SOCIAL WORKERS 1

Social Workers: How are social workers affected by their social cases?

Monica Arteaga

Senior Research Seminar

Mr. Tempinski

March 11, 2016

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Abstract

This research project studied how social workers are affected by the side effects of their job.

Previous research has shown that social workers are not only limited by government fundings in

social programs, but also how stressful their job could get due to lack of cooperation, finding an

equilibrium between personal and work life, disorders caused because of stress, and low job

satisfaction that could cause them to leave the field. The approach this research had was

qualitative and quantitative data, obtained through 20 surveys answered by 15 teenagers and 5

adults based on their knowledge of social work. The data collected implies that participants

chosen know the struggle social workers go through, but they don't take initiation in helping

them or don't know how to help them. This study adds to the why there are side effects to

social work, previous research focuses on the negativity of this job and this research does as

well, but it also looks at the reasoning of the side effects.

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Social Workers: How are social workers affected by their social cases?

My research is focused on the side effects of the amount of work on social workers,

therefore my research question asks how social workers are affected by their cases. Numerous

studies have been conducted on the challenges social workers are facing today, they have shown

that most of those side effects are negative, and affect social workers heavily, including leaving

the field. They expressed mental and physical dangers associating with social work, including

stress, threats, frustration, and sometimes even trauma as a result. Previous research study the

effects that their work has on them, but barely focus on how clients could make the situation

better or worse by cooperating or not with social workers. Thus, the significance of these

findings reveal that the cases social workers deal with have a bigger impact on them than what

we considered, therefore I aim to find a way to help social workers ease this impact and other

effects that this job has on them through the understandings of peoples views on them. My

approach in the study is to bring awareness to social workers, I hope to achieve understanding of

what being a social worker means, and bring the community closer to find a way to help social

workers.

Regarding previous research, Rena Malai (2012) examined some challenges social

workers have to deal with. Some of these challenges are economic, retirement, and self-care.

Social workers are now dealing with an increasing number of clients affected by the economy.

Having all these clients, children and seniors mostly, that social workers need to help out, makes

them forget to look after themselves. Social workers have to make sure that clients take care of

themselves no matter the circumstance that the client is in. Communication between social

workers and clients is also important to help social workers help the client. When it comes to
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retirement, social workers indicate that due to the economy, most of their senior clients wish to

put off full time jobs and have part time jobs in order to make some money and not work as hard.

In Balancing Our Professional and Personal Lives (2014), Frederic Reamer, a professor

in the graduate program of the School of Social Work, discusses with two social workers, major

in different areas, how they manage their professional and personal lives. Both social workers

pointed out that on occasion, professional and personal lives may interfere, and although they

have little or no control over these events, they have to know how to maintain boundaries in their

relationships with their clients. Reamer suggest to be careful when it comes to discussing

boundaries to clients, so the clients do not feel hurt or rejected. Reamer advises that social

workers should not have multiple relationships with clients when there is a risk of harm to the

client. This research shows that sometimes it may be hard for social workers to keep an

equilibrium between their job and personal life.

Clayton Browne examines personal life problems of social workers in Problems Faced

by Social Workers (n.p). She believes about 15% of social workers leave the field within their

first year on the job. Browne describes the workloads and limited resources to find clients.

Because of cuts in government funding for many social programs, it is harder for them to find

clients, leading to increased workloads for social workers. These workloads and challenging

clients play the major role in the social workers stress, social workers could get a traumatic

stress disorder known as compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is common in helping

professions like nursing, social work, and/or others.

Freya Barrington, a social worker, explains in Working in Child Protection: I Have Been

kicked, Punched, Spat at and Threatened with Weapons (2015) that like many other social

workers having 911 on speed dial and their phone within easy reach is not an option. Social
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workers, especially those in charge of child protection, receive many threats from parents or

family members because they don't want their kids to be taken away. Barrington experienced a

situation where her and her client's life were put at risk because the child's parent would not let

them go, the parent held her responsible for the situation and threatened her with a weapon,

which made Barrington worry about her and the childs safety. She had no other option but to

call 911 to ask for help. The parent was arrested, Barrington and her client were able to leave the

house safely. She mentions that just like her, many of her colleagues shared that they have been

through a similar situation.

