Miriam Potocky - Social Work Research with Minority and Oppressed Populations

Social Work Research with Minority and Oppressed Populations:
Methodological Issues and Innovations has been co-published
simultaneously as Journal of Social Service Research, Volume
23, Numbers 3/4 1998.

Miriam Potocky
Antoinette Y. Rodgers-Farmer
Editors

Social Work Research with Minority and Oppressed Populations:
Methodological Issues and Innovations has been co-published
simultaneously as Journal of Social Service Research, Volume
23, Numbers 3/4 1998.

Social Work Research with Minority and Oppressed Populations: Methodological Issues and Innovations has been co-published simultaneously as Journal of Social Service Research, Volume 23, Numbers 3/4 1998.

1998 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilm and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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First published 1998 by
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Social work research with minority and oppressed populations: methodological issues and innovations / Miriam Potocky and Antoinette Y. Rodgers-Farmer
p. cm.
Has been co-published simultaneously as Journal of social service research, volume 23, numbers 3/4 1998.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7890-0396-1 (alk. paper)
1. Social service-Methodology. 2. Social service-Research. 3. Social work with minorities. I. Potocky, Miriam. II. Rodgers-Farmer, Antoinette Y.

Miriam Potocky, PhD, is Assistant Professor and Acting Coordinator of the doctoral program in the School of Social Work at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. Dr. Potocky teaches courses in research methodology, data analysis, and social work with immigrants and refugees. She is the author of numerous publications in such journals as Social Work Research, Social Work, and International Social Work, and has given presentations in the area of refugee economic integration as it relates to refugee resettlement policy. Dr. Potocky is a member of several national social work organizations, such as the National Association of Social Workers, the Council on Social Work Education, and the Society for Social Work and Research. Her research interests focus on multicultural and international social work, particularly on refugee issues.

Antoinette Y. Rodgers-Farmer, PhD, is Assistant Professor at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, School of Social Work in New Brunswick, where she teaches Human Behavior and the Social Environment and Psychopathology. Dr. Rodgers-Farmer has spoken at numerous national and international conferences and is a member of the Council on Social Work Education. Currently, she is conducting research in the areas of adolescent health, kinship care, and parenting behavior.

Social work research about multicultural groups requires methodologies that can be adapted in the context of cultural interests and diverse points of view. There have been conceptual developments in social work practice about minority and oppressed populations in the past two decades; however, there have not been corresponding methodological innovations in social work research. Typically, new research knowledge has been introduced by social scientists, particularly by anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists. The work by social work researchers, although an important step in knowledge development, pointed to the differences in demographic variables across minority groups and other oppressed populations, with very little insight into the reasons for those differences.

Gratifying to the social work profession is the fact that great advances in social work research methodology have been made in recent years. Undoubtedly, this is a reflection of the increased efforts and sophistication of social work practitioners and researchers in studying social work with minority and oppressed populations. Social Work Research with Minority and Oppressed Populations: Methodological Issues and Innovations contains a representative sampling of these new developments. The editors, Miriam Potocky and Antoinette Y. Rodgers-Farmer, have provided an important service for social work researchers. They have carefully abstracted from each of the articles in this special collection research principles that can be generalized across different multicultural groups; and, most important, they have suggested fundamental research questions that will advance further knowledge about working with minority and oppressed populations. The contents of the articles indicate new techniques and adaptations of existing research methods to diverse populations; included are methods for recruiting subjects, development of action research, sampling, a method for constructing interval scales, and conceptualizations for expanding factors in assessment as well as defining salient clinical constructs such as depression. Moreover, extensive bibliographic references and reviews of research are provided about gay and bisexual men, low-income urban adolescents, depressed women of color, ethnic elders, and African-American and white children.

This volume is must reading for social work researchers. Written by outstanding social work scholars, it provides key issues and conceptual challenges for research with minority and oppressed populations. Highly recommended for social work academicians, practitioners, administrators, policy developers, and students, it sensitizes readers to issues and suggestions for developing prevention programs and implementing social work interventions.