover intention and obstacles to career development among nurses [ 6 , 7 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. Specifically, emotional exhaustion, characterized by intense fatigue, lack of interest, low mood, and less enthusiasm for jobs, is not only a key outcome resulting from patient mistreatment but also serves as a significant predictor of nurse turnover and a decline in nursing job performance. The conservation of resources (COR) theory provides a theoretical framework for understanding emotional exhaustion caused by patient mistreatment. The COR theory indicates that people strive to retain, protect, and build resources which are needed in fulfilling job responsibilities and are threatened by the potential or actual loss of those valued resources [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Despite increasing research interest, the existing literature has yet reached a definitive conclusion on the mechanism how patient mistreatment impacts nurses’ emotional exhaustion. Therefore, this study developed and examined a theoretical model regarding the influence of patient mistreatment on nurses’ emotional exhaustion and explored the mechanisms and boundary conditions behind this relationship.

Social sharing of negative events refers to talking to others about negative events and one’s emotional reactions to them and can occur hours to months after the event [ 17 , 18 ]. It is often seen as a response to emotional experiences to release negative emotions, alleviate work-related stress, and restore resources. However, there is no consensus on the impact of this behavior on emotional exhaustion [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Social sharing of negative events sometimes fails to bring new insights into emotional experiences, and disrupts nurses’ goal-related cognitive processes. Goal progress theory illustrates that goal failure (e.g. receiving customer mistreatment) [ 22 ] is associated with cognitive rumination [ 23 ], which may lead to the further loss of resources. Therefore, we examined the social sharing of negative events as a mediating mechanism in the relationship between patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion in this study.

Furthermore, studies of organizational support have shown that it provides a supportive environment for individuals in coping with stress caused by customer mistreatment [ 24 ]. The COR theory also explicates that supportive environments and contexts create fertile ground for creation of individual resources [ 15 ]. However, some evidence has revealed that organizational support is not consistently beneficial, yielding inconclusive findings [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Besides, it is crucial to understand why some people are able to handle negative experiences at work more functionally than others. Consistent with COR theory, individual resources may be contained or embodied in traits and capabilities [ 14 ]. Resilience is a personal trait that can help individuals better cope with adversity and stress [ 28 ]. Therefore, this study introduces organizational support as a crucial moderating variable to explore its moderating effect on the mediating pathway of the social sharing of negative events between patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion and examines whether trait resilience serves as a boundary condition to the effectiveness of organizational support.

In summary, drawing upon the conservation of resources theory and goal progress theory, this study attempts to answer the following questions: Is patient mistreatment related to emotional exhaustion through the social sharing of negative events? Is organizational support always beneficial or not? And who will benefit from it?

Patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion

Among all occupational groups, healthcare workers are ranked as one of the most likely to experience workplace aggression [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]. Patient mistreatment refers to negative emotional behaviors such as expressed anger, swearing, insulting, yelling, and speaking rudely directed toward healthcare providers by patients or their families [ 9 , 33 , 34 ]. Existing studies have extensively explored the adverse consequences of patient mistreatment on healthcare staff and found that it can negatively impact their psychological and physical well-being, leading to increased anxiety, burnout, and negative emotions [ 35 , 36 , 37 ]. The psychological harm caused by patient mistreatment can also result in stress, which is defined as a reaction to an environment in which there is a threat or net loss of resources [ 34 ].

The conservation of resources (COR) theory constructs a framework for comprehending the origins and coping strategies of stress and is frequently used to interpret the process of emotional exhaustion. Individual resources are defined as any element that is valuable for an individual’s survival and development. Individuals strive to retain, protect, and build the resources they value [ 14 , 15 , 16 ], and suffer salient impacts when they lose resources. Moreover, the availability of resources determines the impact of workplace stressors (such as unfair treatment) on employees [ 38 , 39 ]. Healthcare professionals may experience emotional exhaustion, which refers to energy depletion or the draining of emotional resources [ 38 ], as a consequence of mistreatment by patients [ 35 ]. Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:

Patient mistreatment is positively related to emotional exhaustion.

The mediating role of social sharing of negative events

Researchers have identified social sharing of negative events as talking to others about a negative event and one’s emotional reactions to it and can occur hours to months after the event [ 17 , 18 , 40 ]. Individuals voluntarily share their negative emotional experiences and feelings with others in social settings to release negative emotions, alleviate work-related stress, and restore psychological resources. Despite research on this topic, there is no consensus on the impact of social sharing on negative emotions. Delroisse et al. suggested that it can reduce job burnout by helping employees make sense of work situations and reinforcing relationships with others [ 19 ]. By contrast, Nolen-Hoeksema posited that sharing could potentially be detrimental if it involves ruminating on or immersing oneself in negative feelings, potentially exacerbating or prolonging feelings of sadness [ 20 ]. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory and goal progress theory, we aimed to clarify the effect of social sharing of negative events between patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion.