The Social Work Career Center, "Professional Development and Training. (n.d),

provides details of how social work functions and describes the purpose of being a social worker.

It gives an example of a client experiencing stress from single parenting and how the social

worker can help, in this case by providing child care to help the client get through this issue. This

website its helpful for beginners and advanced social workers, it can help to train or improve

their careers. It also has a list of specific practice areas in which social workers specialize, such

as schools, colleges and universities, government agencies, social services, and more. Social

Work Career Center helps social workers in finding jobs as well. This article is important

because we get a glance at how social workers work and gain understanding of how their work

system operates.

My study is connected to the previous literature because all studies, including my own,

show a way of negativity in this job, social work. Many people are not aware that some social

workers get threaten with their lives if they take a kid from a house or if they say the wrong

thing. They could also be oblivious to the fact that stress could cause disorders. My interviews

show how knowledgeable people are of social workers and their job.
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My research question, How are social workers affected by their social cases?, is

important because like I said before, it brings awareness to social workers and their work. When

I thought of social work as a career, I never thought of the risks they could go through. Im

hoping to do the same thing to others with this project, which is why it is important. I want

people to become aware of the struggles social workers go through so they want to cooperate

more with them and help make their job easier.

Methodology

Participants

The participants in my project were mostly teenagers. I surveyed 15 of the ages between

15-17 years old, because I believe we are a generation with more problems in which extra help

could be needed, I also had 5 adults of 22 years of age and up, filling out my surveys because I

wanted to include a little of everyones opinion. In total, I conducted twenty surveys, in which

fifteen are teenagers and five are adults.

The questions included in my surveys were as follows:

1) Is social work valuable to a community? Why?

2) Why do we need social workers in society?
3) Do you think there is a side effect to this job?
4) Which of the following do you believe can result as a side effect toward social

workers dealing with severe social cases and if so why?

Stress
Frustration
Trauma, due to threats from violent clients
Other: ______________
5) Do you believe a social worker can manage to keep equilibrium between their

career and their personal life? Why?

6) do you think social workers leave the field due to low job satisfaction?
7) Have you ever worked with a social worker? If so, did he/she do a good job?
8) How can we as individuals help improve social workers within our community?
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9) From 1-5, 1 being the lowest, rate how comfortable you would feel talking to a

social worker about your problems ?

10) Would it be reasonable to invite a social worker over your house to discuss family

matters? Why?

Materials

First, I did a draft of my survey questions on paper, then I used a computer with internet

to put my questions in an online survey. I used google forms to share my surveys and record my

data to keep it organized. I also used Reddit to obtain more data, but it didnt really work.

Procedure

First of all, I started looking for the most current articles that could support and somehow

help answer my research question. Those articles work as evidence as to why I am researching

my question and topic. Then, I decided what I would do to gather the necessary data that could

answer my research question.

I originally wanted to volunteer at Community Service Unlimited, an organization in Los

Angeles that works to build community health and self-reliance through youth

training/leadership development and economic development. The reason behind why I wanted to

volunteer was because I wanted to experience what it feels like to help the community, just like

socials workers do, and to get a glance at how stressful or successful it could be. Sadly, I could

not participate because the age limit was 18 years old. When I found out that I couldnt

participate to this organization, I wanted to interview the organization National Association of

Social Workers, but they couldnt really share data.

Due to my previous failures, I came to the conclusion of doing surveys. It was the most

convenient way to conduct qualitative and quantitative data. The data collected was qualitative

and quantitative because my main focus is to know the people's opinion on the social work field.
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A part of my qualitative data on my surveys was to ask why we need social workers in society,

their opinions help me understand how much and if people value the job social workers do for

society. I have created a percentage pie chart that is based on the percentage of people that chose

the same side effect of this job.

