The high prevalence of repeat abortions among young migrant women in mainland China reveals a critical gap in sexual health equity. Drawing on life course theory (LCT), this qualitative study aims to understand how reproductive vulnerability is produced and accumulated over the life course among this population. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 migrant women (aged 18–24) who had experienced multiple induced abortions. Thematic analysis revealed that repeat abortion is a structural process shaped by five cumulative disadvantages: (1) triple-embedded exclusion across educational, economic, and institutional domains; (2) a timing mismatch in which sexual initiation outpaced reproductive knowledge acquisition; (3) a maladaptive peer reinforcement loop that normalizes contraceptive misinformation and drives risk desensitization; (4) a gender power imbalance rooted in male dominance in contraceptive practice; and (5) a negative turning point effect stemming from the failure of the initial abortion to catalyze effective intervention. The findings challenge the prevailing individualistic blame narratives and support an integrated, dynamic LCT perspective. This study recommends that medical social workers deliver multi-level, life-course-informed interventions and advocate for structural reforms to address the reproductive vulnerability of young migrant women.
Often language translation is portrayed through the lens of loss, as epitomized in the phrase lost in translation. This is an important lens which has implications for epistemic justice in social work research. However, grounding our reflection in borderlands theorizing and our dissertation research projects in Pokhara, Nepal and Seoul, South Korea, we instead wish to center this reflection on what we found in translation. Specifically, we share how the process of language translation invited us to further analysis, deeper critical reflexivity, dialogue, and agency. First, we discuss aspects of our research that seemed impossible to translate, and how this impossibility served as a catalyst for deeper analysis. Second, we reflect on how the process of translating the phrases and words from their original language into English led us to dig into additional layers of critical reflexivity. Third, we reflect on how translating (or deciding not to translate) a single word could open opportunities for dialogue and for the researcher’s own agentic voice. We close by arguing that such reflections can and should be applied in other borderland spaces in which social work scholars find themselves, including the spaces created between disciplines, within classrooms, and between communities and academia, even when those involved appear to share the same language.
This manuscript examines the use of a Delphi panel as a method for qualitative research. Recognised as an approach that can offer greater transparency in analysis through built in member checking and a systematic process that allows ideas to evolve, Delphi panels have more commonly been used in the sectors of education, medicine and nursing. Opening with an introduction to the method and a description of the core characteristics of a Delphi panel, a discussion of benefits and tensions is included with particular attention to challenges and limitations. Drawing upon an example research project investigating the opportunities and limitations for establishing a national training program for social workers supervising students on placement, the manuscript aims to bring the method to life for researchers who are considering the use of a Delphi panel. Although not written as a how-to guide, the aim is to support readers in their own methodological considerations and research design of future projects.
This reflective case study interrogates conventional imposter participation frameworks through ethical dilemmas that emerged during a qualitative study with postpartum women who had experienced trauma and substance use. Initially concerned with participant deception, the research team encountered potential signs of coercion, economic precarity, and structural vulnerability. These moments prompted a reframing of “imposter participants” as individuals navigating systemic constraint and raised critical tensions around power, positionality, and researcher responsibility. Drawing on relational ethics and critical reflexivity frameworks, we offer practical recommendations for ethically responding to unintended participation under duress, advocating for relational, justice-oriented practices that foreground dignity, structural awareness, and social accountability in ethically ambiguous research contexts.
Taking an example from mental health social work, this paper discusses how textual vignettes—short, fictional narratives—support data collection and analysis of practice. It is argued textual vignettes, henceforth referred to simply as vignettes, are an effective method of data elicitation that can prompt participants to respond to, and think beyond, the scenarios. The paper draws on primary research that investigated how social workers understand the impact of the social determinants of mental health on people’s lives. The paper discusses how C. Wright Mills’ (1959) concept of the sociological imagination can inform how vignettes are written, enable data elicitation, and provide a lens for the analysis of practice. The use of vignettes in social work research is reviewed and guidance on writing them provided. The paper highlights how embedding contextual elements is a particular affordance of the method. In evaluating the use of vignettes, verbatim quotations from the primary study illustrate the richness of the data collected (Lomax, 2024). Using vignettes enabled participants to think beyond the short stories and this supported an exploration of social workers’ sociologically imaginative understandings of practice. Fook (2019) has argued that the sociological imagination can support critical reflective social work practice. The use of vignettes in this study to prompt social workers to access that imagination is discussed. The paper concludes that vignettes, embedded within semi-structured interviews, offer a valuable and practical tool for qualitative social work researchers. The method is likely to be useful in a wide range of research settings.