COR theory stated that individuals should proactively invest resources to protect themselves against potentially stressful situations, recover from losses, and accumulate additional resources to brace themselves for future challenges [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Social sharing of negative events has been conceptualized as a social and interpersonal process of repetitively seeking proactive social opportunities to verbalize experiences of stressful events [ 40 , 41 ]. Strongman et al. argued that social sharing of emotions activates the interconnectedness between individuals and their respective social networks or support systems [ 42 ]. Supportive actions by recipients, such as listening, understanding, and consolation, help sharers replenish depleted resources and foster their ability to cope with stressors in the sharing process [ 43 ], ultimately equipping them with the necessary resources to address adverse situations. For example, Zech highlighted that social sharing of negative events can provide informational support (e.g. advice) and facilitate reevaluation for individuals [ 17 ]. Laurens’s study revealed that nurses are inclined to engage in emotional social sharing with professionals, such as colleagues or counselors, when confronted with emotional issues involving their patients [ 44 ]. Therefore, drawing upon conservation resources theory, we anticipated that nurses who experience resource depletion due to patient mistreatment may seek to obtain the necessary resources through social sharing of negative events to manage stressful events.

Social sharing of negative events can facilitate cognitive-affective processing of shared events [ 45 ]. However, it carries “sharing risks” [ 46 ], particularly when negative emotions are involved. When it comes to repeated negative events, deliberate thoughts oriented towards the implications of a given event may alternate with unwanted, intrusive thoughts [ 40 ]. Martin and Tesser defined a class of conscious thoughts that revolve around a common instrumental theme as cognitive rumination [ 23 ], which is associated with goal progress theory [ 22 ] to illustrate the impact of goal failure (e.g., receiving customer mistreatment) [ 47 ]. Patient mistreatment serves as a pivotal emotional event and an original disruption. It fails to bring new insights into emotional experiences, disrupts nurses’ goal-related cognitive processes, and triggers rumination [ 40 , 47 ] when nurses share negative events with others [ 20 ]. The more nurses ruminate, the longer they experience intrusive thoughts linked to unachieved goals [ 22 ]. Moreover, loss of resources or the threat of such loss is a crucial factor in predicting psychological distress and leading to investing more resources, making those already lacking resources even more vulnerable to loss spirals [ 14 ]. Emotional exhaustion occurs when individuals are confronted with dual stressors of resource depletion and goal failure. Consequently, we propose the following hypothesis:

Social sharing of negative events mediates the relationship between patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion.

The moderating role of organizational support

Hobfoll et al. further clarified those resources, which are central to survival and goal attainment, operate depending on the ecological context [ 48 , 49 ].They further theorized that resources do not exist individually but travel in packs, or caravans for both individuals and organizations [ 15 , 50 ]. Organizational support, which is the overall belief that the organization values contributions and cares about the well-being of its employees [ 51 ], is a vital aspect of work resources. Crossover acts as one of the mechanisms of resource exchange within resource caravans [ 15 ] and states that organizational support can be effectively transferred from organizational context to individuals. Studies have suggested that the crossover of resources is also very important for gaining spirals because it can increase a partner’s engagement, potentially triggering a chain of crossover of engagement processes [ 52 ]. Moreover, global research has also identified organizational support as a new buffer-type resource that can counter the resource-depleting effect of high workload and high emotional demands in a large sample of Dutch health professionals [ 53 ]. Therefore, these important work resources, including concern, recognition, and respect inherited in organizational support, would compensate for individuals’ resources, foster the accomplishment of personal work objectives [ 54 ], and enhance employees’ self-efficacy and sense of self-worth, consequently elevating their positive emotions [ 55 , 56 ]. Thus, we anticipated that organizational support would not only alleviate the adverse effects of mistreatment experienced by employees within the organization [ 57 , 58 , 59 ], but also effectively moderate the relationship between social sharing of negative events and emotional exhaustion.

The combined effect of organizational support and trait relicense

Conventionally, studies have demonstrated that organizational support constitutes a valuable work resource. However, COR theory posited that the transfer of resources across social entities (individuals and organizations) is slower. Mounting evidence suggested that organizational support may, at times, not be helpful or even worsen situations [ 60 , 61 , 62 ]. Perhaps the effects of crossover depend on certain traits of the individuals or groups. Evidence continued to mount regarding those with greater resources being less vulnerable to resource loss and more capable of gaining resources [ 15 , 63 ]. Luthans and Avolio [ 64 ] pointed out that both psychological capital and organizational support are necessary for employees to achieve high performance. Resilience, an individual’s ability to cope effectively with adversity and stress when facing difficulties and setbacks [ 65 , 66 ], can be a key personal resource for understanding how individuals break loss spirals [ 67 , 68 ]. Resilience enables individuals to adapt better to changing environments [ 69 , 70 ] and shapes their perception of stress [ 71 , 72 ].

