社會工作者之金融理財知能及教育需求與其實務工作效能之探討

Abstract

社會工作的發展雖然源自於濟貧工作，但隨著工作方法逐漸專精化與個管化的過程，不僅使得其處遇策略多元性更有限，更漸漸因而背離了社會工作發展的初衷。而隨著經濟環境快速變化以及金融商品多元化的發展，對於缺乏金融資訊理解能力或資源的弱勢族群只能日益倚重社會工作者在經濟協助的角色，但不幸的是，社會工作者自己卻很少受到與金融知識相關的教育與培訓，也可能缺乏相關金融知識，加上長期因缺乏有效的家庭經濟問題解決策略，使得社會工作者逐漸產生對於個案經濟處遇的無力感，也開始漸漸忽視弱勢家庭問題背後經濟的影響因素。而過去國內缺乏社工與理財知能與經濟議題實務方面的研究，據此，本研究希冀能透過量化研究的方式試圖探討社會工作者之金融理財素養及對於此議題之敏感性與其在實務工作自我效能上的瞭解，以作為未來社會工作者金融教育的規畫以及實務處遇的參考。是故，本研究目的有四：(1)探討社會工作者之理財知能經驗及對於其實務處遇上的影響。(2)探討社會工作者對於理財教育的需求覺察程度及對其實務工作自我效能的影響。(3)探討提升社會工作者實務工作自我效能感之影響因素。(4)根據研究發現提出有助於提升社會工作者對於經濟實務工作議題敏感度之建議。 本研究採量化研究典範，透過立意抽樣及結構式問卷，調查全台提供社會工作直接服務之社會工作者，總計蒐集到205份有效回覆問卷，經過統計考驗力分析，本研究考驗力為0.974~0.994之間，犯下第二型誤差機率很低，故應可進行適當的推論。 本研究主要研究結果分為三大部分：在社工理財知能程度方面，相較於國外對於消費者及社工的研究，國內的社工理財知識程度偏低。而年齡越長、個人所得越高、以及工作年資越高者，其理財知識程度也越好。另外，個人及家庭的理財經驗及行為也在特定的理財知識面向有所差異。在實務經驗及需求覺察方面，有近八成的社工認為自己有過經濟議題的處遇經驗，而有四成的社工對於理財教育有興趣，六成以上的社工認為自己需要接受理財教育以增加對個案經濟議題的服務能力，但也有六成的社工表示其實務領域與經濟議題的相關度是低度相關的。而年齡越大、工作年資越長、個人理財經驗越多元的社工其對於理財教育的興趣越高。另外若是對於個案經濟困境歸因傾向於非與財務經濟相關因素的社工，其越覺得其實務領域跟經濟議題不相關。而在實務工作自我效能方面，比起一般工作自我效能，社工在經濟實務方面的自我效能感較低；而男性、年齡愈長、教育程度越高、已婚、個人及家庭年所得越高、須負擔撫養責任、撫養負擔越重(人數)、工作年資越久、組織規模越大、身負主管職者、個人理財經驗越多元、有使用信用卡、投資經驗及編列預算的習慣的社工，其「實務工作自我效能感」也越高。最後，透過階層迴歸模型釐清社工理財知識及經驗、需求覺察與其實務工作自我效能感間的關係，研究結果顯示，社工個人對於理財教育的興趣以及理財經驗，尤其是編列預算的習慣，對於其實務工作自我效能感的確有所顯著性的影響。但是人口變數中的年齡、家庭年收入、工作年資及職務，對其工作及經濟自我效能感的提升也有其重要的角色。 根據以上的研究發現，研究者提出四個層面的建議：(一)個人層面：建議社工應積極加強理財相關基礎知識始能有助於有效經濟處遇能力的提升；(二)組織層面：建議應提升對於經濟議題的重視，以提升社工對於經濟議題的敏感度；(三)社會工作教育：建議將理財教育納入社工學校教育及在職教育的項目；(四)實務模式：發展結合財務概念的金融社會工作模式；希冀能夠對於社工規劃更有效地經濟議題實務處遇策略有所助益。

