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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Western Kentucky University

Western Kentucky University

Social Work Faculty Publications

Social Welfare

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Perceptions Of Workload And Job Impact As Predictors Of Child Welfare Worker Health Status, Austin G. Griffiths, David Royse, Chris Flaherty, Crystal Collins-Camargo Jan 2020

Perceptions Of Workload And Job Impact As Predictors Of Child Welfare Worker Health Status, Austin G. Griffiths, David Royse, Chris Flaherty, Crystal Collins-Camargo

Social Work Faculty Publications

Turnover in the child welfare workforce remains a problem with detrimental consequences. While a robust body of literature has explored the influence of job factors on employee retention, and the presence of secondary traumatic stress and other related experiences in this population, little is known about the impact of such factors on the physical health of the practitioner. This manuscript is a first step in documenting the relationship between worker characteristics, perceptions of their job, and their self-reported health status. Utilizing the Child Welfare Employee Feedback Scale (CWEFS), a Binary Logistic Regression model identified Workload and Job Impact as significant …


Retention Of Child Welfare Caseworkers: The Wisdom Of Supervisors, Austin G. Griffiths, Patricia Desrosiers, Jay Gabbard, David Royse, Kristine Piescher Jan 2019

Retention Of Child Welfare Caseworkers: The Wisdom Of Supervisors, Austin G. Griffiths, Patricia Desrosiers, Jay Gabbard, David Royse, Kristine Piescher

Social Work Faculty Publications

Child welfare supervisors have a unique vantage point, leading local service delivery efforts while representing a larger organizational bureaucracy. They also play a key role in workforce stability, as high caseworker turnover remains a real problem that affects clients, communities, and agency budgets. Using a qualitative thematic content analysis to analyze data collected from a sample of public child welfare supervisors in a southern state (n=117), findings from this study provide suggestions for systematically addressing workforce turnover through the unique perspective of the child welfare supervisor. Supervisors made recommendations to improve agency infrastructure, organizational climate, and organizational culture as areas …