This study found that trait resilience acts as a boundary condition for the moderating role of organizational support in the relationship between social sharing of negative events and emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, the interactive effects among various resources, such as psychological and organizational resources [ 73 ], do not simply add up, but rather enhance the assets necessary for individuals to accomplish their objectives. Consequently, it facilitates individuals with higher levels of resilience by employing both personal psychological resources and organizational resources to develop effective strategies to handle challenges like patient mistreatment [ 74 ]. In conclusion, this study proposes the following hypotheses:

The moderating effect of organizational support on the relationship between social sharing of negative events and emotional exhaustion depends on trait resilience.

The interaction between organizational support and trait resilience moderates the indirect effect of patient mistreatment on emotional exhaustion via the social sharing of negative work events.

We summarize our theoretical model in Fig.  1 .

Hypothesized theoretical model

Participants and data collection procedures

Convenience sampling was employed in this study. We initiated a call for nursing mistreatment research based on the Hematology Specialty Alliance platform in Chongqing, a major city in Southwest China. Furthermore, we used one-on-one communication to invite the clinical department nurses to participate in the survey. The inclusion criteria for recruiting participants in our study were as follows: ① Certified nurses; ② Clinical nursing positions; ③ Informed consent and voluntary participation. The exclusion criteria were as follows: ① student nurses in rotation, ② student nurses on internships, ③ nursing residents in training programs, and ④ off-duty nurses (on leave, sick leave, or attending external training).

To minimize the risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, this study employed a structured online questionnaire to facilitate ease of participation. To ensure the credibility and fairness of the collected data, all responses were submitted anonymously. The questionnaires were completed anonymously to ensure the acquisition of objective and unbiased data. The initial page of the questionnaire presented a clear statement of the study’s objectives and confidentiality of the responses. All questions were designed to be mandatory, and each unique IP address was allowed a single submission to uphold the integrity of the data and avoid duplicate entries. In preparation for the main study, a preliminary survey was conducted to validate the logic of the questions and the accuracy of their responses. The formal survey was conducted from October 9th, 2022 to November 1st, 2022. (Questionnaire link: https://wj.qq.com/mine.html ), ultimately yielding 1627 valid responses.)

We employed the translation and back-translation processes recommended by Brislin [ 75 ] in both surveys prior to the administration. This was done to ensure the validity and appropriateness of all the scales in the Chinese context.

• Patient mistreatment

We used the 18-item scale developed by Wang et al. [ 21 ] to measure patient mistreatment, replacing the word “customers” with “patients” in each item. The scale divides patient mistreatment into two dimensions: aggressive mistreatment and demand-oriented mistreatment. Participants rated the items on a five-point Likert scale from 1 = never to 5 = frequently. Example items were “Patients demanded special treatment,” “Patients spoke aggressively to you,” and “Patients asked you to do things even if they can do them themselves.” The Cronbach’s alpha of the scale was 0.953.

• Social sharing of negative events

Social sharing of negative events scale was adapted from Gable et al. [ 76 ]. In the past month, participants were asked how often they had talked to significant others, other family members, friends, and colleagues about unpleasant things that had happened at work, creating a four-item scale. Responses ranged from 1 = never to 5 = often. Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.862.

• Emotional exhaustion

Emotional exhaustion was measured using the Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), which was developed by Maslach and Jackson [ 77 ] and is the most widely used tool for evaluating job burnout. Emotional exhaustion included nine items, with sample items such as, “I feel emotionally drained from my work.” Responses ranged from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. All the items scored positively, with higher scores indicating greater emotional exhaustion. Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.925.

• Organizational support

In this study, we employed the Organizational Support Perception Scale originally developed and validated by Shen and Benson in 2016 [ 78 ] to assess the perceptions of organizational support. This scale consists of eight items (e.g. “My organization values my contributions to the organization”) and used a 7-point Likert scale. Among these items, four were positively worded and four were reverse-scored. Respondents indicated their agreement on a scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree, with higher scores indicating a stronger perception of organizational support. Cronbach’s alpha for the scale was 0.907.

We used the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) developed by Smith et al. [ 79 ], which consists of six items. Sample items included statements such as “I tend to bounce back quickly after difficulties.” Responses ranged from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Three items scored positively and three scored negatively. It is specifically used to measure an individual’s ability to recover their health or well-being in response to stress. Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.826.

Control variables

Sex, age, education, marital status, years of work, and sports were included as control variables to control for confounding effects on emotional exhaustion.

Data analysis

SPSS23.0 and Mplus7 were used for the statistical analysis. We adopted confirmatory factor analysis to test validity and common method variance. Additionally, we conducted a descriptive statistical analysis of the variables and analyzed each variable using the Pearson’s correlation test to comprehend the characteristics and correlations between the variables. We performed hierarchical regression analysis and conditional process analysis to examine the mediating and moderating effects. Moderating variables were mean-centered to construct the interaction term, mitigating potential multi-collinearity problems. In this study, patient mistreatment served as a predictor variable, social sharing of negative events as a mediator variable, organizational support and resilience as two moderators, and emotional exhaustion as the outcome variable.

