The Same Old Story or a New Chapter? the Empirical Status of Social Work Dissertation Research Revisited

Background:

Social workers have a long-standing history of working to establish a distinct research identity, yet consensus on uniform priorities or methodologies has remained elusive. Periodic examinations of doctoral dissertation research have served as an empirical mechanism for assessing the field's methodological commitments and substantive priorities over time. Significant contextual factors may have influenced social work research over the past decade, including the integration of evidence-based practice into accreditation standards, the COVID-19 pandemic, and technological advances such as the expanded availability of secondary datasets and the emergence of artificial intelligence. The current study aims to describe the contemporary state of social work doctoral dissertation research over a ten-year period (2014–2024) and to compare these findings to a prior review (1998–2008) to characterize how social work doctoral research has shifted over time.

Methods:

A structured review of social work doctoral dissertations completed between 2014 and 2024 was conducted using ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, limited to dissertations from PhD-granting institutions that are members of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work (GADE). A total of 525 dissertations were identified, and data were independently extracted by two reviewers across multiple domains, including research design, methodology, data source utilization, practice area, research populations, and dissertation topics. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the current sample. Zero-order correlations were used to assess whether research design, methodology, and data source variables were significantly associated with publication year. Chi-square analyses with odds ratios were conducted to examine whether there are significant differences between the current review and a prior review of dissertations from 1998–2008.

Results:

Comparison of the current review with the prior review period revealed significant methodological shifts in social work doctoral dissertation research. Dissertations in the current period were approximately 37% less likely to employ quantitative methods and nearly twice as likely to utilize qualitative methods compared to the earlier period. The odds of employing secondary data more than doubled compared to the earlier review period (OR = 2.13, p <.001), representing the most substantial change observed, and the combined use of primary and secondary data sources also increased significantly (OR = 2.62, p <.001). Dissertations focused on micro practice domains, already the majority in the prior review, increased significantly, while dissertations focused on the social work profession or career declined. Families emerged as a significantly more common research population in the current review. Research populations and practice domains were otherwise relatively stable across the two periods.

Conclusions:

Social work doctoral dissertation research has undergone significant methodological shifts over the past decade, moving toward qualitative approaches consistent with broader theoretical trends in the profession toward postmodern and critical frameworks. These findings have implications for social work doctoral education and the broader profession, suggesting a need to examine whether research training curricula are adequately preparing social work researchers for research across diverse methodological approaches. Continued periodic review of dissertation research is recommended to monitor the evolving priorities and methodological commitments of the field.