Abstract
This study used a quantitative research design to examine the extent to which clinical social workers (LICSW’s) stay abreast of clinical social work research. This study also examined whether social workers who use different therapeutic approaches differ at all in their research behaviors. Participants responded to an online survey administered using Surveymonkey (n=80).
The study found that clinical social workers engage in a variety of research behaviors, and that these behaviors closely mirror the findings of a recent study on this same topic. Nearly a quarter of licensed social workers report that they never or rarely read scholarly journal articles on social work, and more than half do not receive any formal supervision. The study did not find any relationship between preferred treatment approach and research behaviors. Findings suggest that social workers have room to improve in terms of their use of research. Future studies could include qualitative research on the reasons why many clinical social workers do not engage in various behaviors to stay abreast of clinical research.