Summary

The study objective was the identification of social workers’ ethic profiles in their professional interventions. To conduct this pilot study, we used data from a national survey (N = 1071) carried out in Spain. The information was collected through an online questionnaire.

Findings

Results show that social workers face a variety of ethical dilemmas in their professional practice. Through exploratory factor analysis, it was revealed that the underlying structure of the questionnaire consisted of three categories: direct service to individuals and families, design and implementation of social welfare policy and programmes and relationships among professional colleagues. Through latent class analysis, four unique social workers’ ethical profiles were identified: professionals with minimum incidence of experiencing ethical dilemmas, professionals with low incidence of experiencing ethical dilemmas, professionals with a notable incidence of experiencing ethical dilemmas and, finally, professionals with high incidence of experiencing ethical dilemmas. A third of the social workers in the sample showed a very low probability to be conflicted by ethical dilemmas.

Applications

The pilot study is expected to serve as a catalyst for discussion of social workers’ ethical conduct and professional practice, to promote professional ethics training and education and to support the development of professional guidelines.

中文翻译：

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社会工作者应对道德困境的方法

概括

研究目标是确定社会工作者在其专业干预中的道德概况。为了进行这项试点研究，我们使用 了在西班牙进行的全国调查 ( N = 1071) 的数据。这些信息是通过在线问卷收集的。

发现

结果表明，社会工作者在其专业实践中面临着各种道德困境。通过探索性因素分析，发现问卷的基本结构包括三类：直接为个人和家庭服务，社会福利政策和计划的设计和实施，以及专业同事之间的关系。通过潜在类别分析，确定了四种独特的社会工作者的道德特征：遇到道德困境发生率最低的专业人士，遇到道德困境发生率低的专业人士，经历道德困境发生率显着的专业人士，最后是发生率高的专业人士经历伦理困境。

应用

该试点研究有望成为讨论社会工作者道德操守和专业实践的催化剂，促进职业道德培训和教育，并支持职业指南的制定。