Social Workers and Spirituality: Education and Integration into Practice

Background and Purpose: Cultural competency is a large part of the social workers’ persona. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics (2021) clearly outlines the importance of cultural competency for social work practice. Additionally, the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) highlights the importance of engaging with diversity in practice (CSWE, 2022). Spirituality is a consideration for these cultural aspects of practice as a part of the core values of the people, groups, and communities served by social workers (Vieten & Scammel, 2015). It is important to understand how spirituality is integrated in social work education and practice. This study examined social workers’ views of how much spirituality was integrated into their education, but also how they are integrating spirituality into their own work.

Methods: This study was an exploratory quantitative cross-sectional survey. Two scales were developed by the researchers, an Integration of Spirituality Scale and Perception of Spirituality Scale, for use in the survey. A purposive sample of social workers across the United States was gathered. Social Workers were recruited through emailing members of a listserv obtained from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), which yielded over 5000 potential participants. Additional recruitment was completed using paid advertisements on social media websites. Participants who indicated they are not currently practicing social work but meeting the above criteria were included. A total of 311 respondents took the survey and 95% (n=295) met the necessary criteria. Data was analyzed using SPSS 26 to calculate descriptive statistics and conduct a bivariate analysis.

Results: The results showed that on average participants felt their social work program somewhat prepared them to integrate spirituality into their practice. Participants also indicated they do integrate spirituality into their work, and that they believe that integrating spirituality is important. Upon further investigation utilizing the Perceptions of Spirituality, it was determined that the level of social work licensure contributed to whether the social worker integrates spirituality into their practice.

Implications: The current study is a positive step in ensuring that the cultural aspect of spirituality is being considered in social work education and practice. The findings indicate that social workers have had some education around spirituality and that they are integrating it into their work. This is one path to better understanding the core values of those served by social workers at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of practice. Further studies should consider the personal beliefs of the social worker as it relates to their integration, but also for school choice. Given there are many institutions of higher education, some secular and others not, this could be a contributing factor of the depth to which spirituality is integrated into the curriculum which needs further exploration.