A comparative study of social work students in India and the UK : stress, support and well-being

Coffey, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5837-5532, Samuel, U, Collins, S and Morris, L 2014, 'A comparative study of social work students in India and the UK : stress, support and well-being' , The British Journal of Social Work, 44 (1) , pp. 163-180.

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Abstract

This paper compares the key findings from the first piece of research in the UK to focus exclusively on ‘stress, support and well-being of social work students’ (n = 76), with findings from a cohort of Indian social work students studying in the Tamil Nadu region in Southern India (n = 235), using the same questionnaire. This comparative international study highlights a range of differences in the key outcome variables, namely British students reported significantly higher levels of demands and significantly lower levels of support than their Indian counterparts; however, despite the lower levels of demands and higher levels of support reported by Indian students, they had significantly poorer well-being than their British counterparts. In the Indian study, there were no significant correlations between the main outcome variables of demands, support and well-being; however, in the British study, support was negatively correlated with well-being (measured using the GHQ-12), indicating that those who reported higher levels of support also reported better well-being. This study draws particular attention to the potentially differing contexts of ‘support’ amongst both groups, and raises questions concerning the challenges of using questionnaires to capture culturally specific stressors and support mechanisms.

Item Type:	Article
Themes:	Health and Wellbeing
Schools:	Schools > School of Health and Society
Journal or Publication Title:	The British Journal of Social Work
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Refereed:	Yes
ISSN:	0045-3102
Related URLs:	Publication
Funders:	UK Government’s Department for International Development, under the ‘Development Partnerships in Higher Education’ (DelPHE) round two funding stream.
Depositing User:	M Coffey
Date Deposited:	31 Jul 2012 11:10
Last Modified:	15 Feb 2022 16:23
URI:	http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/23063

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