Supporting Florida Doctoral Students with Interest in Child Welfare: A Needs Assessment

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Michae’ Cain, MSW

Florida Institute for Child Welfare

CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Lisa Magruder, Ph.D., MSW

Florida Institute for Child Welfare

NEXT STEPS

The principal investigator will clean and analyze the data and provide a report to Institute leadership by December 2022. The report will include datainformed recommendations for Institute consideration as well as outline potential future research avenues to supplement this initial needs assessment.

OVERVIEW

As part of the Institute’s focus on academic innovation, Institute leadership is seeking information on how to best support emerging child welfare scholars in Florida and incorporate them into Institute work. While some literature exists on needs and supports for doctoral students in social work29,30 the Institute seeks to understand the specific needs of child welfarefocused doctoral students. Through our stakeholders, it is known that these emerging scholars are housed in multiple disciplines, including social work, child and family sciences, and economics. Researchers developed a survey to gather comprehensive feedback across disciplines.

CURRENT STATUS

Following piloting and FSU IRB approval, the survey was launched in late spring 2022. Although the initial focus was on students in Florida, the response rate was low and primarily included doctoral students within social work. The researchers amended the protocol to narrow the eligibility criteria to include only social work students but expanded recruitment nationwide. The survey closed in September 2022, after several more responses were received.