ABSTRACT
Child welfare work is inherently difficult, and child welfare agencies are known to experience high rates of turnover. We sought to expand the existing literature on intention to leave one's child welfare agency and commitment to child welfare work through examining the coping mechanisms of frontline workers. Having and utilizing healthy coping mechanisms has proved beneficial to child welfare workers in previous research. In this paper, we examine specific coping mechanisms identified in the Comprehensive Organizational Health Assessment and how they were associated with child welfare workers' intent to leave their agency and their commitment to remain in the field of child welfare during the SARS CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. We surveyed over 250 child welfare caseworkers using the COHA instrument. Using both bivariate analysis and linear regression, we identify specific coping mechanisms, such as staying present with friends and family, as highly influential and discuss ways to strengthen these areas.
ABSTRACT
Families who foster offer essential care for children and youth when their own parents are unable to provide for their safety and well-being. Foster caregivers face many challenges including increased workload, emotional distress, and the difficulties associated with health and mental health problems that are more common in children in foster care. Despite these stressors, many families are able to sustain fostering while maintaining or enhancing functioning of their unit. This qualitative study applied an adaptational process model of family resilience that emerged in previous studies to examine narratives of persistent, long-term, and multiple fostering experiences. Data corroborated previous research in two ways. Family resilience was again described as a transactional process of coping and adaptation that evolves over time. This process was cultivated through the activation of 10 family strengths that are important in different ways, during varied phases.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , Family/psychology , Foster Home Care/psychology , Models, Psychological , Resilience, Psychological , Stress, Psychological/psychology , Access to Information , Child , Child Behavior , Child Health Services , Child Welfare , Emotions , Family Relations/psychology , Humans , Interviews as Topic , Qualitative Research , Surveys and Questionnaires , Time ManagementABSTRACT
Child welfare agencies are charged with the mission of establishing timely legal permanency for all children in out-of-home care. National data indicate that the field of child welfare continues to struggle to fulfill this mission. Pragmatic strategies to improve permanency outcomes are essential. This study used cross-sectional data (N = 427) to examine the relationship between workers'self-efficacy in making permanency decisions and the supervision they receive. Child welfare supervisors monitor and mentor their supervisees' work and are responsible for practice outcomes, including establishing timely permanency. Supervision also contributes to the self-efficacy of frontline child welfare workers. Findings suggest that when supervisors focus their supervision on permanency outcomes, workers report a higher level of self-efficacy in making permanency decisions. This finding provides encouraging implications for child welfare agencies in developing innovative approaches to improving permanency outcomes while relying on existing resources.