After being finished with my type of data, I selected who the participants would be. The

participants chosen were chosen accordingly to how effective they would be on my research. My

participants are teenagers, I felt they could have a better relationship with social workers due to

the amount of time they can spend when social workers have cases that deal with that age,

making it easy for them to answer my survey.

Having my participants and type of data needed helped me come up with how I would

distribute my surveys. At the moment, I thought doing them online would be the best option,

thinking it would make it easier to distribute surveys. I chose google forms thinking I could get

the most data but turns out that you have to share a link in order for them to answer, limiting my

number of participants. I shared my link with Reddit to collect the most data, but not much data

was collected until I decided to share the link person by person and even then, not everyone

filled it out.

After collecting my data I coded it and divided it into categories. I have a comfort level

bar graph based on how comfortable people feel talking to social workers. I also highlighted the

most important and repeated terms on my results, one would be that most people said it was okay

to discuss your problems with social workers depending on the situation and difficulty of the

problem. My percentage pie chart and comfort level bar graph serve as quantitative data, and my

coding of opinions serve as qualitative data. Even though collecting data was not easy, I
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managed to collect as many surveys as necessary to work with. Last but not least, I started

concluding my results as a final step.

Results

For data collection, I conducted surveys with ten questions. My questions (refer to the

methodology section) mostly hit peoples opinions about social workers and their job. In table 1

we can see the answers that stood out the most. Table 1 goes generally over all questions asked in

the survey, we have on the left side column the question number and on the right side column the

answers.

Table 1

Question number Responses

Question 1 20 out of 20 participants agreed on social work being valuable to the
community, but few answer second part of the question which is the why
they believed social workers are valuable.
Question 2 13 participants believe social workers are needed to help either kids,
families, or any individual in need of help.
4 participants believe social workers are needed for protection.
2 participants believe social workers are needed for improvement and
stability of the community.
1 participant had a response that was not repeated, he/she said that we
need social workers because they're kind of the guardian angels to some
people
Question 3 15 participants said yes, there is a side effect to social work.
3 participants said no, there isn't a side effect to social work.
1 participant said he/she wasn't sure.
1 participant said it all depends on the individual, whether they can take
on the load of work
Question 4 For this question you can also refer to the percentage pie chart located
underneath this table (Table 1) for a more visual example.
50% of participants believe stress can result as a side effect toward social
workers dealing with severe social cases
25% of participants believe trauma, due to threats from violent clients can
result as a side effect toward social workers dealing with severe social
cases.
10% of participants believe frustration can result as a side effect.
10% of participants believe other can result as a side effect.
5% of participants said all of the options
Question 5 5 participants think social workers cannot manage to keep equilibrium
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between their career and their personal life.

7 participants think they can keep equilibrium.
5 participants think it is difficult but it can be done.
2 participants think they must do keep an equilibrium.
1 participant thinks it depends on their mentality.
Question 6 5 participants say social workers don't leave the field due to low job
satisfaction.
8 participants say they do leave the field.
4 participants are not sure whether they do or dont.
2 participants say maybe, possibly do.
Question 7 14 participants surveyed have not worked with a social worker
5 participants have and said they did a good job.
1 participant said he/she don't want to work with a social worker.
Question 8 3 participants are unsure in how to help improve social workers within
our community.
2 participants dont know how to help them.
8 participants think that by cooperating/supporting them.
7 participants said by paying more attention to them.
Question 9 For this question, you can also refer to the comfort level histogram
located underneath the percentage pie chart (both beneath this table).
5% of participants do not feel comfortable talking about their problems
with social workers.
10% of participants sort of do.
50% do and dont feel comfortable, theyre in the middle, unsure.
35% of participants feel more comfortable talking to social workers.
0% of participants feel a hundred percent comfortable.
Question 10 11 participants said depending on the situation, it would be reasonable to
bring a social worker to discuss family matters.
5 participants said yes, it is reasonable.
2 participants said no, it is not reasonable.
2 participants were not sure whether it was reasonable or not.

