Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-7-2025
Publication Title
Social Work Education: The International Journal
Volume
45
Issue
1
Pages
163-180
Publisher Name
Taylor & Francis
Abstract
What factors are associated with social workers’ political participation, and how does political confidence mediate those relationships? To answer this question, data were collected in 2020 through an original online survey of members of the U.S.-based National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Informed by self-efficacy theory, researchers conducted a structural equation modeling (SEM) path model with political participation as the outcome variable, and political confidence as a mediating variable. Exogenous variables included: one’s self-reported political orientation, belief that social work has a political mandate, gender, and knowledge about how to effectively participate in politics. Results indicate that high political confidence is associated with political participation. Similarly, the belief that ‘the social work profession has a political mandate’ is positively related to political participation, both directly and indirectly through its positive association with confidence. This study suggests that political knowledge building in curriculum and programming, while necessary, does not sufficiently influence political participation. Instead, to support a politically engaged social work profession, social work educators and professional bodies ought to couple content about political knowledge with political practice in ways that realistically increase students’ political confidence and commitment to the idea that social workers are mandated to engage in politics.
Recommended Citation
Wathen, Maria; Young, Rachel A.; Krings, Amy; and Kilbane, Teresa. Predictors of political participation of U.S. social workers: the mediating effect of confidence. Social Work Education: The International Journal, 45, 1: 163-180, 2025. Retrieved from Loyola eCommons, Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2025.2484364
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Copyright Statement
© Taylor & Francis, 2025.
Comments
Author Posting © The Author(s), 2025. This article is posted here by permission of Taylor & Francis for personal use and non-commercial redistribution. This article was published open access in Social Work Education: The International Journal, Vol. 45, Iss. 1 (April 2025), https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2025.2484364.