Dysfunction in the Family of Origin of MSW and Other Graduate Students

This article reports the findings of a study that explored the perceptions of 147 graduate social work students about their families of origin compared with the perceptions of guidance and counseling, business, and education graduate students. The authors surveyed respondents by means of a self-administered questionnaire to determine if the students had experienced any of the various forms of family dysfunction. Social work students were significantly more likely to come from families in which substance abuse was a problem and to have had a family member who was a victim of a violent act. In addition, social work students were significantly more likely to have been sexually abused. The authors discuss implications of these findings for social work education.