Personal and Professional Values of MSW Students: The Impact of Sex and Marriage Attitudes On Perceptions of Welfare Mothers

Purpose: Very little research has examined the relationship between the personal value system and professional value system among social work students. This study intended to: (1) Identify the personal values that social work students bring with them from their backgrounds, (2) Examine how students' personal values are associated with their perceptions of a potential service population, such as welfare mothers, and (3) Provide a better understanding regarding the developmental patterns of the professional value system among social work students.

The investigators hypothesized that: (1) Social work students with conservative attitudes about sex would have more negative perceptions of welfare mothers than social work students with liberal attitudes, and (2) Social work students with conservative attitudes about marriage would have more negative perceptions of welfare mothers than students with liberal attitudes.

Methods: The sample was drawn from accredited schools of social work in the state of Ohio, based on probability cluster sampling proportionate to the size of the program unit. Randomly selected, five schools participated in the study. 231 MSW students completed the 56-item online questionnaire. OLS multiple regression was used to examine relationships between sex and marriage attitudes and perceptions of welfare mothers. Other variables were included in regression models, such as gender, age, number of children, race, marital status, political party affiliation, and social work concentration.

Results: There was a positive relationship (beta = .287, p = .001) between sex attitudes and perceptions of welfare mothers, holding all other variables constant. This means that social work students with more conservative attitudes about sex had less favorable perceptions of welfare mothers. There was a positive relationship (beta = .311, p < .001) between marriage attitudes and perceptions of welfare mothers, holding all other variables constant. This implies that social work students with more conservative attitudes about marriage had less favorable perceptions of welfare mothers. Other significant variables associated with perceptions of welfare mothers included political party affiliation, social work concentration, and marital status. Democrats had more favorable perceptions of welfare mothers than non-Democrats (p < .01), holding all other variables constant. Micro students had less favorable perceptions of welfare mothers than macro students (p < .05), holding all other variables constant. Never married students had less favorable perceptions of welfare mothers than ever married students (p < .10), holding all other variables constant.

Conclusions: The study found that MSW students with conservative attitudes about sex and marriage had more negative perceptions of welfare mothers than students with liberal attitudes about sex and marriage. Therefore, this study supported the hypothesis that the professional value system may be largely affected by the students' personal values brought from their backgrounds.

Social work education may need to counter students' negative stereotyping of certain service populations to help with developing professional values and ethics. Further research is needed to examine whether micro and macro students have different value systems based on varying backgrounds or different training in the social work program. Future research is needed to explore how personal and professional values interact in practice.