Session: Re-Centering Relationality In Social Work Research: Kapwa and Kuwentuhan As Foundations for Pilipinx American Inquiry (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

This year’s conference theme aims not only to advance equitable research, but to ensure that research is impactful—shifting policy, practice, or communities. This symposium contributes to SSWR’s goal by strengthening democratic participation by producing knowledge that reflects and serves minoritized communities particularly, Pilipinx Americans (PAs), who remain underrepresented in research despite persistent mental health disparities and the ongoing impacts of colonization, migration, and racialization. Specifically, this symposium challenges dominant frameworks that often individualize social and psychological processes, limiting their relevance for communities whose worldviews center relationality. To address these critical gaps, the four interrelated studies in this symposium advance kapwa (shared relational identity) and kuwentuhan (collective storytelling) as culturally-embedded epistemological and methodological interventions that reshape how research is conducted, interpreted, and mobilized for the common good.

Methods:

This symposium integrates qualitative and mixed-methods approaches grounded in culturally responsive and reflexive inquiry. The first study employs decolonizing autoethnography and multiple forms of kuwentuhan—including scholar dialogues, key informant interviews, and intergenerational family conversations—to examine kuwentuhan as a culturally rooted methodology. The second study uses reflexive thematic analysis of qualitative data generated through kuwentuhan and in-depth interviews to conceptualize kapwa as a multidimensional construct and inform measurement development. The third study utilizes a convergent mixed-methods design (N=114 survey; n=14 interviews) to examine Filipina mothers’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The fourth study applies thematic and grounded theory analysis to interviews with 1.5-generation PA young adults (n=15) to examine acculturation as a relational process. Across studies, data analysis emphasized co-constructed knowledge, reflexivity, and cultural grounding.

Results:

Findings demonstrate concrete shifts in how social work knowledge is produced and applied. First, kuwentuhan reorients the research process itself by transforming participants into co-constructors of knowledge, increasing cultural validity and community engagement. Second, kapwa is empirically clarified as a multidimensional, relational, and embodied construct—resulting in the development of a culturally grounded measure that enables its integration into future research and intervention design. Third, findings from Filipina mothers reveal how mental health is shaped by intersecting structural inequities and relational obligations, prompting a shift from individual-level interpretations toward relational and community-centered understandings of distress and resilience. Finally, acculturation is reconceptualized as a relational process enacted through family and peer dynamics, challenging dominant individualistic models and offering a more accurate framework for understanding immigrant experiences.