As immigrants are disappeared from American streets, I explore what it means to carry a diasporic history of persecution and a legacy of immigration into a social work practice defined by moral responsibility. Writing in the spirit of evocative autoethnography, I explore how my own experiences of otherness within the Jewish community have shaped my ethical commitments as a social worker amid contemporary immigration crackdowns and state-sponsored violence against the immigrant community in the United States of America (USA). Grounded in the Jewish principle of tikkun olam and situated within a tradition of Jewish social workers motivated by a commitment to social justice, I interrogate questions of complicity and the use of self in a time of political repression. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s concept of the banality of evil, I examine who we become when confronted with state-sponsored violence. I argue that Jewish diasporic identity and history can function as a compass connecting experiences of otherness across immigrant communities and grounding a commitment to human rights in social work practice.
This paper sets out the findings from a doctoral study in Northern Ireland about how birth parents of children who have been adopted from public care, and lawyers involved in adoption, experience the use of the terms mum and dad after adoption. While adoption legally removes them as parents, birth parents can retain a sense of parental connection to the child albeit that the role and status associated with their parental identity has changed. The ambiguity and contested nature of their sense of parenthood after adoption is reflected in how parental labels are used in the context of post-adoption contact. Using the theoretical lens of Honneth’s theory of recognition and drawing on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, this paper explores the implications of naming practices in open adoptions where there is ongoing interaction between birth and adoptive families, supported or facilitated by social workers. The qualitative study involved semi-structured interviews with 5 birth parents and 12 lawyers and used interpretative phenomenological analysis for birth parent interviews and thematic analysis for lawyer interviews to interpret this phenomenon. The paper argues for an individualised, nuanced and sensitive approach to interactions with birth parents around their use of the term ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ after adoption.
Clinical case notes provide researchers with a rare yet unsettling insight into the intimate realities of children's mental health. These records capture fragments of lived experience that demand rigorous ethical attention in how they are accessed, interpreted, and re-presented. This paper examines the ethical tensions between data extraction and narrative witnessing through the reflections of a Social Work practitioner, through a collaboration wth professionals, and Experts by Experience. Drawing on a year-long reflexive study of clinical case notes from children in state care, this paper explores how professional language, institutional framing, and systemic pressures influence both the production and interpretation of such records. Divergent professional positions and discourses often collide, shaping children's representation and obscuring their voices within clinical and administrative documentation. The analysis also considers the emotional labour and moral unease experienced by researchers when encountering recorded suffering, including the risks of vicarious trauma and moral distress. By reframing clinical case notes as testimonies rather than data alone, the paper argues for the practice of narrative care, an approach that prioritises attentive anonymisation, reflexive interpretation, and dignified representation. Narrative care acknowledges the methodological and emotional dimensions of engaging with trauma-saturated texts, enabling ethically responsive research that bears witness to children's experiences. In doing so, this study highlights how researchers can uphold humanity within the constraints of research governance, transforming analysis into an act of ethical witnessing that recognises, rather than erases, the suffering and resilience contained within clinical records.
Disabled women experience disproportionately high rates of gender-based violence (GBV), with prevalence in Newfoundland and Labrador exceeding that of other Canadian provinces. Despite growing attention to this issue, the voices of disabled women, particularly in Atlantic Canada, remain largely absent from research. This study explores their lived experiences to address this critical gap. Thirteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with disabled women (ages 25-50) in Newfoundland and Labrador who had experienced GBV. Participants self-identified with a range of disabilities, including developmental, physical, neurodivergence, chronic illness, and mental health conditions. Recruitment involved provincial and local outreach, collaboration with community organizations, and snowball sampling. Data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Findings reveal how disability itself is weaponized in GBV, with disabled women often targeted because of their perceived vulnerability. Many participants described how male entitlement and societal norms reinforced cycles of harm, leaving them trapped in patterns of abuse. Violence reshaped women's lives, exacerbating their disabilities and deepening their isolation, while institutional betrayal and community silence further normalized their mistreatment. For some, survival meant negotiating safety through compromise, as autonomy became a bargaining tool in a system that offered little protection. This study underscores the urgent need for intersectional, trauma-informed responses that recognize the compounded impact of GBV on disabled women. Disrupting these cycles requires challenging the social conditions that sustain harm and increasing support systems that acknowledge both the unique vulnerabilities and resilience of disabled survivors.
