Extending Understanding: Adverse Childhood Experiences Among BSW Students

Overview: This presentation will provide an overview of the 14 types of adverse childhood experiences among African American baccalaureate social work students. This proposal advances the work of the baccalaureate program track, because it will shed light on the need to infuse trauma-informed curriculum and self-care in social work education.Proposal text: Introduction/Background

According to the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE, 2019), while enrollments have increased significantly between 2008 and 2018, a decline has been reported within the last year. The CSWE reports there are 58,733 students enrolled in baccalaureate programs. Students entering in baccalaureate social work programs are professionalized to work as generalist social workers in a variety of settings.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2019), BSW graduates are typically employed in entry level positions in school settings, child welfare settings, mental health settings, healthcare setting, and substance abuse settings. In these and other settings, social workers are exposed to the trauma experiences of client systems. The impact of exposure to secondary trauma can have far reaching effects. Therefore, it is imperative to understand personal trauma experiences as it relates to integrating trauma and self-care in social work curriculum. The current study seeks to further explore the prevalence of the 14 types of adverse experiences in childhood among BSW students.


Methods

An online survey was completed by BSW students via a department Listserv. Of the total 359 students, 119 completed all the surveys (33.1% response rate). The majority of students were African American females who declared social work as major, were in their 20s, were single and identified as a protestant.

The 14 types of adverse experiences in childhood (ACEs), prior to the age of 18, were measured by the WHO questionnaire. The questionnaire included areas of child abuse (physical, psychological, and sexual), neglect (physical and emotional), types of household dysfunction (domestic violence, substance abuse, divorce, mental illness, and incarceration), community violence, discrimination, bulling, and physical fight. Each type of adverse experiences was coded as a binary variable (occurred=1, did not occur=0). Thus, the total number of ACEs reported by students ranged from 0 to 14 for the current study, which was used to examine the cumulated ACEs scores. The mean score of ACEs for the sample was .42 (SD=.22).


Descriptive statistics were calculated to present socio-demographics, background information of the sample, and prevalence of ACEs scores.


Results

Only 2.6% of students have no ACEs. Approximately 10.9% had 3 types of ACEs; 62.5% had 5 and more ACEs. The highest prevalence of ACEs was community violence (80.2%), followed by physical fight (74.0%), bullied (69.8%), parental divorce or separation (56.3%), emotional neglect (54.6%), psychological abuse (42.9%), discrimination (42.7%), substance abuse of a family member (31.1%), sexual abuse (30.3%), physical abuse (28.6%), mental illness of a family member (28.6%), witnessing marital abuse (22.7%), parental death (19.8%), incarceration of a family member (18.5%), and physical neglect (14.3%).




Conclusion and Implications

Out study indicates social work educators must begin to address broaden trauma experiences from abuse and neglect to community violence, and its impact relative to possible exposure to secondary trauma in the workforce. Social work education should consider the inclusion of trauma-informed knowledge and self-care skills. Such inclusion will enable students and practitioners to develop self-awareness, trauma-related knowledge, and self-care skills that will promote academic and professional successes.