Professional Efficacy and Working With Victims of Domestic Violence or Sexual Assault

Violence against women is a pervasive and widespread problem, but the understanding of how to prepare social workers best for working with survivors is inadequate. One area of focus is professional efficacy, which stems from the literature on self-efficacy. This article focuses on the confidence and comfort that social work students have in working with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault and identifies the factors that affect professional efficacy among these students. The results indicate that age, professional experience, master of social work education, and training have a positive impact on professional efficacy.