Participants

A total of 1627 valid responses were included after a strict review of the collected survey data. The majority of the participants were female (94.7%), while males accounted for only 5.3% of the sample, which is similar to the composition of nurses in other public hospitals in China. Most nurses (87.7%) were between 20 and 39 years old, with two under 20 years old, and 6.9% were over 40 years old. The participants’ years of work experience ranged from less than one year to 36 years, with an average of 9.26 years (SD = 6.40). The majority of nurses (62.6%) were married, and only 36.5% of the total participants reported exercise habits.

Common method variance

Data collected from a single source require querying for possible interference caused by common method variance (CMV). Harman’s single-factor method was used to detect the common method variance. The results of the exploratory factor analysis of the 45 items showed that there were seven factors with eigenvalues greater than 1, and the variance explanation rate of the first factor was 31.579% (< 50%). Therefore, the results suggested that CMV is not a significant problem in this study [ 80 , 81 ].

Confirmatory factor analysis

We conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess the discriminant validity of the scale. As shown in Table  1 , the five-factor model, consisting of patient mistreatment, social sharing of negative events, organizational support, resilience, and emotional exhaustion, demonstrated satisfactory discriminant validity and good fit (χ²/df = 11.276, RMSEA = 0.079, CFI = 0.819, TL = 0.809, SRMR = 0.057). Each variable had a factor loading greater than 0.600 and the internal consistency was good, indicating satisfactory reliability and validity of the scale.

Descriptive statistics

Table  2 presents the means, standard deviations, and correlation coefficients for the variables used in this study. The correlation coefficients were consistent with our expectations, showing that patient mistreatment was significantly positively correlated with emotional exhaustion ( r  =.361, p  <.01) and with the social sharing of negative events ( r  =.198, p  <.01). Additionally, the social sharing of negative events was positively correlated with emotional exhaustion ( r  =.253, p  <.01). Some of the hypotheses of this study were tentatively supported.

Hierarchical regression was used to test the relevant hypotheses and the results are presented in Table  3 . Model 4 indicated a positive correlation between patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion (β = 0.625, p  <.001), which supported Hypothesis 1. The test for the mediating effect followed the recommended stepwise approach [ 82 ]. First, Model 2 revealed a significant positive correlation between patient mistreatment and the social sharing of negative events (β = 0.275, p  <.001). Second, Model 5 showed that social sharing of negative events was positively correlated with emotional exhaustion (β = 0.264, p  <.001). Finally, while the effect of patient mistreatment on the dependent variable, emotional exhaustion, remained significant (β = 0.552, p  <.001), it was somewhat weaker (0.552 < 0.625) after introducing the mediating variable, suggesting a partial mediating effect.

Following Preacher and Hayes [ 83 ], this study further tested the mediating effect of the social sharing of negative events on the relationship between patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion. We employed the bias-corrected method with a sample size of 5000 and a 95% confidence interval to perform multiple mediating effect analysis using Process3.2, a software for conditional process analysis. The test results are presented in Table  4 . The results showed that the indirect effect was 0.073, with a 95% confidence interval of [0.049, 0.100], demonstrating that the social sharing of negative events played a mediating role in the relationship between patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion. Therefore, H2 was supported.

The combined moderating effect of organizational support and trait resilience

Table  5 presents the results of moderation analysis. In Model 2, both organizational support and resilience were found to be significantly negatively correlated with emotional exhaustion (βos=-0.348, p  <.001; βre = − 0.569, p  <.001). However, in Model 3, neither organizational support nor resilience showed any interaction with social sharing of negative events in predicting emotional exhaustion. Nevertheless, the three-way interaction between social sharing of negative events, organizational support, and resilience was significant in predicting emotional exhaustion and negatively correlated with emotional exhaustion (β=-0.051, p  <.05), thus supporting H3. Figure  2 shows the results of the three-way interaction, in which it is evident that higher levels of organizational support and resilience weaken the positive impact of the social sharing of negative events on emotional exhaustion.

Simple slope test

We also conducted a moderated mediation model in Process 3.2, using 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval analyses with 5,000 bootstrap samples to examine the moderating effect of the interaction term of organizational support and resilience on the mediating role of social sharing of negative events between patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion. As shown in Table  6 , the index of moderated moderated mediation was − 0.0152, which was statistically significant, with a 95% bias-corrected confidence interval of [-0.0286, − 0.0031]. Therefore, H4 was supported.

Specifically, the 95% confidence interval for the indices of conditional moderated mediation was [-0.0120, 0.0240] for individuals with high resilience and [-0.0291, -0.0012] for those with low resilience. Therefore, H3 was supported, indicating that individual resilience served as a boundary condition for the moderating effect of organizational support on the relationship between the social sharing of negative events and emotional exhaustion.

