Remote Practice and Culture Shock: Social Workers Moving to Isolated Northern Regions

Abstract

Arising from recent challenges to expand the urban-rural dichotomy to include a new category of remote practice, this study examined the adjustment patterns of social workers who relocated to remote northern Canadian communities to practice. A cross-sectional survey design was used to test for the presence of culture shock and recovery among 85 social workers in the Yukon Territory and to test hypotheses involving variables presumed related to the adjustment process. Results supported the U-curve hypothesis from the literature on cross-cultural sojourners. Social workers recruited from southern Canada reported an overall experience of culture shock followed by recovery. Structural variables related to the job itself were associated with culture shock but not recovery. Individual variables of personal history and attitudes were associated with recovery but not culture shock.