In spite of the development of social work derived from helping the poor people, but with the specialization and individualization of social work methods development, not only has the diversity of intervention strategies become more limited, the development of social work has also deviated from its original purpose. With the rapidly changing economic environment and the development of financial commodity diversification, the disadvantaged groups with a fundamental lack of understanding about financial information or insufficient resources can only increasingly rely on social workers to offer economic assistance. Unfortunately, social workers rarely receive financial knowledge related education and training and likely lack related financial literacy. Additionally, the long-term unavailability of effective strategies for resolving financial problems has gradually given rise to social workers' sense of powerlessness toward economic intervention and has led to gradual negligence over the economic factors involved that affect disadvantaged families. Past domestic researches on social workers and financial management knowledge and economic issues and practice remain scarce. This research is intended through the qualitative method to explore social workers' financial literacy, sensitivity toward this issue, and understanding of self-efficacy in practical work, which shall serve as a reference for social workers in future finical education planning and practical intervention. Hence, there are four research purposes: (1) Explore social workers' finical literacy and experiences and the effects on practical intervention. (2) Explore social workers' degree of awareness toward the demand for financial education and its effect on self-efficacy in practical work. (3) Explore influential factors that enhance social workers' self-efficacy in practical work. (4) According to findings, presented recommendations that help enhance social workers' sensitivity toward economic and practical work related issues. A quantitative research approach was used to examine the relationship among financial literacy, demand for financial education, and self-efficacy in practical work. Through purposive sampling and structured questionnaires, social workers that provide direct services nationwide in Taiwan were surveyed. A total of 205 valid questionnaires were collected. Through statistical power analysis, the statistical power of this study was between 0.974~0.994, thus the low probability of committing Type II errors. Appropriate inferences were made accordingly. The research findings in this study can be divided into three parts. Social workers' financial literacy: Compared to foreign research concerning consumers and social workers, the domestic social workers' degree of financial literay is relatively lower. Those who are older with higher income and greater number of work years tend to get higher scores. On the other hand, personal and family experiences and behaviors about finance also showed differences in the dimension of special financial knowledge. As for practical experience and awareness of demands, nearly 80% of the social workers considered themselves experienced in economic issue intervention, while 40% of the social workers had an interest in financial education, and more than 60% of the social workers believed they needed to receive financial education in order to improve their ability in providing economic issue-related services to clients. However, 60% of the social workers said the practical field and economic issues had a low correlation. The older or more number of work years or more diversified financial experiences had a higher interest in financial education. In addition, social workers who attribute their cases' economic difficulties to non-financial and non-economic factors tend to believe their practical field and the economic issues are not relevant. As for the self-efficacy of practical work, compared to the self-efficacy of regular work, the social workers had a lower sense of self-efficacy in the economic and practical aspect. For males ,older, higher educational achievements, married, or with higher personal and household annual income, the higher the number of work years, the larger size of organization expenditure, as executive positions ,have more diversified financial experiences, the social workers who used credit cards, had investment experiences, or had the habit to budget had higher self-efficacy in practical work. Finally, a hierarchical regression model was adopted to clarify the relationship between the social workers' financial literacy and experiences, wariness of demands, and the perceived self-efficacy in practical work. The results show that the social workers' interest in finical education and financial experiences, especially the habit to budget, had a significant effect on the perceived self-efficacy in practical work. In addition, demographic variables including age, annual household income, number of work years, and job title also played important roles in enhancing the perceived self-efficacy in practical work. According to the above research findings, the researchers recommend four levels, hoping to help social workers planning more effective economic-related practical intervention strategies: (1) The personal aspect: It is suggested that social workers should actively strengthen financial basic knowledge to enhance their capacity of economic intervention. (2) The organizational aspect: The proposed organization should pay more attention to economic issues, in order to enhance social sensitivity to economic issues. (3) Social work education: It is suggested that financial education be included in the items of social workers' school education and vocational education. (4) Practical mode: Develop the finical social work model that combines the financial concepts.