Cross-Cultural Research (Pocket Guide to Social Work Research Methods)

This pocket guide offers researchers a framework for conducting research in a culturally sensitive manner with individuals, families, and communities in diverse settings. This unique framework focuses on a process, rather than a typology of behaviors, attitudes, values, and beliefs. All too frequently, cross-cultural research improperly attributes behaviors, beliefs, and values entirely to culture, when a closer examination would reveal the shared influences of gender, socioeconomic status, immigration status, and racial and ethnic backgrounds that interact in complex ways. By encouraging practitioners to incorporate an intersectionality lens into their work, this pocket guide helps researchers reveal stories that are more than the sum of particular identities.

Sharing their extensive research experience with diverse populations around the world, the authors present a range of fluid and dynamic cross-cultural research practices that readers can easily adapt to their unique circumstances. At the intersection of culture and research methods, chapters illustrate the application of the model to three broad areas of inquiry: describing the nature of a problem; understanding the etiology of the problem; and evaluating the interventions designed to ameliorate the problem. Each area is illustrated with examples of research projects that incorporate multiple epistemologies and methodologies in order to better understand and respond to a population's needs.

This guide offers a complete roadmap for developing cross-cultural projects that truly engage communities, and will be a trusted resource for students and seasoned researchers alike.

Jorge Delva, Ph.D., is Professor of Social Work and Co-Director of the Vivian A. and James L. Curtis School of Social Work Research and Training Center at the University of Michigan.

Paula Allen-Meares, Ph.D., is Chancellor and the John Corbally Presidential Professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Sandra L. Momper, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan.