The relationship of spirituality and empathy to attitudes towards addiction

While negative attitudes within the social work community toward clients struggling with addiction may not be ubiquitous, there is evidence that such attitudes remain problematic. Interestingly, there is very little research available concerning factors that may be involved with these adverse attitudes. While extant research suggests social workers demonstrate low empathy toward clients with a Substance Use Disorder (SUD), there is little empirical exploration of the relationship between dispositional empathy and subsequent attitudes. Similarly, a practitioner's spirituality may also influence their views of SUD clients, yet there is little evidence investigating this relationship. This study explored the relationship between empathy, spirituality, and attitudes toward clients with SUDs. Results demonstrated that both empathy and spirituality have some predictive potential and that some dimensions of empathy and spirituality interact. The results also showed that different dimensions were important for social work students and social work practitioners.