Cal State San Bernardino Social Work Students' Attitudes Toward Domestic Minor Sex-Trafficked (DMST) Youth

<p>Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST) affects hundreds of thousands of youth every year. In the past, DMST youth were often viewed by law enforcement and the criminal justice system as "offenders" and were usually arrested for solicitation even though they were minors. While new laws have begun to identify youth as victims, it has not yet been ensured that social workers have adopted this perspective. This quantitative study's purpose was to examine Cal State University San Bernardino (CSUSB) Bachelor of Social Work (BASW) and Master of Social Work (MSW) students' attitudes toward DMST youth. Participants completed an online questionnaire using Qualtrics software. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21, using statistical tests including frequencies, Pearson's R, and ANOVA. The hypothesis that knowledge, exposure to curriculum, and past experiences impacted students' stigmatization of DMST youth was not supported by the data. Instead, results indicated that CSUSB social work students did not stigmatize the DMST population. Because these findings cannot be generalized to social workers in the field, future research should explore whether social workers currently working with DMST youth stigmatize this population. These findings also have implications for the CSUSB School of Social Work as they revealed that some students lacked education about this population and, consequently, felt unprepared to work with this population.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Social Work

Level thesis:degree_level

Project

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Social Work

Year dc:date.available

2017

Authors dc:creator

• Marinelli, Crystal Lorraine
• Hunt, Andrea Sara

Contributors dc:contributor

• Deirdre Lanesskog

• Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking
• DMST
• students
• attitudes
• social work
• trafficking
• stigma
• youth
• CSEC
• San Bernardino

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/454

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu:etd-1514