Cross-disciplinary research in Social Work

Hello everyone,

Ever since I started my master's in Social Work 2 years ago, I knew that cross-disciplinary research was quite important in my field. I have always being interested about doing research on mental health and social work tends to collaborate with the field of psychology, especially when it comes to alcohol and drug addictions. Also, social work in general tends to work with other fields such as community health, medicine, human development and family studies, among other fields.
During the last year, I have also become more aware about the importance of cross-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary research in my field given that I am an I-TOPP (Illinois Transdisciplinary Obesity Prevention Program) scholar. As an I-TOPP scholar I work with the department of Community Health on issues related to childhood obesity and I have been reading various cross-disciplinary issues on obesity and depression among children. The literature that I have reviewed has shown me the need of cross-disciplinary studies, and it has also helped me understand its benefits. However, I have also witnessed that the main limitation of this type of research is that it is very time consuming and as graduate students, we do not have much time available.
Overall, I feel that cross-disciplinary research is quite important; however, not everyone has the necessary tools and support to carry it out. Programs such as I-TOPP and SPI are one of those few programs that will help me learn more about cross-disciplinary research and I am grateful for that opportunity.

Maria P.