This article explores social work practitioners' experiences when working with Syrian and other refugees during resettlement using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) within a practitioner-researcher, action-oriented methodology and a deconstructive theoretical framework. This study gathered firsthand practice narratives and insights from seven social workers engaged in high-complexity-needs case management and therapeutic approaches with refugees in mental health service delivery, investigating the challenges and dominant systemic discourses that social work practitioners engage with when working cross-culturally. A finding from this study emphasised the importance of practitioners adopting a collectivist approach to understanding how refugees experience the resettlement process. The findings elaborate on the complexities social work practitioners face when working with refugees, deepening socially and culturally informed insights. This study provides an important and timely opportunity for practitioners and policymakers to better understand the challenges of navigating refugee mental health services. By considering the social worker participants' experiences, we can enhance practices and policies to better meet the needs of refugees and promote responsive, critically informed practices.
Resilience is a vital factor in the well-being of immigrant and refugee women (IRW) who experience intimate partner violence (IPV). Given the growing immigrant populations in the United States (U.S.) and pivotal role of resilience in rebuilding, healing, and breaking the cycle of violence, this paper explores the definitions, sources, barriers, and pathways of resilience among IRW from the perspective of domestic violence service providers. Using a socio-ecological framework, qualitative data for this study were collected with (n = 19) service providers in a Midwestern state. Data analysis followed the Rapid and Rigorous Qualitative Data Analysis (RADaR) technique and thematic analysis with an interactive team approach. Findings reveal the multifaceted nature of resilience, strategies to navigate adversity, and critical role of children, service providers, and financial autonomy in fostering and shaping resilience among IRW. These findings have significant implications for policy and practice emphasizing the need for trauma-informed, culturally responsive interventions that strengthen resilience and improve access to critical support systems for IRW experiencing IPV.
This article explores the quality of working life (QoWL) of people with intellectual disabilities (PWID) employed in Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs). WISEs are hybrid organizations that combine social and commercial goals and provide important alternative employment opportunities for PWID, yet little is known about how PWID themselves experience their working lives within these tension-driven settings. Drawing on a qualitative, participatory research design, the study is based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 16 PWID employed in three Swiss WISEs, alongside a focus group of PWID who contributed to the development of the research design and interview guidelines. The findings show that PWID identify meaningful work experiences, the ability to work independently with tailored support, and opportunities for growth and career development as central to a high QoWL. In particular, peer support structures were valued by participants because they fostered productive work, supportive environments, and career paths, thereby contributing to a high QoWL and simultaneously supporting both the social and commercial goals of WISEs.
Multiple family narrative therapy (MFNT) has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing the psychological distress of parents, strengthening the perceived link between child and parents, and promoting family resilience and the parent-child relationship among Chinese families who have a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It is a novel method that integrates Multiple Family Therapy and Narrative Therapy to ensure therapeutic results amidst high levels of conflict in the parent-child relationship. However, little research has been done on the lived experiences of individuals involved in MFNT and the complex dynamical processes that drive positive change in such cases. In this study, we use narrative analysis methods to examine the perceived transformations in parent-child dyads who participated in a four-week intervention with MFNT. The qualitative study consists of 12 family interviews with 30 Chinese participants; that is, 18 parents and 12 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Our findings reveal the complex evolving process of dyadic reciprocity across the interfamilial, individual, andintrafamilial domains, with an overarching narrative of enhanced harmony in parent-child interactions. The three major domains that contribute to this process are interfamilial connectedness, individual broaden-and-build effect, and intra familial repositioning effect. Three central aspects of social-emotional, behavioral, and cognitive aspects are found in the individual domain: from despair to hope, from opposition to connection, and from ignorance to informed. This research contributes to family work in social work, and supports social workers in providing morecomprehensive and culturally sensitive support for these families.
