East meets West: Five decades of practice research in Hong Kong

Abstract

A review of social work practice research in Hong Kong identified 969 articles published over 50 years. Four main areas of their content were analyzed: (a) authorship, (b) practice area, (c) target clientele, and (d) research method. Our results showed that academics had produced most of the research publications (81%). The most common practice areas were children and youth (20%), mental health (19%), family (19%), and the elderly (11%). Youth (22%), the elderly (14%), and family and parents (14%) were the top three client groups. The majority of the methods (47%) used were quantitative, comprising mostly correlational methods (41%). The future development of Hong Kong’s social work practice research should build on current achievements and promote more practitioner–researcher collaboration.