Reference no: EM132877816 , Length: 3

A common difficulty for social workers is developing a positive social worker-client relationship. Clients are often at a vulnerable place in their lives-and this affects engagement with the social worker. For example, a parent who faces the removal of their child from their home might come into the relationship with the social worker with feelings of anger, hostility, and/or resentment. The social worker then might use terms like resistant and reluctant to describe their client. Conflict theory can help explain the social worker-client relationship in just such a scenario.

For this Assignment, imagine that you are the director of a social work agency. To better understand engagement in a child welfare context, you initiate a study on both social worker and client views about engagement. To interpret the findings, you use conflict theory to frame the understanding of the social worker-client relationship.

Question 1: How might a client's desire be understood within the context of conflict theory?

Question 2: Interpret the research article findings about the relationship between social workers and parents within the context of conflict theory.

Question 3: For example, what might be a barrier to social workers being empathic and supportive from the perspective of conflict theory?