A comparative study of social work students in India and the UK : stress, support and well-being

Coffey, M; Samuel, U; Collins, S; Morris, L

Abstract

This paper compares the key findings from the first piece of research in the UK to focus exclusively on ‘stress, support and well-being of social work students’ (n = 76), with findings from a cohort of Indian social work students studying in the Tamil Nadu region in Southern India (n = 235), using the same questionnaire. This comparative international study highlights a range of differences in the key outcome variables, namely British students reported significantly higher levels of demands and significantly lower levels of support than their Indian counterparts; however, despite the lower levels of demands and higher levels of support reported by Indian students, they had significantly poorer well-being than their British counterparts. In the Indian study, there were no significant correlations between the main outcome variables of demands, support and well-being; however, in the British study, support was negatively correlated with well-being (measured using the GHQ-12), indicating that those who reported higher levels of support also reported better well-being. This study draws particular attention to the potentially differing contexts of ‘support’ amongst both groups, and raises questions concerning the challenges of using questionnaires to capture culturally specific stressors and support mechanisms.

Citation

Coffey, M., Samuel, U., Collins, S., & Morris, L. (2014). A comparative study of social work students in India and the UK : stress, support and well-being. British Journal of Social Work, 44(1), 163-180. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcs112

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 1, 2012
• Online Publication Date: Jul 24, 2012
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jul 31, 2012
• Journal: The British Journal of Social Work
• Print ISSN: 0045-3102
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-263X
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 163-180
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcs112
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcs112
• Related Public URLs: http://bjsw.oxfordjournals.org/
• Additional Information: Funders : UK Government’s Department for International Development, under the ‘Development Partnerships in Higher Education’ (DelPHE) round two funding stream.