Social work students' attitudes, perceptions and potential work decisions regarding perpetrators of child abuse

Title: Social work students’ attitudes, perceptions and potential work decisions regarding perpetrators of child abuse Objectives 1. To explore final year social work students’ attitudes, perceptions and potential work... [ view full abstract ]

Title: Social work students’ attitudes, perceptions and potential work decisions regarding perpetrators of child abuse

Objectives
1. To explore final year social work students’ attitudes, perceptions and potential work decisions regarding persons who perpetrate child abuse
2. To gain insight into the training needs of social work students in the area of child abuse and neglect
3. To expose social work students to the need to work not only with the victims but also the perpetrators of child abuse.
4. Enhance the body of local research in the area of child abuse and neglect
Methodology
The research used a survey research design to find out about social work students’ attitudes, perceptions and potential work decisions regarding persons who perpetrate child abuse. A small convenient sample of 34 students in the graduating class of a baccalaureate social work program in the Caribbean was asked to complete a questionnaire which comprised ten vignettes. Questions on each vignette were placed on a Likert Scale which consisted of nine questions ranging on a scale from 1 to 4 with 1 being ‘strongly agree’ and 4 being ‘strongly disagree’.
Results
The results show that the final year social work students generally hold negative attitudes to the perpetrators of child abuse and perceive them to be mentally ill. For example, in the vignettes where domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse were perpetrated by men more than half of respondents to each scenario indicated that the perpetrators are “mentally ill”.
Conclusion
The research findings imply that social work students need to understand the multidimensional nature of child abuse and be sensitized to the issue of rehabilitation not only of victims but also the perpetrators. Social work training programs in the Caribbean need to ensure that this topic is included in the curriculum.