Understanding the Pathway from BSW to MSW Degrees to Diversify the Behavioral Health Workforce

Background and Purpose: A diverse behavioral health (BH) workforce has many benefits, including improved service-recipient outcomes stemming from concordant care—when there is a match between care providers and recipients with respect to racial/ethnic identity, language, and other similar or shared identities. Social workers represent a large share of BH providers, and the profession is expected to grow 12% by 2030. Recent data have highlighted drops in racial/ethnic diversity between students graduating with a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree and students graduating with a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree, suggesting diverse candidates are lost along the educational pathway from undergraduate to graduate social work programs. This study posed two research questions: 1) Are students of minoritized racial/ethnic identities relatively less likely to transition from BSW to MSW education? 2) To what extent do education histories, types of intuitions, and loan debt influence the odds of obtaining an MSW following a BSW?

Methods: Drawing from the 2019 National Survey of College Graduates, a nationally representative survey of all college graduates in the United States (U.S.), the analytic sample included 538 participants (87% female; 60% white, 21% non-Hispanic [NH] Black, 14% Hispanic, 2% NH Asian, 2% NH multiracial, 1% NH American Indian/Alaskan Native) who either possessed a BSW as their highest degree (n = 323) or possessed both BSW and MSW degrees (n = 215). Weighted logistic regression was used to assess associations between the odds of obtaining an MSW degree following a BSW degree and the following correlates: racial/ethnic identity, undergraduate loan amount, public versus private undergraduate institution, attendance at community college, and receipt of an associate degree while controlling for year BSW was awarded and location of birth (U.S. versus otherwise).

Results: Results from the weighted logistic regression model yielded a non-significant main effect between racial/ethnic identity and the odds of obtaining an MSW degree following a BSW degree; however, there was a significant interaction between racial/ethnic identity and undergraduate loan debt. Specifically, the odds of NH Black participants possessing an MSW degree decreased as the amount of undergraduate loans increased, whereas the odds for NH white participants increased as the amount of undergraduate loans increased. Models also yielded a significant interaction between racial/ethnic identity and attendance at community college, such that the odds of Hispanic participants possessing an MSW decreased if they had attended community college, whereas the odds for NH white participants remained unaffected by community college attendance.

Conclusions and Implications: Support, such as loan repayment programs, offered only at the MSW level may prohibit BSW students of color from pursuing an MSW, thereby hindering the advancement of diversity in the profession. Because the social work profession encourages diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environments, educational systems need to intentionally find ways to advance the degree pathways for racially/ethnically diverse students and propagate mechanisms that will support attainment of advanced degrees. Undergraduate loan repayment programs and/or scholarships offered for BSW and MSW degrees might serve as promising mechanisms.