Professional Competence and MSW Graduates' Professional Awareness over a One-Year Period: An Investigation of Cross-Lagged Effects and Their Boundary Conditions

Background: Fewer research clearly show the order of professional competence (PC) and professional awareness (PA) which is an urgent empirical challenge, while at the theoretical level this order involves whether competency-based education brings professionalism. To solve this confusion, this study reconstructs the concept of PA which divided into two levels: professional identity (PI) and perceived professional environment (PPE), further investigates the role of PC in MSW graduates’ PA and then examines the boundary conditions that potentially determine contextual factors (i.e., a BSW background, frontline work experience, and working in social work agencies) and that thereby may moderate the relationship between PC and PA.

Methods: We used cross-lagged structural equation modelling and data collected at two points in time, one year apart, to analyse data from the 212 novice social work practitioners who were in a social work profession and had graduated from an MSW program (73.1% had a BSW background at T1; 53.8% were working in social work agencies at T2; and 40.6% had frontline work experience at T2).The data were analysed using statistical software SPSS and SPSS Amos version 24. We adopted Anderson and Gerbing’s (1988) two-step analytic strategy, with latent variable modelling in which measurement model analyses precede the structural relationship analyses. The PC latent factor was composed of nine indicators obtained from the subscale mean scores, whereas the rest of the latent factors (i.e., PI and PPE) were composed of item indicators from the corresponding measures.

Results: The result suggested that PC had a positive effect on PA (specifically to PI and PPE). The cross-lagged models’ fit indices indicated the normal causation model (i.e., from PC to PI and PPE) had the best fit to the data (CFI=0.917, RMSEA=0.062, Δχ2/df=26.1(2)***) and were statistically significant, and none of the reversed causation paths reached the significance level (PI at T1 → PC at T2: β = -0.13, p = .111, PPE → PC at T2: β = 0.09, p = .298). Boundary condition testing showed frontline work experience could strengthen cross-lagged relationships between professional competence at T1 and perceived professional environment at T2 (frontline social workers β = 0.242***, non-frontline social workers β = 0.091*). However, the boundary conditions of a BSW and of working in social work agencies played no moderating role.

Implications: This study adds to the larger picture and provides a better understanding of the positive spillover effects of PC cultivated in schools. In addition, constructing PI and PPE as PA helped us broaden the theory of social workers’ professional awareness. This research encourages educators to strengthen CBE for promoting the development of professionalism, and suggests to implement BSW and MSW education at different levels. At the same time, our results emphasized the importance of new employees’ front-line practice in transforming their professional competence into professional awareness.