Understanding statistical concepts is essential for social work professionals. It is key to understanding research and reaching evidence-based decisions in your own practice—but that is only the beginning. If you understand statistics, you can determine the best interventions for your clients. You can use new tools to monitor and evaluate the progress of your client or team. You can recognize biased systems masked by complex models and the appearance of scientific neutrality. For social workers, statistics are not just math, they are a critical practice tool. This concise and approachable introduction to statistics limits its coverage to the concepts most relevant to social workers. Statistics in Social Work guides students through concepts and procedures from descriptive statistics and correlation to hypothesis testing and inferential statistics. Besides presenting key concepts, it focuses on real-world examples that students will encounter in a social work practice. Using concrete illustrations from a variety of potential concentrations and populations, Amy Batchelor creates clear connections between theory and practice—and demonstrates the important contributions statistics can make to evidence-based and rigorous social work practice.

This revised edition was developed after teaching statistics to undergraduate and graduate social work students for over ten years. The statistical concepts that are necessary for students to know are covered, ranging from simple descriptive statistics such as crosstabs and tabular data up to a limited discussion of multiple regression.

Written by a social worker for social work students, this is a nuts and bolts guide to statistics that presents complex calculations and concepts in clear, easy-to-understand language. It includes numerous examples, data sets, and issues that students will encounter in social work practice. The first section introduces basic concepts and terms to provide a solid foundation in statistics. It also addresses tools used by researchers to describe and summarize data ranging from single variables to assessing the relationship between variables and cause and effect among variables. The second section focuses on inferential statistics, describing how researchers draw conclusions about whole populations based on data from samples. This section also covers confidence intervals and a variety of significance tests for examining relationships between different types of variables. Additionally, tools for multivariate analyses and data interpretation are presented. Key Features: Addresses the role of statistics in evidence-based practice and program evaluation Features examples of qualitative and quantitative analysis Each chapter contains exercise problems and questions to enhance student learning Includes electronic data sets taken from actual social work arenas Offers a full ancillary digital packet including a student guide to SPSS with accompanying Data Set, an Instructor's Manual, PowerPoint slides, and a Test Bank

Using real social work examples written specifically to ally student fears Research and Statistics for Social Workers brings research and statistics together bridging the gap to practice. This book covers - conceptualization, ethics, cultural competence, design, qualitative research, individual and program evaluation as well as nonparametric and parametric statistical tests. The tests are explained narratively, mathematically as well as with a comprehensive step-by-step, fully illustrated SPSS computer analysis of social work data.

The Practice of Research in Social Work introduces research methods as an integrated set of techniques for investigating the problems encountered in social work. This innovative text encourages students to connect technique and substance, to understand research methods as an integrated whole, and to appreciate the value of qualitative and quantitative alternatives. The text enables students to both critically evaluate research literature and to develop the skills to engage in research and practice evaluation. Each chapter shows how particular research methods have been used to investigate an interesting social work research question and content on research ethics and diversity is infused into each chapter. The goal of validity is introduced early in the text and used as an integrating theme throughout the book. Methods of particular concern in social work research are highlighted, with chapters devoted to group, survey, single subject, and qualitative designs. The text is lively and accessible, yet the coverage is thorough and up-to-date.