What Is Social Work? Research Areas, Funding, and Career Paths

Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that works to improve human well-being and promote social change, with particular attention to people who are vulnerable, oppressed or living in poverty. The International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) approved a shared global definition in July 2014 describing it as a practice-based profession and academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. The US National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics frames the mission in similar terms: enhancing human well-being and helping meet basic human needs, with attention to the environmental forces that create, contribute to and address problems in living.

This guide treats social work as a research field, which is how a research administrator, grants officer or IRB professional is most likely to meet it. Social work faculty run large intervention trials, community-partnered studies and program evaluations, and they often work with the populations that human-subjects regulations single out for extra protection. Understanding the field’s norms makes proposals, protocols and budgets easier to review.

What social work is, and what it is not

Social work differs from its neighbors mainly in purpose and unit of attention. Its distinguishing commitment is a person-in-environment perspective: problems such as addiction, child maltreatment, homelessness or mental illness are examined in relation to family, community, institutional and policy contexts, not only individual traits. Research in the field is therefore usually applied. It asks whether an intervention works, for whom, under what conditions and at what cost, and how services can be delivered more equitably.

• Versus sociology. Sociology is chiefly an explanatory discipline studying how social structures operate; social work is an applied profession and discipline that draws on sociological theory and then intervenes. The two share survey, qualitative and demographic methods.
• Versus psychology. Psychology centers on individual cognition, emotion and behavior, with clinical psychology licensed for assessment and psychotherapy. Clinical social workers also provide psychotherapy in many jurisdictions, but social work training adds case management, advocacy, community and policy practice.
• Versus public health. Public health works at the population level through surveillance and prevention; social work research frequently overlaps, for example in substance use, violence prevention and health disparities, but the profession keeps a direct-service orientation.
• Versus anthropology and criminology. Social work shares ethnographic methods with anthropology and a justice-system interest with criminology, but evaluates services and supports rather than primarily describing cultures or explaining crime.

Scope and subfields

Social work is organized both by level of practice and by field of practice, and research follows the same lines.

Levels of practice

• Micro practice with individuals and families: counseling, case management, crisis intervention. Research here tests clinical and psychosocial interventions.
• Mezzo practice with groups, organizations and neighborhoods: group treatment, school-based programs, agency management. Research covers group and organizational interventions and service delivery.
• Macro practice including community organizing, program administration and policy analysis. Research includes policy evaluation, program evaluation and studies of social welfare systems.

Fields of practice

• Child welfare and family services: maltreatment prevention, foster care, adoption and family preservation.
• Behavioral health: mental health and substance use treatment, including co-occurring disorders and recovery supports.
• Health and medical social work: care coordination, palliative and end-of-life care, patient navigation and the social determinants of health (see also nursing science and epidemiology for adjacent health fields).
• Aging and gerontological social work: caregiving, elder abuse, dementia and long-term-care services.
• School social work and youth development.
• Criminal and juvenile justice: reentry, diversion, restorative approaches.
• Poverty, housing and economic security: homelessness, income support, asset building.
• Immigration, refugee and international social work and community development.
• Military and veteran social work and disaster and trauma response.

Research methods in social work

Social work research borrows widely and is notably methodologically plural. The choices below recur in proposals reviewers will see.

Intervention research

The field’s signature work is intervention research: designing, testing and refining psychosocial and service interventions. A typical progression runs from development and a pilot study to an efficacy or effectiveness trial, often a randomized controlled trial, and then to dissemination. Because individuals are often nested in classrooms, clinics or agencies, cluster-randomized and quasi-experimental designs are common, as are adaptive and sequential designs (see SMART designs). Where randomization is impractical or unethical, researchers report non-randomized behavioral evaluations using guidance such as the TREND statement.

Implementation and evaluation research

Evidence-based programs frequently fail to transfer into agency practice, so implementation science is a major strand of social work research. See choosing an implementation science framework and normalization process theory. Program and impact evaluation are core skills, supported by tools such as the program logic model and the CDC program evaluation framework.

Community-based participatory research

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a long-standing approach in the field and a natural fit with its values. Community members and organizations take part as partners in framing questions, designing methods, interpreting findings and sharing results, rather than serving only as subjects. It sits within the broader family of participatory research, and projects frequently convene a community advisory board. For administrators, CBPR raises practical questions: subawards to community organizations, data-ownership agreements, and how the IRB treats community partners who help collect data.

Qualitative, mixed and administrative-data methods

Qualitative research (interviews, focus groups, ethnography) is widely used to understand lived experience of services, and mixed methods designs pair it with quantitative outcomes. Rigor is typically argued through the criteria in trustworthiness in qualitative research. Studies of child welfare, homelessness and public benefits also rely on linked administrative data, which brings data use agreements and privacy review into the picture.

Research ethics and IRB considerations with vulnerable populations

Social work research often involves people in crisis or in systems that carry power over them, such as children in foster care, people in treatment for substance use, individuals who have experienced violence, people who are incarcerated or undocumented, and older adults with cognitive impairment. Review under the Common Rule (45 CFR 46) and the principles of the Belmont Report (respect for persons, beneficence, justice) applies, and the regulations give specific attention to certain groups: see vulnerable populations in research, Subpart D (children) and Subpart C (prisoners). For the review body itself, see What Is an Institutional Review Board? and the IRB dictionary entry.

