Content Analysis: Where Is Race and Ethnicity in Social Work Research?

Background and Purpose

Race shapes many facets of political, economic, social, and cultural life in the U.S. Despite commentaries that argue the U.S. has become a post-racial society, there is little evidence that the nation is free from racial preference, discrimination, and prejudice. Inequities continue to be experienced by racial and ethnic minorities according to recent government reports and academic publications.

The National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics calls for social workers to “promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic diversity.” Social work researchers have an integral role to follow this call for the advancement of social justice by conducting race-related research. However, it is unclear whether social work research has contributed to the growing scholarship on race. With this regard, the goal of the present study is to review social work articles over the past decade to assess the prominence of race/ethnicity in mainstream social work scholarship.

Methods

We conducted a content analysis of articles published between 2006 and 2015 in one of the major social work journals, Social Work Research. We assessed how authors discussed race in their articles on three levels; whether the article made any reference to race/ethnicity, whether the article included race/ethnicity in the analysis, and whether race/ethnicity was seriously considered as a main variable and the primary motif for the study. We further examined if race/ethnicity was included in the article title and if race/ethnicity was defined conceptually and/or methodologically. For the articles that considered race/ethnicity seriously, more details were gathered, including topic areas and theories used to explain findings. Four authors were paired into two groups for cross-validation. A total of 177 articles were reviewed.

Results

Our results show that race/ethnicity is referenced in a substantial number of journal articles, however it is more frequently treated as a control variable rather than as a core construct. Eighty-four percent of the articles (n=149) made reference to race/ethnicity. Among these articles, 29% (n=43) only mentioned race/ethnicity (e.g. description of sample) and 46% (n=69) included race/ethnicity in their analyses mostly as control variables. Only one in four papers that made some mention of race/ethnicity (n=37) seriously engaged in a discussion of the topic. Of the articles that seriously examined race/ethnicity, the most frequent themes were child/adolescent (n=12), substance use (n=8), and mental health (n=8). Eighteen percent of articles (n=31) included race/ethnicity in the title. Only 2% (n=4) provided both conceptual and methodological definitions of race/ethnicity, while 4% (n=7) included only conceptual definitions and 11% (n=19) presented only methodological definitions.

Conclusions and Implications

The present study calls attention to how race/ethnicity is used in social work research. The study results demonstrate that more serious scholarship about race/ethnicity in social work research is needed that moves beyond race/ethnicity as a control variable. Greater attention to the rationale for including race/ethnicity and its definitions will do much to advance research on race. Moreover, the use of race/ethnicity in some fields, such as criminal justice and physical health, deserves more attention.