IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v151y2023ics0190740923002396.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Addressing secondary traumatic stress, burnout, resilience and turnover in the child welfare workforce: Results from a 6-month, cluster-randomized control trial of Resilience Alliance

Author

Listed:
  • Orsi-Hunt, Rebecca
  • Harrison, Courtney L.
  • Rockwell, Kayla E.
  • Barbee, Anita P.

Abstract

US child welfare agencies have historically struggled with workforce retention and turnover. As part of the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development in Child Welfare, we tested an adaptation of the Resilience Alliance (RA) model in a large, midwestern state to address workplace stress, burnout and actual workforce turnover. RA is a 24-week, facilitated program designed to mitigate the impact of secondary traumatic stress among child welfare professionals, and to therefore increase job satisfaction, resilience and optimism and to decrease turnover, stress reactivity and burnout. Methods: Supervisory units of caseworkers and supervisors were randomized to the RA treatment condition (n = 192) or a control condition (no intervention; n = 183). Hypothesis: We hypothesized that participation in the RA adaptation would cause the workforce to experience lower levels of secondary traumatic stress (STS), burnout and intent to search for work or leave their current position. We hypothesized that RA would lead to higher reported levels of resilience and intent to stay. Furthermore, if hypothesized changes were observed due to participation in RA, then such participation would also lead to decreased actual workforce turnover over a 2.5-year period. Results: There were no statistically significant effects of the intervention on changes in STS, burnout or resilience between treatment and control groups over a 6-month period. Participation in RA did cause significant differences in 6-month changes for four turnover intention measures. Finally, RA had no statistically significant effect on turnover. Limitations and implications are described.

Suggested Citation

  • Orsi-Hunt, Rebecca & Harrison, Courtney L. & Rockwell, Kayla E. & Barbee, Anita P., 2023. "Addressing secondary traumatic stress, burnout, resilience and turnover in the child welfare workforce: Results from a 6-month, cluster-randomized control trial of Resilience Alliance," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:151:y:2023:i:c:s0190740923002396
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740923002396
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107044?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barbee, Anita P. & Antle, Becky, 2011. "Cost effectiveness of an integrated service delivery model as measured by worker retention," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1624-1629, September.
    2. Strolin-Goltzman, Jessica, 2010. "Improving turnover in public child welfare: Outcomes from an organizational intervention," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1388-1395, October.
    3. Edwards, Frank & Wildeman, Christopher, 2018. "Characteristics of the front-line child welfare workforce," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 13-26.
    4. Williams, Nathaniel J. & Glisson, Charles, 2013. "Reducing turnover is not enough: The need for proficient organizational cultures to support positive youth outcomes in child welfare," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 1871-1877.
    5. Boyas, Javier F. & Wind, Leslie H. & Ruiz, Erika, 2013. "Organizational tenure among child welfare workers, burnout, stress, and intent to leave: Does employment-based social capital make a difference?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 1657-1669.
    6. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. King, Erin A., 2021. "Child welfare workers’ experiences of client-perpetrated violence: Implications for worker mental health," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    2. Smith, Richard J. & Clark, Sherrill J., 2011. "Does job resource loss reduce burnout and job exit for professionally trained social workers in child welfare?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1950-1959, October.
    3. Affrunti, Nicholas W. & Mehta, Tara & Rusch, Dana & Frazier, Stacy, 2018. "Job demands, resources, and stress among staff in after school programs: Neighborhood characteristics influence associations in the job demands-resources model," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 366-374.
    4. 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.
    5. Boyas, Javier F. & Wind, Leslie H. & Ruiz, Erika, 2015. "Exploring patterns of employee psychosocial outcomes among child welfare workers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 174-183.
    6. Pharris, Angela B. & Munoz, Ricky T. & Hellman, Chan M., 2022. "Hope and resilience as protective factors linked to lower burnout among child welfare workers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    7. Radey, Melissa & Wilke, Dina J., 2023. "Extent, trajectory, and determinants of child welfare turnover and exit destinations," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    8. Lee, Eunju & Esaki, Nina & Kim, Jeehoon & Greene, Rose & Kirkland, Kristen & Mitchell-Herzfeld, Susan, 2013. "Organizational climate and burnout among home visitors: Testing mediating effects of empowerment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 594-602.
    9. Griffiths, Austin & Royse, David & Walker, Robert, 2018. "Stress among child protective service workers: Self-reported health consequences," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 46-53.
    10. 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).
    11. Edwards, Frank & Wildeman, Christopher, 2018. "Characteristics of the front-line child welfare workforce," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 13-26.
    12. Kothari, Brianne H. & Chandler, Kelly D. & Waugh, Andrew & McElvaine, Kara K. & Jaramillo, Jamie & Lipscomb, Shannon, 2021. "Retention of child welfare caseworkers: The role of case severity and workplace resources," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    13. Engell, Thomas & Kirkøen, Benedicte & Aarons, Gregory A. & Hagen, Kristine Amlund, 2020. "Individual level predictors of implementation climate in child welfare services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    14. Lawrence, Catherine & Claiborne, Nancy & Zeitlin, Wendy & Auerbach, Charles, 2016. "Finish what you start: A study of Design Team change initiatives' impact on agency climate," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 40-46.
    15. Soffer-Elnekave, Ruth & Haight, Wendy & Nashandi, Ndilimeke J.C. & Cho, Minhae & Suleiman, Johara & Park, Sookyoung, 2023. "Re-orienting narratives of moral injury towards positive development: The experiences of emerging adults with child welfare histories," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    16. Huan Zhang & Lin Sun & Qiujie Zhang, 2022. "How Workplace Social Capital Affects Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction and Burnout," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-12, August.
    17. Osborne, Cynthia & Huffman, Jennifer & Caldera, Selena & Lipton Galbraith, Anna, 2020. "The influence of field-based training on caseworker turnover," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    18. Cross, Theodore P. & Chiu, Yu-Ling & Havig, Kirsten & Lee, Laura & Tran, Steve P., 2021. "Evaluation of a simulation training program for new child protection investigators: A survey of investigators in the field," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    19. 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.
    20. Johnco, Carly & Salloum, Alison & Olson, Kayla R. & Edwards, LaTishia M., 2014. "Child Welfare Workers’ Perspectives on Contributing Factors to Retention and Turnover: Recommendations for Improvement," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P3), pages 397-407.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:151:y:2023:i:c:s0190740923002396. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.