An exploratory study of social workers, who are employed in the practice field of mental retardation in the United States of America, was conducted to obtain a "state of the art" assessment of this group of professionals. Along with the demographics of the social workers, data was collected regarding the reasons why they entered their present job in the field of mental retardation, and regarding the types of services these social workers were performing, e.g., casework, administration, etc. Finally data was also collected on the job satisfaction of the social workers by the use of a standardized instrument, and on the intention of these workers to remain in the mental retardation field as a career. After presenting descriptive summary statistics, inferential statistics were used to determine if the social workers' reasons for entry into their present job and/or their present services were related to the social workers' job satisfaction and future plans regarding remaining in the practice field of mental retardation as a career. / A review of relevant research literature provided for information about how people attempt to make career and occupational choices, and, more specifically, why people choose the profession of social work as their career. The writer found a paucity of research on why social workers enter mental retardation, however, there was research suggesting reasons why social workers do not enter this field of practice, e.g., low status, stigma, myths, etc. Literature concerning services was generally not up to date and tended to be very non-empirical. There was very little written material found concerning job satisfaction and career retention with respect to mental retardation. / The research design employed for the study was ex post facto, and, more specifically, the type of research was survey research. Two hundred social workers were chosen to be the sample that represented the population previously mentioned. One hundred were drawn from a list of 874 names provided by the American Association on Mental Deficiency, a national professional organization. Another one hundred were drawn from a massive list of names collected through a large letter writing campaign. In both cases, multistage sampling was utilized with care to maintain probability sampling techniques on a national level. The writer received 168 returned questionnaires (84%), and 165 were useable (82.5%). There was no second mailing. / The descriptive data indicated many interesting findings about the social workers in mental retardation. For example, over ninety percent were white; more belonged to the American Association on Mental Deficiency than the National Association of Social Workers; almost ninety percent were employed in the private sector; and almost ninety percent did not have a mental retardation course in their school of social work. / The inferential statistics were equally interesting. Career oriented social workers were higher in regard to job satisfaction than were occupation oriented social workers. Social workers, who predominately performed indirect services, were higher in regard to job satisfaction than were social workers, who predominately performed direct service. Career oriented social workers were more willing to remain in mental retardation as a career than were occupation oriented social workers. All the above relationships were statistically significant. Career oriented social workers were more willing to remain in mental retardation as a career, but it was not a statistically significant relationship. / Finally, implications of the findings for social work education were given. Schools of social work could improve the eventual services to mentally retarded individuals by developing more courses, specializations, and concentrations for their students. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-03, Section: A, page: 1214. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74132 |
| Contributors | DEWEAVER, KEVIN LEON., The Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 149 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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