Promoting client participation by social workers: Contributing factors

The article presents a study that examined the contribution of empowerment (personal, political, and abilities) and background variables (age, religiosity, and marital status) of social workers to promoting participation among two groups of clients: long-term residents of Israel, and new immigrants. The findings revealed that only political empowerment contributed toward promoting client participation among both of the groups examined. As for the impact of background variables, the findings indicated that gender (for long-term residents) and religiosity (for immigrants) contributed to promoting client participation only when there was an interaction with political empowerment. Background variables and maturity (in terms of age and marital status) also contributed toward promoting participation among immigrant clients. The article discusses the nature of empowerment and analyzes the relationship between empowerment of social workers and promoting client participation.