This study combined conservation of resources theory with goal progress theory to investigate the mediating role of the social sharing of negative events in the association between patient mistreatment and nurses’ emotional exhaustion. We also explored whether the moderating effect of organizational support on the relationship between the social sharing of negative events and emotional exhaustion depended on individual resilience. First, this study confirmed a significant positive correlation between nurses’ experiences of patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion, which is consistent with previous studies [ 6 , 7 , 84 , 85 , 86 ]. The findings once again underscore the detrimental impact of patient mistreatment on nurses’ emotional and psychological well-being. Given that the rates of different forms and sources of aggression vary considerably between nations [ 3 , 87 ], it is crucial to direct our attention towards the patient mistreatment experiences of nurses in China, especially in the post-epidemic era.

Second, this study revealed that the social sharing behavior of negative events mediates the relationship between patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion. Previous studies have produced mixed findings regarding the impact of the social sharing of negative events on emotional exhaustion among employees or nurses [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]. However, limited research has examined the role of social sharing of negative emotions as a mediating mechanism between patient mistreatment and nurses’ emotional exhaustion. This study integrated the conservation of resources theory and goal progress theory to establish a theoretical foundation for the mediating model. It indicated that sharing negative work events was a strategy for nurses to cope with resource loss resulting from patient mistreatment. Meanwhile, rumination about negative events was closely associated with goal failure, thereby triggering emotional exhaustion among nurses.

Third, the interaction between resilience and organizational support served as a moderator in the relationship between the social sharing of negative events and emotional exhaustion. Studies have identified organizational support as a crucial resource for mitigating the negative effects of stressors [ 24 ]. However, our findings demonstrated that there was no significant two-way interaction between social sharing of negative events and organizational support in predicting emotional exhaustion. This finding is in line with some research on organizational support [ 25 , 28 ], which suggested that organizational support may fail to alleviate the adverse effects of work stressors. Furthermore, this study responded to the call for conservation resources theory [ 28 ] to explore whether trait resilience serves as a boundary to the effectiveness of organizational support. The significant three-way interaction between the social sharing of negative events, organizational support, and trait resilience revealed that individuals with high levels of resilience will benefit from organizational support. Specifically, individuals with high resilience and organizational support showed lower levels of emotional exhaustion than those with low resilience and high organizational support. The implication for managers, therefore, was that organizational support alone cannot solve all problems. Instead, individualized organizational support should be considered in the light of nurses’ resilience.

Practical implications

The findings of this study have significant practical implications for medical management. First, the findings of this study once again validated the significant influence of patient mistreatment on nurses’ emotional exhaustion. Consequently, it is imperative for healthcare administrators to prioritize the establishment of a secure working environment for nurses while providing comprehensive training programs that could enhance their ability to react more effectively to navigate complex nurse-patient relationships. Second, the study further showed that the social sharing of negative events predicted emotional exhaustion among nurses. Therefore, finding ways to eliminate negative rumination originating from patient mistreatment is essential for reducing emotional exhaustion among nurses. Mindfulness thinking, meditation or psychological detachment from work are potential means that nurses could adopt to take a different perspective on negative events. Although the current study indicates that organizational support may not always be beneficial, we suggest that management consider developing workplace interventions that facilitate supportive relationships between organizations and nurses. Third, it is noted that the effect of organizational support depended on resilience. Resilience-related training programs may help nurses acquire psychological resources, enabling them to effectively navigate through mistreatment and adverse experiences. For instance, professional provider resilience training (PPRT) conducted by the medical department of the US military provides knowledge and skills to assist in stress management [ 88 ], such as developing positive cognition, emotional regulation, and mind-body techniques, which enhances the psychological resilience of medical professionals and alleviates fatigue and burnout.

Limitations and further study

This study has some limitations worth addressing. First, the study design was cross-sectional, which may have limited its ability to capture unexamined longitudinal associations. Thus, experience-sampling method should be employed to study the fluctuations of the relationship examined in this study on daily or week basis. Second, all variables investigated were self-reported, which may raise concerns regarding common method variance (CMV) [ 89 ]. Therefore, future studies should employ objective measures or measures reported by others to reduce same-source bias. Third, we found that the social sharing of negative events only partially mediated the relationship between patient mistreatment and emotional exhaustion. Further investigations should be conducted to explore other pathways linking patient mistreatment with nurses’ emotional exhaustion, as well as the moderating variables influencing these mediating mechanisms.

This study, involving 1672 healthcare nurses from public hospitals in Western China, revealed a notable prevalence of patient mistreatment, which led to emotional exhaustion among all participants. The findings of this study suggest that the sharing of negative events plays a mediating role in the relationship of patient mistreatment and the subsequent emotional drain experienced by nurses. These results serve as a critical alert to medical managers about the profound impact of negative emotional sharing within healthcare settings. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of valuing and fostering certain personal traits of nurses, such as resilience, which can buffer the effects of patient mistreatment on emotional exhaustion, particularly when coupled with high levels of organizational support. Consequently, it is suggested to combine a supportive organizational culture in healthcare sector with training programs that aims to enhance nurses’ resilience.

Data availability

Data supporting the findings of this study are available upon request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all participants who showed great patience in answering the questionnaire.

