NASW Research Library: Race & Ethnicity

Below is a sample of the many resources you’ll find in the Research Library on the topic of race and ethnicity. 

NASW members have unlimited access to more than 25 international databases with thousands of documents from leading research institutions, think tanks and advocacy groups.

Learn more about the NASW Research Library >>


Example Resources


Practitioner Biases and Child Service Use Disparities: Implications for Social Work Education

Author: Staudt, Marlys
Source: Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 2011
Disparities by race/ethnicity exist in the use of children's mental health and related services. It is no doubt that many factors contribute to these disparities, but practitioner biases may be partly responsible for disparities. The purpose of this article is to show a potential link between practitioner biases and service use disparities and to discuss the implications for social work education.


The Dynamics of Social Support Inequality: Maintenance Gaps by Socioeconomic Status and Race?

Authors: Schafer, Markus H.; Vargas, Nicholas
Source: Social Forces, June 2016
A vast literature demonstrates how personal networks mirror and reproduce broader patterns of social inequality. The availability of key resources through informal mechanisms is an important way that high-status Americans retain a host of social advantages. Largely absent from this account of social capital inequality, however, is an explicit temporal dimension. The article addresses that gap by targeting the dynamic nature of personal networks. Specifically, we consider whether race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status  are associated with how US adults' resource-providing ties persist or vanish between two time points.


Perceptions of Cultural Competence among Urban School Social Workers: Does Experience Make a Difference?

Authors: Teasley, Martell L.; Baffour, Tiffany D.; Tyson, Edgar H.
Source: Children & Schools, Oct 2005
This exploratory study examined the contribution of social work experience and licensure to self-reported levels of cultural competence of social workers in urban public school systems. In addition, it examined the influence of practitioners' race or ethnicity on perceived levels of culturally competent practice in urban schools. Using survey research methods with a convenience sample, data were collected from a cross-section of urban school social workers.


The Construction of Social Class in Social Work Education: A Study of Introductory Textbooks

Authors: Strier, Roni; Feldman, Guy; Shdaimah, Corey
Source: Journal of Teaching in Social Work, Sep/Oct 2012
Social work introductory textbooks reflect myriad practical interests, pedagogical concerns, and theoretical considerations. However, they also present students with accepted views, dominant perspectives, and main discourses of knowledge. In light of this centrality, the present article examines the representation of the concept of “social class” in introductory textbooks as a way to look at the construction of the concept in social work education


Cultural Differences in Perinatal Experiences for Women with Low Socioeconomic Status

Author: Lee King, Patricia A.
Source: Health & Social Work, Nov 2014
In this study, similarities and differences in perinatal experiences between women with low socioeconomic status (SES) by race, ethnicity, and nativity were explored. The objective was to better understand the sociocultural and environmental contexts of perinatal experiences and potential implications for screening and assessment among women with low SES.



NASW research library graphic
hands typing onto a laptop