This study explores the experiences of academic supervisors guiding PhD students conducting qualitative interpretive research in social work departments. Shifting the analytical lens from supervisees to supervisors, it examines the distinctive commitments, tensions, and dilemmas inherent in interpretive supervision. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, the study draws on in-depth interviews with 12 experienced supervisors from Israel (N = 7, representing three universities) and the United States (N = 5, representing two universities). Three interrelated themes were identified: building collaborative relationships, negotiating power differentials, and grappling with reflexivity. Feminist perspectives on supervision served as a critical interpretive lens through which participants' experiences were analyzed. A central organizing concept emerging from their accounts is "strained authenticity"-the ongoing tension between supervisors' aspirations to cultivate collaborative relationships characterized by fluid power dynamics and the institutional, hierarchical, evaluative, and societal structures within which supervision unfolds. The findings underscore the need for institutional frameworks that recognize the substantial time and emotional labor required for interpretive supervision, including dedicated spaces for peer reflection. Strengthening theoretical and conceptual training early in doctoral education in social work may further alleviate supervisory strain and better prepare students for rigorous interpretive inquiry.
Current research on intimate partner violence (IPV) against older women remains understudied and often overlooked in domestic violence and abuse studies. Using interpretive phenomenological analysis, this qualitative study aims to explore the lived experiences of IPV against older Taiwanese women. The findings of 13 in-depth interviews present the influence of culture on violence against women across the life course. In their young adulthood, abusers often used sex and coercive control to trap women in abusive relationships. As these women aged, they experienced different types of abuse, including physical, emotional, sexual, and economic abuse. The abusers also manipulated their adult children to isolate older IPV survivors and invalidated survivors' lifelong contributions to the family. This study advances IPV research by intersecting aging, life span, and sociocultural gender norms. Social workers serving this population need to provide trauma-informed services that account for the cultural context of older female IPV survivors.
This paper serves to introduce readers to the application of ideal-type analysis to social work policy evaluation. Ideal-type analysis considers participant data holistically and analyzes across cases to develop a typology of distinct categories of participant experience. By keeping participant experience intact, ideal-type analysis offers one way to align the interpretive phase of evaluation research with social work's ethical commitment to human dignity, and is simultaneously well-suited to exploring the perennial evaluation question: what works, for whom? In this article, we describe how our research team came-somewhat by accident-to ideal-type analysis as a useful analytic method for completing an evaluation of an innovative housing policy. The paper first differentiates ideal-type analysis from thematic analysis, and overviews the analytic approach as outlined by Stapley et al. (2022). We then illustrate each step of the ideal-type analysis through the example of a housing policy evaluation. Throughout, we explore the contributions of the approach, and close with discussion of broader applications of idealtype analysis to social work policy evaluations.
Latino adolescents experience high rates of multiple forms of dating violence (e.g., emotional, sexual, physical) both in-person and online. However, few interventions have been designed or adapted for Latino youth populations and is it critical that youth's own voices translate to programming efforts. In this study, we explored Latino adolescents' perceptions of a dating violence theatre intervention and solicited input on how the play may be adapted to reflect their dating experiences and cultural values. Youth participants (N = 95; Mage = 15.50) were from rural (n = 25) and urban (n = 75) areas of a Midwest state. After viewing a 20-minute play on teen dating violence, youth were divided into focus groups and assigned the role of a "playwright". In this role, youth reviewed each scene of the play to assess its relevancy and to offer ways in which it could be more applicable to their lives. A group "sticky note" activity also prompted youth individually to describe how they felt after the play, what they had learned, and who they would turn to for help with dating violence. Finally, as a large group, youth discussed what it is like to date as a Latino teen, including how cultural values influence their dating experiences and help-seeking and help-offering behaviors. Data were analyzed thematically, yielding multiple recommendations for culturally and developmentally salient dating violence intervention. This study showcases how researchers can partner with community organizations to enact meaningful change while amplifying the voices of marginalized populations in the development of dating violence interventions.