This study was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant number: 19BJY052, 22BGL141), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number: 72110107002, 71974021), Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing (Grant number: cstc2021jcyj-msxmX0689), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant number: 2022CDJSKJC14), and Chongqing Social Science Planning Project (Grant number: 2018PY76).

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Medical Center of Hematology, Xinqiao Hospital, State Key Laboratory of Trauma, Burn and Combined Injury, Army Medical University, Chongqing, China

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All authors contributed to the conception and design of the study. Study design, questionnaire collection, data acquisition were performed by WY, HW and CJX. Data analysis and the first draft of the manuscript was written by WY and XC. DX, XD, LL and CPS commented on the manuscript and revised it critically for important intellectual content.

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Yan, W., Chen, X., Xiao, D. et al. Patient mistreatment, social sharing of negative events and emotional exhaustion among Chinese nurses: the combined moderating effect of organizational support and trait resilience. BMC Nurs 23 , 260 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-01924-x

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Social work doctoral graduates awarded prestigious postdoc fellowships for novel research approaches

Academia can be a competitive landscape, but for two doctoral candidates completing their PhD studies in May 2024 at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work , it has been an opportunity to lift each other up. The educational journeys of Adriane Clomax (she/her) and Rory O’Brien (they/them) mirrored each other as recipients of the Oakley Fellowship endowed by the USC Provost. Only eight such fellowships are awarded to PhD candidates university-wide each year. As they now embark on the next phase of their social work careers, both have secured presidential postdoctoral fellowships from two of the leading universities in the country to further the exemplary work they began at USC. 

“I always tell Rory they are my good luck charm,” said Clomax. “We need to keep applying to things together.” 

Clomax and O’Brien are breaking ground in their respective research that supports underserved populations. Clomax is focused on the impact of employee-owned business in reducing the Black wealth gap, and O’Brien on changing policy and facilities for LGBTQ+ youth in educational settings. Both feel they received tremendous institutional support and mentorship during their studies that validated their unique voices and perspectives. 

Creating new paths to prosperity for Black communities

As the eldest sibling, and eldest grandchild, in her family, Clomax began her academic journey carrying the dreams of her parents and grandparents with her — to become a doctor or receive a master’s degree in business. Now, receiving her doctoral degree in social work, with an integrated business focus, she has certainly lived up to her family’s expectations. Her dissertation entitled “Searching for the Good in Capitalism: An Investigation of Employee Ownership,” creates a nontraditional, but highly effective, structure for business ownership that offers new pathways to prosperity for Black communities.

Her research finds its roots in a job she held with the Department of Parks and Recreation in her hometown of Chicago, following the completion of her Master of Social Work (MSW). The position allowed her to assist with a summer employment program to combat youth-involved violence. Clomax witnessed firsthand how supporting themselves through steady employment could be the difference between good and bad outcomes in a young person’s life.

“Using employment as an anti-violence strategy was effective,” Clomax said. “Giving young people well-paying jobs, particularly young people from lower-income communities, can have ripple effects through communities and build them up.” 

On the other hand, she also became acutely aware of how few and far between those good jobs were, and the difficulties in securing one without social, educational or economic advantages. Clomax became frustrated by the unequal distribution of resources and personal politics within the government system in Chicago. 

Unsure what her next step would be, Clomax knew she wanted to keep exploring ways to improve prosperity for underserved Black communities. A former mentor and alumna of the social work PhD program at USC, Dnika Travis, eventually encouraged Clomax to apply for the doctoral program, and to seek out Professor Michàlle Mor Barak .  

“Michàlle is amazing,” Clomax said. “She is a rock star in the field, but she will take her spotlight and shine it on you, whether you think you’re ready or not. She would create instances for me to stand up and represent her because she felt I had amazing things to say and put out in the world.” 

Clomax credits Mor Barak with much of what she has been able to achieve, for building up belief in herself and her ideas, and the career trajectory she is on now. 

“Adriane’s work is innovative and interdisciplinary,” Mor Barak said. “She has skillfully created national and international collaborations to foster research on understanding broad-based employee ownership. Her work is highly relevant for understanding and promoting social justice. It has been a pleasure working with her and I am confident that she has a brilliant career ahead.”

During her PhD studies, Clomax attended a meeting of the Institute of Employee Ownership at Rutgers University, where research findings were presented that suggested employee ownership had the potential to close the wealth gap. 

“One of the biggest drivers of the wealth gap is capital gains through the stock market, and building wealth by selling stocks,” Clomax said. “When you work for an employee-owned business, you are gifted stock from your company rather than paying for it yourself. The longer you are with the company, the more stock you receive, and the more that stock increases in value. As a result, people can retire with huge capital gains. And Black and Latinx families are not really doing that.”

The concept of how employee ownership could potentially move a person with little educational or socioeconomic advantage into financial stability through long-term, generational wealth-building became the foundation for her dissertation. It is the work Clomax will continue in the fall as a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University. Her next step is to create a program and system of information dissemination to educate Black business owners on how they can increase the standard of living and retirement options for their workers. 