Percentage pie chart *question 4

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This percentage pie chart shows the count of the responses for question 4. Question 4

asks which of the following can result as a side effect toward social workers dealing with severe

social cases and if so why, turning out with 50 % of participants choosing stress(orange color).

25% of participants choosing trauma, due to threats from violent clients(red color). 10% of

participants chose frustration (green color) as a side effect. And 15% of participants chose all

of them(two shades of blue and purple color added up).

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Comfort level histogram * question 9

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This comfort level histogram shows a visual of ratings(1 being the lowest, 5 the highest) on how

comfortable participants would feel talking to a social worker about their problems. 0

participants chose a level of comfortability of 5. 7 participants chose a level of 4. 10 participants

chose a level of 3. 2 participants chose a level of 2. And 1 participant chose a level of 1.

Discussion & Conclusion

For my results, I obtained a total of 20 thoughtful responses from my surveys. I created

surveys with 10 questions (refer to methodology) and distributed them among 15 teenagers and 5

adults. After collecting data, I coded it by the similarities and differences of responses. For my

first question, I ask if social work is valuable to the community. Most of the answers are yes,

but what stands out to me from this question is the why? The reasoning of why is it important,

mostly everyone says social workers provide help to many families, and everyone agrees social

workers help the community get better due to their services. This is the response I predicted and

wanted, this show that as individuals they see the effort social workers make for them.

As I read the answers for question 1 and 2, I notice they are connected. The words

security and help are often repeated. These questions divide in about half and half, about

50% of participants surveyed believe social workers bring safety to children and families in need

of protection and the other half thinks they help everyone in need of guidance. I find really

surprising that about half of my participants believe social workers bring security/protection to

individuals, I thought they would say something about disliking social workers because of the

distrust that they may bring.

In question 3, I ask if there is a side effect to this job, and about 3 people say, No; the

rest believe there is a side effect, and even though there are different ones, the one that is often
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repeated is stress. This question connects to question 4, because I list the top four side effects

picked in question 3. The percentage pie chart (shown in the results) shows the count of the

responses for question 4.

Question 4 asks which of the following can result as a side effect toward social workers

dealing with severe social cases and if so why, turning out with 50 % of participants choosing

stress. I pay a little more attention to this half of participants because they connect to previous

research. This stress can cause a traumatic stress disorder known compassion fatigue like it was

mention in the article Problems Faced by Social Workers by Clayton Browne. But this doesn't

mean it is the only side effect, the other side effects listed (trauma and frustration) are also part of

social work. My attention was brought to that 15% of participants that believe all of the above

because social work can have multiple effects that participants may not take in count.

For question 5, participants are ask if individuals believe social workers can find

equilibrium between work and their personal life, most say, yes and about 5 say, no, that it is

hard to do so. I thought most participants would say, no because social work is dealing with

personal problems. I find it hard to believe that everyone is saying, yes, because one struggles

in keeping two simple things separated on a daily basis, it is something that everyone could go

through at one point, finding balance, so I thought maybe for that same reason they would go

more to the no side. These answers connect to previous literature, Balancing Our Professional

and Personal Lives by Frederic Reamer, the author gives examples of how difficult may be for

social workers when it comes to balancing life and social work. My participants and this research

agree.

For my next question, I ask if they believe social workers leave the field due to low job

satisfaction, about 45% of participants say yes, 40% of participants say no, and 15% arent
SOCIAL WORKERS 15

sure. I really like the 15% that say they arent sure because its not something commonly asked

and they might not have the answer. The highlight of this question is how a participant brings up

the topic of social work gone down because it has. This responds connects to another article in

my literature review, this article explains how 15% of social workers left the field because of low

job satisfaction.

