One example of macro-level research can be seen in an article by UTA’s Richard Hoefer and colleagues (Hoefer, Black, & Ricard, 2015). Social workers who conduct macro-level research study interactions at the broadest level, such as interactions between and across nations, states, or cultural systems.
This study focused on group-level interactions with systems in a community, a meso-level focus. However, the majority of both White and African American participants reported reasonably high levels of understanding and compassion by the drug court officials (Gallagher & Nordberg, 2016). They found that the graduation rate for White participants was much higher than that of African Americans. The objective was to compare the lived experiences each group had when they interacted with the system of drug court judicial representatives. Gallagher and Anne Nordberg (2016) conducted research comparing and contrasting the different experiences of White and African American participants in the drug court system. In a different study of group-level interactions, John R. This research offers social workers a better insight into what minority youth often experience when they encounter law enforcement. The researchers found 4 themes in the data related the interactions between young people and law enforcement: dangerous, controlling, prejudiced, and ineffective interactions. In a study conducted by UTA’s Anne Nordberg and Regina Praetorius, young people from minority groups and their interactions with police and law enforcement were explored (Nordberg, Crawford, Praetorius, & Hatcher, 2016). Both of these studies fall within the category of micro-level analysis.Īt the meso-level, social scientists tend to study the experiences of groups and the interactions between groups. These findings were consistent with previous studies and theories. They found that 29% of children in these programs did engage in non-suicidal self-harm. In another study, Baiden, Stewart, and Fallon (2017) examined the role of adverse childhood experiences as determinants of non-suicidal self-injury among children that were referred to mental health treatment facilities. Additionally, adolescents who started having alcohol before age 13 were more likely to experience suicidal ideation. In this study, the researchers found that age at first alcohol use has been linked with a number of mental health problems among adolescents. In one study, Baiden, Mengo, Boateng, and Small (2018) use prior micro-level theories to study the association between age at first alcohol use and suicidal ideation among high school students.
Work by Philip Baiden and Eusebius Small at the University of Texas at Arlington’s School of Social Workoffers an excellent example of research at the micro-level. The particular level of inquiry might shape a social worker’s questions about the topic, or a social scientist might view the topic from different angles depending on the level of inquiry being employed.įirst, let’s consider some suitable examples of different topics for a particular level of inquiry. Some topics are best suited to be examined at one specific level, while other topics can be studied at each of the three different levels. Let’s take a closer look at some specific examples of social work research to better understand each of the three levels of inquiry described previously. As you’ll recall, micro-level research studies individuals and one-on-one interactions, meso-level research studies groups, and macro-level research studies institutions and policies. In Chapter 1, we reviewed the micro, meso, and macro framework that social workers use to understand the world. Describe a macro-level approach to research, and provide an example of a macro-level study.Describe a meso-level approach to research, and provide an example of a meso-level study.Describe a micro-level approach to research, and provide an example of a micro-level study.
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