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Commitment to child welfare work: What predicts leaving and staying?

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  • Faller, Kathleen Coulborn
  • Grabarek, Marguerite
  • Ortega, Robert M.

Abstract

This study describes results related to worker turnover from a longitudinal study of public and private agency child welfare workers in one state. Findings from 460 new workers were examined for reasons respondents took their jobs and chose child welfare work, their commitment to their agencies and to child welfare for two and five years, and the relationship of these variables and demographic variables to whether they were still in their positions at follow-up. Among the findings were that public agency workers endorsed significantly higher levels of commitment on three of the four commitment variables and were significantly more likely to have taken their jobs because of good pay, benefits, and advancement opportunities than private agency workers. In contrast, private agency workers endorsed taking the job because it was the only job available and it was a good first job to take at significantly higher rates than public agency workers. Workers of color endorsed lower levels of commitment on three of the four of commitment variables, although race was not a significant predictor of actually having left the job. Variables that predicted staying on the job were having viewed the state's Realistic Job Preview before taking the job, good supervision, and higher job satisfaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Faller, Kathleen Coulborn & Grabarek, Marguerite & Ortega, Robert M., 2010. "Commitment to child welfare work: What predicts leaving and staying?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 840-846, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:32:y:2010:i:6:p:840-846
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    1. Yankeelov, Pamela A. & Barbee, Anita P. & Sullivan, Dana & Antle, Becky F., 2009. "Individual and organizational factors in job retention in Kentucky's child welfare agency," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 547-554, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chenot, David & Boutakidis, Ioakim & Benton, Amy D., 2014. "Equity and fairness perceptions in the child welfare workforce," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 400-406.
    2. Cameron, Gary & Hazineh, Lirondel & Frensch, Karen & Freymond, Nancy & Preyde, Michèle & Gebotys, Bob & DeGeer, Ian & Quosai, Trudy Smit, 2011. "The impacts of accessible child protection services on services, jobs, and families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 945-954, June.
    3. Strolin-Goltzman, Jessica & Kollar, Sharon & Shea, Karen & Walcott, Cindy & Ward, Sarah, 2016. "Building a landscape of resilience after workplace violence in public child welfare," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 250-256.
    4. McCrae, Julie S. & Scannapieco, Maria & Obermann, Ann, 2015. "Retention and job satisfaction of child welfare supervisors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 171-176.
    5. Smith, Brenda D. & Prichard, Caroline & Boltz, Laura D., 2016. "Do child welfare job preview videos reflect evidence on retention and turnover?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 210-216.
    6. Prüfer, Jens & Xu, Y., 2021. "The Nonprofit's Dilemma," Other publications TiSEM bf17c5e5-ed33-4e3b-a52b-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Kruzich, Jean M. & Mienko, Joseph A. & Courtney, Mark E., 2014. "Individual and work group influences on turnover intention among public child welfare workers: The effects of work group psychological safety," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 20-27.
    8. Hwang, Jeongha & Hopkins, Karen M., 2015. "A structural equation model of the effects of diversity characteristics and inclusion on organizational outcomes in the child welfare workforce," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 44-52.
    9. Lushin, Victor & Katz, Colleen C. & Julien-Chinn, Francie J. & Lalayants, Marina, 2023. "A burdened workforce: Exploring burnout, job satisfaction and turnover among child welfare caseworkers in the era of COVID-19," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    10. Claiborne, Nancy & Auerbach, Charles & Lawrence, Catherine & Liu, Junqing & McGowan, Brenda G. & Fernendes, Gretta & Magnano, Julie, 2011. "Child welfare agency climate influence on worker commitment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 2096-2102.
    11. Zeitlin, Wendy & Chakravarty, Sreyashi & Lawrence, Catherine & DeCristofano, Angela, 2019. "Direct practice contact: Predicting frontline child welfare workers' time with clients," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 9-15.
    12. Kathleen Coulborn Faller, 2014. "Forty Years of Forensic Interviewing of Children Suspected of Sexual Abuse, 1974–2014: Historical Benchmarks," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-32, December.
    13. Preston, Mark S., 2013. "Motivating child welfare case managers: An application and extension of feedback information theory," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 734-741.
    14. Li, Yong & Huang, Hui & Chen, Yi-Yi, 2020. "Organizational climate, job satisfaction, and turnover in voluntary child welfare workers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    15. Kim, Hyosu & Kao, Dennis, 2014. "A meta-analysis of turnover intention predictors among U.S. child welfare workers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P3), pages 214-223.
    16. Steen, Julie A. & Smith, Sarahlin, 2012. "An organizational view of privatization: Is the private foster care agency superior to the public foster care agency?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 851-858.
    17. Kim, Hansung, 2011. "Job conditions, unmet expectations, and burnout in public child welfare workers: How different from other social workers?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 358-367, February.
    18. Jerry D. Marx & Melissa Wells, 2013. "University-State Child Welfare Training Partnerships: The Challenge of Matching Dollar Contributions," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-16, November.
    19. Carpenter, John & Webb, Caroline M. & Bostock, Lisa, 2013. "The surprisingly weak evidence base for supervision: Findings from a systematic review of research in child welfare practice (2000–2012)," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 1843-1853.
    20. Burns, Desirée D. & Langenderfer-Magruder, Lisa & Yelick, Anna & Wilke, Dina J., 2023. "What else is there to say? Reflections of newly-hired child welfare workers by retention status," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    21. Griffiths, Austin & Royse, David & Culver, Kalee & Piescher, Kristine & Zhang, Yanchen, 2017. "Who stays, who goes, who knows? A state-wide survey of child welfare workers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 110-117.
    22. Schudrich, Wendy Zeitlin & Liao, Aries & Lawrence, Catherine & Auerbach, Charles & Gomes, Anne-Marie & Fernandes, Gretta & McGowan, Brenda & Claiborne, Nancy, 2013. "Intention to leave in social workers and educators employed in voluntary child welfare agencies," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 657-663.
    23. Chen, Yi-Yi & Park, Jisung & Park, Aely, 2012. "Existence, relatedness, or growth? Examining turnover intention of public child welfare caseworkers from a human needs approach," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 2088-2093.

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    Child welfare workforce Turnover;

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