“Maybe we’re not closing the income gap yet, but what this can do is provide a really nice living for folks who otherwise would not have this outcome option,” Clomax said. 

Connecting policy and personal impact for trans youth

Growing up in a suburb of Sacramento, O’Brien cannot remember a time when advocacy was not a part of their life — as a child with their parents, in high school and as an undergraduate in college — on issues ranging from anti-war to sexual, reproductive, racial and economic justice. Their interest in policy was a natural extension of those experiences. 

While working in Sacramento on a statewide project for LGBTQ+ mental health advocacy, O’Brien was introduced to the faculty leaders and work of the Center for LGBTQ+ Health Equity (CLHE) at USC Social Work. They felt the Center was the place to take the next step in their evolution as an academic, researcher and scientist influencing policy that made a meaningful difference in people’s lives. 

“It's been a joy to see Rory develop as a scholar,” said John Blosnich , director of CLHE and O’Brien’s dissertation mentor. “They have a depth of practical experience and compassion about their work that has really shone in this PhD program. Their ambition is also remarkable, always seizing opportunities and striving for the highest caliber venues to share their work on LGBTQ+ health equity. I can't wait to see what comes next for Rory.”

With a dissertation entitled, “A Multiple Comparison Case Study of Los Angeles Area Public High Schools: LGBTQ+ Policies and Facilities, Student Advocacy, and Change in Policies and Facilities Over Time,” O’Brien’s research focuses on understanding the adoption and implementation of California educational policies intended to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ high-school students. They conducted an intensive study in ten high schools across five school districts in the Los Angeles area, including document collection, focus groups and campus observations through on-site visits. What O’Brien uncovered was a complicated system, varying from district to district and school to school. But there were some gems that stood out, with policy models that all schools should follow. 

In many ways O’Brien feels that their work has come full circle, from micro to macro policy and then back to how the policies impact individual lives. Their aptitude for the technical aspects of policy implementation have been particularly important in studying the ways in which these policies are implemented on the ground, and the barriers that are sometimes more technological than human. One example is how challenging it is to change the name of a transgender youth within school systems because the system was not originally built to accommodate it. And the inability to provide a name change within the system can have a profound impact on the youth’s educational experience. 

“There’s so many different ways to implement name change policies and so many pitfalls, some of which are very technical,” O’Brien said. “The goal of my research is always geared toward how to best inform the efforts of policymakers to adopt well-structured policy that is going to be implementable on the ground. Then to put evidence in the hands of social justice advocates who can push for that well-structured policy.” 

O’Brien points to the PhD faculty, dissertation committee and cohort of fellow candidates working across social work topics that supported them through a long and complex dissertation project. 

“I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do this work, especially considering that my work is illegal today in so many states,” O’Brien said. 

O’Brien will continue their work in the LGBTQ+ space in their President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, providing important data to guide policy decisions.

To reference the work of our faculty online, we ask that you directly quote their work where possible and attribute it to "FACULTY NAME, a professor in the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work” (LINK: https://dworakpeck.usc.edu)

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Research Methods for Social Work A Problem-Based Approach

• Antoinette Y. Farmer - Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey
• G. Lawrence Farmer - Fordham University at Lincoln Center
• Description

See what’s new to this edition by selecting the Features tab on this page. Should you need additional information or have questions regarding the HEOA information provided for this title, including what is new to this edition, please email [email protected] . Please include your name, contact information, and the name of the title for which you would like more information. For information on the HEOA, please go to http://ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html .

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Supplements

“The authors have proposed a very innovative way to make research understandable and interesting to an audience that doesn’t typically enjoy the research process. The problem-based learning model will engage students and challenge them to think about research in ways that many of them previously hadn’t thought about it.”

“ Research Methods for Social Work Practice is a new take on the standard research text. This text incorporates a problem-based learning approach to addressing research content along with case studies to facilitate understanding of research content.”

“This text is student-friendly and offer students immediate answers related to why and how research is relevant and required in the social work profession. From my review, I believe Research Methods for Social Work Practice may be exactly what we've needed in our program.”

A very useful book with some excellent detail in relation to methods particularly regarding social work

The book is truly fantastic! Students can easily understand the information and the instructor resources are amazing.

• Learning objectives and competency grids guide students through each chapter and illustrate how the content is applied to the relevant, updated EPAS competency practice behaviors.
• Case studies open every chapter and include steps on applying the steps of problem-based learning (PBL) to real-life case scenarios students may encounter in a professional social work setting.
• Application Checkpoints , tied to chapter case studies, are integrated throughout each chapter allowing students to apply what they learned, enhancing their critical thinking skills and competencies.
• Research tables and figures , such as SPSS screenshots, allow students to see the breakdown of research activities.
• Content on diversity and ethics is integrated throughout , ensuring students understand that diversity and ethics must be considered throughout the entire research process.
• Step-by-step instructions on various analyses in quantitative methods provide guidance.
• Summary, Review and Assignment sections at the end of each chapter provide ample opportunities for further reinforcement of learning objectives and review of the research process through assignable assessment questions and additional recommended readings.  

