Direct Service Workers' Attitudes Toward Employment, Unemployment, and Client's Problems

Bibliographic Data

ID11214296
AuthorsLisa Jones (0000-0001-5136-5614, San Diego State University, corresponding author), Loring Jones (0009-0004-1667-2220)
Year1994
Volume19
Issue1-2
Pages161-179
Publication date1994-07-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Social Service Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0148-8376 • E-ISSN: 1540-7314
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1300/j079v19n01_09
OpenAlexW1972741538
LanguageEN
Citations received9

This research was designed to provide some preliminary data on how social workers in Child and Family agencies assess the impact of joblessness on their clients. It was hypothesized that social workers would use more external attributions than internal attributions at both the abstract and practice level for explaining unemployment than would other professionals. The abstract level was identified by having respondents complete the Unemployment Attribution Scale developed by Feather and Davenport (1981). The practical level was defined as the level of work with individual clients. This level was operationalized by asking respondents to identify what they thought were clients' problems in a series of practice vignettes. These hypotheses were tested by administering the scales to 140 professionals working in child and family service agencies in San Diego County, California. As hypothesized, social workers were more likely to identify unemployment as a problem in the practice vignettes, and to use external attributions at the abstract level. Regression analysis found that the amount of work experience, gender, and graduate degree, predicted attribution style at the abstract level. Type of degree and amount of work experience predicted attribution preferences at the practical level. Implications of these findings are discussed

Attribution · Business · Economics · Operationalization · Scale (ratio · Service (business · Unemployment · Marketing · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Work Education and Practice · Social Work

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