When ask how can we help them improve, half say by supporting them and the other half

dont know how, this is very important because not knowing how to help them improve can bring

them down, not cooperating with them while theyre trying to help could only add more stress to

their lives. But, I also understand that its hard to open up to a stranger because the comfort lever

histogram created for question 9 shows a visual of ratings(1 being the lowest, 5 the highest) on

how comfortable participants feel talking to a social worker about their problems. 0 participants

choose a level of comfortability of 5, meaning that people dont often feel that comfortable

talking to a stranger which could result in difficulty for the social worker. They are never

confident enough to rate it a 5 which I actually expected because its all about gaining trust and

that could only happen by cooperating.

In conclusion, people do know about social workers and the side effects they could obtain

from their job. But, few choose to take action into actually helping them become better and

improve their job. This is important because my goal was to help social workers ease their stress

or any struggle they could possibly go through, and that could only be done by bringing

awareness to the side effects of their job. If participants choose to not cooperate, they could add

more onto their stress, somehow answering my research question. Connecting to the literature

review and my research I believe is all about working together, bringing the community closer.

Social work is not the only profession that could have side effects due to the lack of teamwork in
SOCIAL WORKERS 16

our community or society. This project adds to the previous literature review by showing the

importance and the little significance participants choose to give to social workers.

Reflections

In my research project, there are so many things that did not go as planned or came out to

be what I thought they would be. My volunteering approach is an example; I was unable to

volunteer because of my age and there werent many other options, which is something that took

me by surprise. I thought there were more organizations for social workers and their needs. I

would have really liked to volunteer at the organization, so I would have had the chance to know

how it feels to be surrounded by those with similar goals, in this case to help social workers. I do

believe volunteering would have added a whole new different experience to my research, so my

project would be more meaningful.

What I learned about myself is while I am capable of doing something I just get lazy and

need to push myself forward. I believe that if I would had set a schedule with goals that needed

to be accomplished from the start of the project, I would have gotten things done sooner. Doing

entries weekly and setting goals by the end of the weekend its what helped me get through all

my steps in the research, because I knew what needed to be done by a certain time, this would

have been a great help if I had done it since the beginning of my research.

Also adding to setting goals for myself at a certain time tights with how I would have

gotten different responses for my surveys, I would have gotten more time which would of helped

me take the collecting data process more easy and slower. Rushing to collect data was a problem

because some participants did not want to fill out surveys, and I could not find appropriate

participants for my research. I found the participants I wanted, but I did had to cut short my
SOCIAL WORKERS 17

surveys which I believe had an impact in my findings because you cant really conclude

something with a small sample size.

Having a personal research journal helps a lot for this section because I was able to track

how I managed my activities and the certain time or day that I did those activities in the research.

What I appreciate the most is that by making these mistakes, it teaches me what not to do and

what to do differently on a research.

References

Malai, Rena. (2012) Social Workers Face New Challenges. National Association of Social

Workers. Retrieved from: https://www.socialworkers.org/pubs/news/2012/02/recession-

social-workers2.asp?back=yes.

Browne, Clayton. "Problems Faced by Social Workers." Work. Retrieved from:

http://work.chron.com/problems-faced-social-workers-11849.html.

Reamer, Frederic. "Balancing Our Professional and Personal Lives." Social Work Today.

Retrieved from: http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/051109p8.shtml.

Barrington, Freya. (2015) "Working in Child Protection: I Have Been Kicked, Punched, Spat at

and Threatened with Weapons. The guardian. Retrieved from:

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/social-life-blog/2015/feb/25/child-

protection-social-worker-known-social-services.

"Professional Development and Training. The Social Career Center.

Retrieved from: http://careers.socialworkers.org/professionaldev/default.asp

Rubric rating submitted on: June 5, 2016 at 8:18:47 AM PDT by

jason.tempinski@larchmontcharter.org
SOCIAL WORKERS 18

Expert Proficient Apprentice Novice

4 3 2 1

Introduction Clearly identifies Limited discussion Minimal Little or no

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introduction, research focus and question. research focus research focus
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reasoning for Research focus is less well-grounded Research focus is Research focus
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SOCIAL WORKERS 19

thorough and insight. severely limited,

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Results [Data Results are clearly Results are Results are not Results are not
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area are insightful Suggestions for further research in further research in

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