TY - JOUR
T1 - Geographical Variation and Social Work Students' Job Intentions in China
T2 - A Geographic Information Systems Approach
AU - Wang, Yean
AU - Guo, Yingqi
AU - Zeng, Shouchui
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 National Association of Social Workers
PY - 2018/4
Y1 - 2018/4
N2 - Social work education in China is undergoing far-reaching development. However, an important issue, low professional commitment, has been identified. Why do social work graduates—especially master’s level graduates—take jobs unrelated to social work? To answer this question, it is important to take into account that the professionalization of social work is happening unevenly across China as a result of uneven social and economic development. Models used in past research do not consider the possibility that the low intention for social work jobs and its potential predictors may vary across regions. To address this problem, Geographic Information Systems software is being adopted to explore the varying degrees of social work graduates’ job intention, its predictors across China, and the association between job intention and predictors at both national and regional levels. Authors of this study found substantial geographic variation in predictors of social work graduates’ job intention across regions. Their findings also suggest some heterogeneity in the association between job intention and specific correlates that would be masked in the traditional nationwide model. Policymakers aiming to improve the job intention of social work graduates should consider regional variation as part of their approach.
AB - Social work education in China is undergoing far-reaching development. However, an important issue, low professional commitment, has been identified. Why do social work graduates—especially master’s level graduates—take jobs unrelated to social work? To answer this question, it is important to take into account that the professionalization of social work is happening unevenly across China as a result of uneven social and economic development. Models used in past research do not consider the possibility that the low intention for social work jobs and its potential predictors may vary across regions. To address this problem, Geographic Information Systems software is being adopted to explore the varying degrees of social work graduates’ job intention, its predictors across China, and the association between job intention and predictors at both national and regional levels. Authors of this study found substantial geographic variation in predictors of social work graduates’ job intention across regions. Their findings also suggest some heterogeneity in the association between job intention and specific correlates that would be masked in the traditional nationwide model. Policymakers aiming to improve the job intention of social work graduates should consider regional variation as part of their approach.
KW - Geographic Information Systems
KW - geographical variation
KW - job intentions
KW - regional differences
KW - social work education
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045564486&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/sw/swy004
DO - 10.1093/sw/swy004
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 29408969
AN - SCOPUS:85045564486
SN - 0037-8046
VL - 63
SP - 161
EP - 169
JO - Social Work
JF - Social Work
IS - 2
ER -