Date of Award

6-2017

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Master of Social Work

Department

School of Social Work

First Reader/Committee Chair

Chang, Janet

Abstract

Social workers interact with a variety of individuals in the field. In their profession social workers are to adhere to a Code of Ethics that ensure every client is treated equally. There are some under-represented populations that do not receive the same services when they interact with social workers in various systems; heterosexual single fathers are amongst this group. This study was conducted to identify if there was a gender bias amongst social work students working with heterosexual single parents. The researcher hypothesized that the participants in the study would favor single mothers and inadvertently offer more services to them. Social work students at California State University, San Bernardino, were identified as the population for this study. All currently enrolled students in the School of Social Work were invited to participate in the study. The students were sent a quantitative study via their university emails. There was a total of ninety-three respondents. The majority of the respondents felt that the parent with the same sex as the child should be the custodial parent of that child. None of the participants identified the father as an option for custodial guardianship. The participants offered more services to the custodial parent than the noncustodial parent. As a result of this study, the researcher recommended more representation of under-serviced identities in social work curriculum, more research on this population, and more curriculum that integrates social work education with social work practice.

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