Social Work Research with Minority and Oppressed Populations

Book excerpt: Learn the latest and most effective strategies and ideas so you can accurately research oppressed and minority populations! Social Work with Minority and Oppressed Populations: Methodological Issues and Innovations provides social workers, social work researchers, and graduate students with new methodologies for researching topics related to minority and oppressed populations. You will learn how to conduct research with such special populations as ethnic and racial minorities, elders, women, and gay and bisexual men utilizing proven techniques that will yield more precise data and help retain participants in the research program. A must for anyone involved in the field of social work, Social Work with Minority and Oppressed Populations tackles the unique challenges you may face in conducting research with cross-culture populations. This valuble text offers innovative and practical techniques for this type of research, including: methodological issues addressed within the framework of operationalization and conceptualization, measurement, research design, data collection, and data analysis how using the anonymous enrollment technique can be applied to intervention research to engage and retain respondents in case studies how Rasch Analysis, a statistical method, may discern differences in the subjective experiences of members of different racial groups specific examples of how constituent involvement in research projects enhances access to respondents and increases the validity of data why social work practitioners as well as social work researchers must evaluate their knowledge, attitudes, and skills when dealing with cross-cultural populations Discussions on ethical and political issues This compilation of research on methodological issues not only introduces you to new techniques for working with oppressed or minority populations, but also creates new questions and areas of study, such as how to develop culture-specific instruments that better measure depression and its expression among African-American and white populations. Social Work with Minority and Oppressed Populations will provide you with the correct methods and strategies to research cross-culture populations and enable you to address specific problems that different ethnic groups and minorities face.