Statistics for Social Workers: Essential Concepts

Statistics for Social Workers: Essential Concepts provides students with a reader friendly introduction to statistics and an engaging exploration of how statistics can enrich their future social work practice. The text is practical and conceptual in nature, focusing less on mathematical computation and more on the general information and skill sets that will prove beneficial in professional work.

The text demonstrates how statistics can help students understand relevant social issues and obtain insights to their clients' problems by looking at data. Readers learn statistics can bring to light trends and needs in their communities, provide them with information they can use in funding applications, aid in their own development of client and staff reports, and enhance their overall practice.

Dedicated chapters cover ethical considerations, measures of central tendency, normal distribution, inferential statistics, hypothesis testing, correlation, selecting the appropriate statistical test, and more. Throughout the text, excerpts from real-world studies, review problems for students, and potential assignments facilitate deep learning and practical application.

Designed to demystify statistics for students and help them develop into evidence-based practitioners, Statistics for Social Workers is an ideal resource for social work students.

David Royse is the Joanne I. Bell Professor of Social Policy and Critical Thinking in the College of Social Work at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Royse has an extensive publication record with his work appearing in Children and Youth Services Review, Child Abuse & Neglect, Social Work in Health Care, Journal of Public Child Welfare, among others. He is the author of several methodology books for social workers, including Program Evaluation: An Introduction to an Evidence-based Approach with Bruce Thyer and Deborah Padgett, as well as Child Welfare and Child Protection with Austin Griffiths (Cognella).

Denise Montcalm is an associate professor emerita in the School of Social Work at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Previously a child welfare practitioner in the commonwealth of Kentucky, Austin Griffiths is an assistant professor at Western Kentucky University. Dr. Griffiths is passionate about improving the lives of vulnerable children and their families, as well as supporting and advocating for a healthy and vibrant child welfare workforce.