Date of Conferral
2022
Degree
Ph.D.
School
Human Services
Advisor
Sarah Matthey
Abstract
The perceptions of human services case workers toward their racial minority clients may affect the quality of service that racial minority families who are involved in the child welfare system receive. In the child welfare system, some African American families are not offered services that are culturally sensitive or tailored to their race or ethnicity. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore human services case workers’ perceptions of offering culturally appropriate, evidence-based services to their African American and racial minority clients in an Upper Midwest urban setting in the United States. Family systems theory was used to frame this study. Semistructured telephonic interviews were conducted with 12 human services case workers. These interviews were recorded, transcribed, and hand coded for analysis using Saldana’s inductive coding process. Ten themes were identified: (a) importance of cultural competency, (b) effective evidence-based services, (c) human services case workers’ bias, (d) lack of diversity in human services case workers, (e) cultural upbringing and environment, (f) Families First Act and African American clients, (g) cultural awareness and sensitivity training, (h) lack of trust in human services case workers, (i) rural versus urban areas and population, and (j) trust and rapport building. This study may promote positive social change by providing a better understanding of human services case workers’ perceptions and their experiences of offering culturally appropriate and evidence-based services to African American and racial minority families.
Recommended Citation
Dyrkacz, John, "Perceptions of Human Services Case Workers Regarding Culturally Sensitive, Evidence-Based Services in Child Welfare" (2022). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 13324.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/13324
