Chinese Social Workers' Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills Related to Domestic Violence

Background: Social workers play an important role in providing social services to people in need of domestic violence treatment. However, it remains unknown whether Chinese social workers have skills to intervene in cases of domestic violence.

Purpose: This study aims to explore Chinese social workers’ attitudes, knowledge and skill levels related to domestic violence cases, and their associated factors.

Methods: An online survey is distributed through e-mails to social workers in Pengxing Domestic Violence Center in Shenzhen, which is the first and biggest social work service center for domestic violence in Mainland China. We collect sociodemographic information of the participants, including gender, social work education, external training, and personal experience. The questionnaire includes scales to measure participants’ attitudes, knowledge and skill levels to deal with domestic violence cases.

Results: Findings show that social workers’ education and training have a negative relationship with their blaming attitudes toward victims but have a positive relationship with their skills. No significant relationship is found between social workers’ education and their knowledge toward domestic violence. There is a positive relationship between external training and social workers’ knowledge to domestic violence.    

Implications: To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to assess Chinese social workers’ perceptions and capabilities to deal with domestic violence cases in Mainland China. Findings have practical implications for social work education and training to prepare professional social workers to address domestic violence problem in China. It is suggested that social work education on campus should include courses to prepare students knowledge to deal with domestic violence problem better.