A Study on Beliefs and Experiences Related to Dual Relationships among Social Workers

이중관계에 대한 사회복지사들의 신념과 경험에 관한 연구

This article investigates 295 social workers in order to find out how much they believe that each behavior related to dual relationships is ethical and with how many clients they engaged in these behaviors. This article, based on the literature, explores three areas of dual relationships which are sexual, bartering, and private dual relationships. The results from the research were 1) The social workers tend to believe that while sexual and bartering dual relationships are less ethical, private dual relationships are more ethical. Meanwhile, they have little experience to engage in all areas of dual relationships; 2) Compared to beliefs and experiences, the social workers believe that each behavior is ethical, but they have less experienced the same behavior. However, the result of strong correlations between beliefs and experiences shows that the more the social workers believe that the behaviors are ethical, the more they tend to engage in the behaviors; 3) Based on socio-demographic characteristics, male social workers tend to accept dual relationships as ethical behavior than their female counterparts do. And those who are practicing in health settings tend to believe that the behaviors related to dual relationships are less ethical than those who are practicing in the other areas of the profession do. Finally, the research recommends that enhancing social worker's self-awareness and professional maturity is needed in order to prevent the occurrence of dual relationship engagement. Also, social work professional associations and agencies should provide education, training, and institutional restrictive devices for dealing with unethical dual relationships.