The Willingness of Social Work Students to Engage in Policy Practice: The Role of Personality Traits and Political Participation Predictors Talia Meital Schwartz-Tayri School of Social Welfare, The University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA Correspondence to Dr Talia Meital Schwartz-Tayri, School of Social Welfare, The University of California, Berkeley, 120 Haviland Hall, #7400, Berkeley, CA 94720-7400, USA. E-mail: taliameischwartz@berkeley.edu Abstract The current study aimed to expand our knowledge regarding social work students’ willingness to engage in policy practice (EPP). A theoretical model integrating the Big Five personality framework with the ‘Civic Voluntarism Model’ (CVM) was examined, using a sample of 160 social work students in Israel. Findings revealed a moderate level of EPP willingness. Among the CVM predictors, political skills, political knowl- edge and political interest were significantly positively associated with social work stu- dents’ EPP willingness. Among the Big Five traits, extroversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience were significantly associated with EPP willingness. Path analy- sis showed that political skills were the strongest predictor of EPP willingness and that political skills and extroversion had a direct effect on EPP willingness. The significant mediation paths demonstrated the dynamics by which the study predictors interacted in explaining 49 per cent of the variance in EPP willingness. The study concluded that the examination of a model incorporating the Big Five personality traits and modified CVM predictors provided a comprehensive understanding of EPP willingness and, therefore, should be adopted to explain social workers’ actual engagement in policy practice. Keywords: Big Five personality traits, Civic Voluntarism Model, path analysis, policy practice willingness, social work students Accepted: May 2020 www.basw.co.uk # The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved. The British Journal of Social Work (2020) 0, 1–18 doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcaa065 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/bjsw/bcaa065/5871554 by The David J. Light Law Library, Tel Aviv University user on 15 July 2020