Issues that come up repeatedly in social work protocols:

• Consent and voluntariness. When a researcher recruits through an agency that controls housing, benefits or custody, participants may fear that declining will affect services. Protocols should separate research from service delivery and state this plainly in the informed consent process. For minimal-risk studies where a signature would itself create a risk, see waiver of documentation of informed consent.
• Mandatory reporting. Many social workers are mandated reporters of suspected child abuse or neglect, and state laws vary. A researcher who learns of abuse or imminent harm may be obligated or may choose to report, so the consent form must say what confidentiality does and does not cover. A Certificate of Confidentiality can protect identifiable data from compelled disclosure but does not by itself override reporting duties that the protocol discloses.
• Distress and safety planning. Studies of trauma, suicidality or violence need referral resources, distress protocols and, where warranted, monitoring (see the data safety monitoring board guide for oversight of higher-risk trials).
• Dual roles. A clinician-researcher studying their own clients faces conflicts between care obligations and research aims, which IRBs often probe.
• Inclusion. Excluding groups for convenience can violate the justice principle; see NIH inclusion policies for the federal expectation on women, minorities and the lifespan.
• Community harms. Findings can stigmatize a neighborhood or group even when individuals are protected, a concern CBPR partnerships help surface early.

History

Modern social work grew out of late-19th-century charity organization societies and the settlement house movement. Jane Addams’s Hull-House in Chicago, a settlement serving a largely poor and immigrant neighborhood, paired direct services with social investigation and reform advocacy. Mary Richmond, a leader in charity organization work, published Social Diagnosis in 1917, an attempt to systematize casework method on evidence-gathering principles, and she and Addams are often called founding figures of the profession. Over the 20th century the field professionalized through university-based schools, national associations, licensure and accreditation, and the research emphasis grew alongside federal investment in mental health, substance use and child welfare services. The field’s professional accreditor, the Council on Social Work Education, is described below.

Training paths

• BSW (bachelor of social work): generalist entry-level practice preparation.
• MSW (master of social work): advanced and clinical practice, and the usual credential for licensure as a clinical social worker; many programs offer concentrations such as mental health, child and family, or administration and policy.
• PhD in social work: the research doctorate preparing faculty and independent investigators, centered on research methods, theory and dissertation work.
• DSW (doctor of social work): a practice-oriented doctorate focused on advanced practice, leadership and applied scholarship.
• Postdoctoral and career-development awards through NIH and foundations prepare early-career investigators; see the NIH activity codes entry for how NIH award types are labeled.

Licensure is set by state or provincial regulators rather than by universities, and requirements differ by jurisdiction, so anyone budgeting for clinical research staff should check the local licensing board.

Societies, accreditation and journals

• Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). The accrediting body for BSW and MSW programs in the United States, which sets the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS). It accredits baccalaureate, master’s and practice doctorate programs; its online program directory lists the current accredited programs.
• Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR). A professional society dedicated to advancing social work research; it holds an annual research conference and publishes the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research.
• National Association of Social Workers (NASW). The main US professional association, steward of the NASW Code of Ethics and publisher of journals including Social Work and Social Work Research.
• IFSW and IASSW. The international federation of social workers and the international association of schools, which jointly adopted the 2014 global definition.
• Other journals widely read in the field include Research on Social Work Practice and Children and Youth Services Review.

Who funds social work research

Social work has no single dedicated federal agency, so investigators assemble support from several mission agencies.

• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Funds mental health intervention and services research.
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Funds substance use prevention, treatment and services research.
• Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, ACF supports research and evaluation on programs serving children and families.
• Other NIH institutes and agencies such as the National Institute on Aging, depending on the population studied, and private foundations and state agencies for evaluation work.

Specific funding opportunities, capacity-building programs and eligibility change, so confirm any program on the sponsor’s current announcement rather than relying on a historical description. Common NIH mechanisms include the R01, R21 and R34 awards (the R34 is frequently used for intervention development and pilot trials).

Links to research administration

Social work proposals have features that touch pre- and post-award offices. Community and agency partnerships create subawards and data-sharing agreements, handled through the Office of Sponsored Programs. Agency-based recruitment may need separate approvals from the partner’s own review body, which is where reliance arrangements and a single-IRB model come in. Budgets often include participant incentives, community partner stipends, interpreters and clinician time. Compliance staff should expect the human-subjects issues above in nearly every protocol, and research administrators may want to review the broader field map in branches of science for how social work sits among related disciplines.

Frequently asked questions

What is social work in simple terms?

Social work is a profession and academic discipline that helps individuals, families, groups and communities improve their well-being and addresses the social conditions, such as poverty or discrimination, that harm it.

Is social work a science?

It is described as both a practice-based profession and an academic discipline. Its research arm uses scientific methods, including randomized trials, qualitative inquiry and program evaluation, to test what helps and what does not.

What is the difference between social work and sociology?

Sociology mainly explains how society works; social work applies knowledge, including sociological research, to help people and change systems.

What does CSWE do?

The Council on Social Work Education accredits BSW and MSW programs in the US under its Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards.

Do social work researchers need IRB approval?

Research involving human participants generally requires IRB review or a formal exemption determination, and studies with children, prisoners or other vulnerable groups face added scrutiny. Institutions make the determination, not the investigator.

Which agencies fund social work research?

Common federal sources include NIMH, NIDA and the Administration for Children and Families, along with other NIH institutes and private foundations.

What is the difference between a PhD and a DSW?

The PhD is the research doctorate that prepares independent investigators; the DSW is typically a practice-oriented doctorate focused on advanced practice and leadership. Programs vary, so check each program’s stated aims.

Related CASRAI guides

See the companion discipline guides to sociology, psychology, public health and criminology, and the IRB guide for the review process referenced throughout.