What Makes Social Work Students Implement Evidence-Based Practice Behaviors?

The purpose of the present study was to recognize the factors influencing social work students’ evidence-based practice (EBP) behaviors. The authors sought to examine the roles of attitudes, EBP feasibility, and familiarity with EBP in implementing EBP behaviors. Social work students (161 in total) completed a self-report questionnaire measuring EBP behaviors, feasibility to engage in the EBP process, sense of EBP self-efficacy, and attitudes toward EBP as well as a computerized task measuring implicit attitudes toward research. Self-efficacy and feasibility were found to predict EBP behaviors. EBP behavior was not influenced by explicit or implicit attitudes. Policy makers striving to promote the use of EBP should enhance the level of social workers’ EBP knowledge and promote EBP feasibility in the workplace.