Measuring Rights-Based Practice: A Validation of the Human Rights Methods in Social Work Scale

Background: As the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN, 1948), states, recognition of “equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” Human rights, however, must be more than a list of aspirations. Rights must be practiced, and through practice, experienced, if they are to be recognized in meaningful ways.

How human rights can be practiced within social work—and how that practice is measured—are at the heart of this presentation, which details the initial validation of the Human Rights Methods in Social Work (HRMSW) scale. Literature asserts that human rights principles should guide all rights-based approaches to practice (Uvin, 2004). Thus, the HRMSW methods exemplify deployment of rights-based principles in action, including three human rights principles—participation, nondiscrimination, and accountability—by name.

The HRMSW scale is a multidimensional, self-reported scale comprised of eight subscales, each measuring a key method of rights-based practice: (1) participation; (2) nondiscrimination; (3) strengths-perspective; (4) micro/macro integration; (5) capacity-building; (6) community & interdisciplinary collaboration; (7) activism; and (8) accountability.

Methods: Following content validation by a panel of experts, a survey was created including the originally hypothesized HRMSW scale (58 items), demographic items, and measures for construct validation. After an initial pilot, the survey was distributed electronically to Florida’s Licensed Clinical Social Workers (n=6696) of whom 1,104 (16.5%) returned usable surveys. Data analysis examined sample characteristics, factor structure, reliability, and construct validity.

Results: This sample, similar to U.S. social workers nationally, was predominantly female (82.7%) and white (81.6%); 90.4% of respondents were currently working, and 83.2% had more than 10 years of social work experience.

CFA supported the eight-factor model (43 items):  χ2 /df = 2.9, CFI = .91, TLI= .90, RMSEA = .04 (CI .01-.05), SRMR =.07. No items remained in the item pool with loadings lower than .59, and eight errors were allowed to correlate. The Cronbach's alphas were solid for each of the HRMSW methods, and ranged from a low of .75 for participation to .89 for activism. As a group, the previously validated scales provided moderate support for construct validity of the HRMSW.

Conclusion:  The HRMSW is the first scale to measure rights-based practice in social workers. Its purpose is to reinvigorate social work practice through its emphasis on rights-based methods to advance social justice. Researchers can use the HRMSW to find social work’s baseline in right-based practice and then use the scale again to chart progress towards rights-based practice over time. Using the HRMSW, researchers can evaluate the extent to which social work’s human rights assertions are actually matched by our professional practices. Educators can employ this scale to evaluate rights-based coursework and fieldwork, and use those results to improve current practices. We have been called a human rights profession; the HRMSW can make that goal a reality.

United Nations. (1948). Universal declaration of human rights. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

Uvin, P. (2004). Human rights and development. Bloomfield, Connecticut: Kumarian Press, Inc.