Advancing Equitable Access through Workforce Development: Predictors of Rural Practice Intentions Among Social Work Students

Background and Purpose: Access to behavioral health and social services is essential for equitable participation in community life and democracy. In practice, social workers advance these goals by providing critical services, support, and advocacy across systems. However, rural communities face persistent workforce shortages that limit access and increase disparities. Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study examines how financial, community, and geographic factors shape Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Master of Social Work (MSW) students’ willingness to pursue rural employment. The objective is to examine factors shaping students’ rural employment intentions and generate evidence to inform workforce development strategies aimed at improving equitable access to services.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among BSW and MSW students at a School of Social Work in a U.S. Mid-South state, where approximately 41% of the population resides in rural areas. Data were collected anonymously via Qualtrics (n = 96; ≈ 25% response rate). Measures included the Student Attitudes to Rural Practice and Life Questionnaire and adapted Community Apgar Questionnaire assessing geographic and economic/resource factors relevant to social work practice. Descriptive statistics, chi-square analyses, and logistic regression were used to examine predictors of students’ preference for rural employment.

Results: Participants reported generally favorable attitudes toward rural practice, with 82.3% rating rural employment as desirable; however, only 19.8% indicated a preference for rural employment, indicating a substantial gap between perceived desirability and employment preference. Logistic regression identified salary importance (OR = 1.97, p < .05), spousal/partner satisfaction (OR = 1.73, p < .05), current rural residence (OR = 3.06, p < .01), and married status (OR = 1.51, p < .05) as significant predictors of rural preference. Students from rural backgrounds were significantly more likely to prefer rural practice than their urban and suburban peers. Financial supports (e.g., salary, loan repayment, housing) and family-centered community factors (e.g., school quality, partner employment opportunities) were consistently identified as influential in shaping rural employment intentions.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings highlight a gap between students’ positive perceptions of rural practice and their stated willingness to pursue rural employment, suggesting that favorable attitudes alone are likely insufficient to drive workforce decisions. Results suggest that financial considerations and family-related community factors may play a central role in shaping rural employment preferences. Students from rural backgrounds were significantly more likely to prefer rural practice, suggesting that individuals with existing ties to rural communities may be more likely to return when structural supports are in place. These findings align with emerging “grow-your-own” workforce strategies, widely used in education, which focus on recruiting individuals from local communities to improve workforce retention and alignment with community needs. In the context of social work, results suggest that pairing such place-based recruitment approaches with financial incentives and community supports (e.g., partner employment, school quality) may strengthen rural workforce pipelines. Workforce development efforts may benefit from combining financial incentives with supports that address community and family considerations. Strengthening alignment between workforce policies and these factors may improve recruitment into rural social work positions.