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 1: Evidence-based Practice

Chapter 12: Survey Research

Chapter 2: Research Ethics

For instructors

Select a purchasing option, related products.

This title is also available on SAGE Research Methods , the ultimate digital methods library. If your library doesn’t have access, ask your librarian to start a trial .

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What is Social Work?

Friday, Apr 26, 2024

By Jaelon Jackson School of Social Work

As we celebrate Social Work Month, it is an ideal moment to contemplate the indispensable role social workers play in our communities.

This year, the National Association of Social Workers has chosen Empowering Social Workers as the theme of this month, shedding light on the pivotal contributions of social workers across various facets of our society.

Let us take a deeper dive into the essence of social work, its critical importance for communities, and the escalating demand for professional social workers amidst challenges like the opioid epidemic, mental health issues, counseling services, and the influence of government policy.

Social work stands as a versatile and complex profession dedicated to improving the welfare of individuals, families, and communities. Within this dynamic field, social workers, possessing extensive training, actively engage in addressing social concerns, championing the cause of social justice, and offering crucial support to those facing challenges. At its core, social work plays a key role in instigating positive transformations, empowering individuals, and actively contributing to the development of a society that is both inclusive and equitable.

Navigating the Opioid Crisis:

Social workers are on the front lines in addressing pressing issues such as the opioid epidemic, and mental health issues. The far-reaching consequences of opioid addiction have deeply affected numerous lives, tearing apart families and straining community resources. Social workers take a proactive stance, involving themselves in prevention, intervention, and recovery efforts, providing crucial support to individuals and families grappling with the complexities of addiction.

Addressing Mental Health Challenges:

In the arena of mental well-being, social workers emerge as compassionate companions, dismantling the barriers of stigma surrounding mental health concerns. They extend not only support but a genuine connection, recognizing the diverse hurdles individuals navigate. As the call for mental health services rises, social workers infuse their distinctive expertise and heartfelt understanding to tackle a spectrum of emotional challenges. Their mission is clear: to guarantee that everyone receives the care and empathy required to carve out fulfilling and purposeful lives.

Counseling Services in Social Work:

Within the domain of social work, counseling services stand as a cornerstone, offering individuals a safe haven to delve into their emotions and cultivate coping strategies. Social workers skillfully navigate clients through life's countless challenges, utilizing therapeutic techniques to foster empowerment, resilience, and personal growth.

How Government Policies Shape Social Work:

The policies created by the government significantly influence the field of social work, which is dedicated to assisting individuals and communities. Social workers function as advocates, actively working to ensure that government decisions regarding mental health, addiction services, and social support align with the genuine needs of the people.

As our societal challenges evolve, there is an increasing demand for social workers who possess a deep understanding and compassion for these issues. Whether it is addressing the consequences of the opioid epidemic or supporting individuals dealing with mental health challenges, social workers play a crucial role as catalysts for positive change. Social Work Month serves as a celebratory reminder of how these dedicated professionals, with their empathy and commitment, contribute to creating a fairer and more compassionate world.

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Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology

Critical evaluation of current isolation, detection and genotyping methods of cryptosporidium species and future direction.

Globally, Cryptosporidium continues to pose a significant health and economic burden despite significant efforts to develop effective on-site biosecurity and best management practices. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study (2016), this parasitic protozoan is responsible for more than 48 thousand deaths in children under the age of five and 7.2 million disability-adjusted life-years worldwide. Additionally, most Cryptosporidium species (e.g., Cryptosporidium hominis, Cryptosporidium parvum, etc.) are resistant to the majority of common disinfectants and can survive outside the body for extended periods. Consequently, it is crucial to establish a prompt and accurate diagnosis as well as the severity of the disease to prevent the spread of parasites and to enable effective management strategies. USEPA Method 1623 is currently used in centralized laboratories to perform routine diagnostic tests for this parasite. This process is laborious, expensive, and time-consuming. In the past ten years, a multitude of techniques based on conventional molecular biology techniques, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), nested-PCR, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), and nucleic acid sequence-based amplification, have been utilized to analyze Cryptosporidium species. Similarly, several biosensing techniques have been developed in recent years, including electrochemical biosensors and the CRISPR-Cas system in lateral flow assays. This review discusses the most frequently employed techniques for isolating, quantifying, and genotyping Cryptosporidium species, and their implication on the diagnostic landscape. A subsequent evaluation of the most significant technical and biological challenges and limitations of these techniques is also undertaken.

Supplementary files

• Supplementary information PDF (494K)

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R. G. Mahmudunnabi, S. Kasetsirikul, N. Soda, M. Sallam, A. S. Pannu, N. Nguyen, H. Stratton and M. J. A. Shiddiky, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. , 2024, Accepted Manuscript , DOI: 10.1039/D3EW00469D

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