Turnover in the Child Welfare Workforce: A Different Perspective

ABSTRACT

Child welfare agencies across the country are experiencing a workforce crisis involving high staff turnover rates. The purpose of this study was to determine which of the organizational, personal, and supervisory variables identified in prior research on this topic are most associated with intent to leave among employees in urban and rural child welfare settings. Four-hundred-and-forty-seven employees in 13 child welfare agencies participated in a survey addressing organizational, personal, and supervisory factors related to turnover. ANOVA, logistical regression, and structural equation modeling were used in the data analysis. The organizational and supervisory variables identified as significant in the logistic regression, as in earlier research, were not significant when the data were subjected to structural equation modeling. Instead, findings suggest that career satisfaction and satisfaction with paperwork are the key determinants of workers' intention to stay.     

Personality,Sexuality, and Substance Use as Predictors of Sexual Risk Taking in College Students

Sexual risk taking among college students is common and can lead to serious consequences, such as unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. This study utilized responses from 310 undergraduate psychology students aged 18 to 23 to examine personality, sexuality, and substance use predictors of sexual risk behaviors over a six-month period. Data were collected from 2005 to 2006 at a medium-sized Midwestern U.S. university. Results indicated that greater alcohol and recreational drug use, higher extraversion, and lower agreeableness were related to sexual risk taking in men. For women, greater alcohol and drug use, higher sexual excitation, and lower sexual inhibition were predictive of sexual risk taking. Among women, but not men, sensation seeking was found to mediate the relationship between the four significant substance use, personality, and sexuality variables and sexual risk taking. Implications for sexual risk behavior prevention and intervention programming are discussed.     

Sexual Deception as a Social-Exchange Process: Development of a Behavior-Based Sexual Deception Scale

The use of deception in association with sexual encounters may take many forms, ranging from outright lies to more subtle, evasive manipulations. To address such deceptions, a behavior-based sexual deception scale was developed utilizing social exchange theory. Participants were 267 individuals associated with two large universities who were surveyed regarding different aspects of their sexual deceptive behaviors. In addition, items addressing sexually related behaviors and attitudes were assessed for validation purposes. Principal components analysis identified three components of sexual deception, labeled Blatant Lying, Self-Serving, and Avoiding Confrontation. Confirmatory factor analysis verified the resulting structure, and promising validity was noted. In general, those using any of these deceptions reported more sexual partners and one-night stands. Those telling blatant lies to have sex were more likely to report greater needs for sex, while those using self-serving lies or having sex to avoid confrontation experienced greater worry about partner loss. Men were more likely to use blatant lies to have sex, while women were more likely to have sex to avoid confrontation. Results support sexual deception as an exchange process, with sex for pleasure and positive relationship outcomes acting as rewards, and unwanted sex and deception consequences as costs. Implications for health interventions and primary prevention applications are discussed.     

What Is Hooking Up? Examining Definitions of Hooking Up in Relation to Behavior and Normative Perceptions

Research has demonstrated ambiguity about the definition of hooking up among college students. The current research examined whether there were multiple definitions of hooking up among college students and how different definitions might be associated with the participant's own hooking up behavior and normative perceptions of peer hooking up behavior. A random sample (N = 1,468) of undergraduates (56.4% female) completed a Web-based survey composed of measures of drinking and sexual behavior. Open-ended definitions of hooking up were content-coded and analyzed using a mixture model to explore discrete definitions of hooking up among college students. Findings indicated three clusters of student definitions of hooking up: Cluster 1 had the broadest definition, referring to sex in general, not specific sexual acts, and to making out. Cluster 2 placed an emphasis on interpersonal and social aspects. Cluster 3 defined hooking up as sex with notable references to specific sexual acts. Results further indicated that hooking up behavior and normative perceptions differentiated these three groups of definitions. Clinical implications regarding the inconsistency of student definitions of hooking up and how they may impact negative consequences associated with hooking up are discussed.     

Family Processes and Adolescent Religiosity and Religious Practice: View From the NLSY97

This article focuses on family processes and adolescent religious attendance and personal religiosity. We find that the closeness and quality of the marital relationship and relationship between adolescent and parents significantly contributes to the strength of adolescent religious conviction and practice. The study used data from the NLSY97 cohort. Predictors include parenting style, closeness, and parent–child closeness; family structure; income, employment, parental education, mother's age at first birth, and number of siblings; adolescent characteristics (e.g., age, gender, race/ethnicity, disability, lying or cheating); and environmental characteristics (e.g., region of country, urbanicity, and physical environment risk). Family religious attendance was dramatically influenced by race in adolescents aged 16 years. Adolescents living with married, biological parents in 1997 were 36% more likely to attend worship services than those living with stepfamilies. Adolescents living in more physically risky environments, with peers who belonged to gangs, cut classes, or had sex, were less likely to attend weekly worship services with their families. Finally, compared with adolescents whose parents had a high-quality marital relationship and who had good relationships with both parents, all other adolescents were less likely to attend weekly worship services with their families.     

Examining Passive and Active Recruitment Methods for Low-Income Couples in Relationship Education

One of the most difficult aspects of studying low-income couples is the effective implementation of recruitment and retention strategies. Low-income couples face environmental stressors that make participation difficult, and research has yet to identify efficacious methods of recruiting and retaining low-income couples into funded studies. Researchers and practitioners targeting low-income participants rely on a “learn-as-they-go” approach. Therefore, we examined passive and active recruitment strategies for 394 married participants with children under age 18 and reporting a total household income within 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines who participated in a federally funded couples and relationship education program. Univariate ANOVAs indicated significant differences between recruitment method and total time spent in couples and relationship education workshops for both women and men. Further, results indicated a relationship exists between recruitment method and the number of follow-up contacts required before participants attended the initial intake appointment. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Long-term changes in parenting and child behavior after the Home-Start family support program

Background

The intervention Home-Start is a wide spread program in a number of countries, among which the Netherlands. In Home-Start, trained volunteers visit families with young children in need of support once or twice a week to help them to deal with problems in family life and parenting. Little is known, however, about the effects of Home-Start. This study describes short-term and long term changes in families that participated in Home-Start.

Methods

Three groups of families with young children (at the start mean age 1 1/2 years) were followed over a period of four years. One of the groups of families participated in the Home-Start family support program in the first 6.6 months of this period. The two other groups were (1) a randomly selected community sample and (2) a group of families with elevated parenting stress and a need for support. Data were collected at the beginning of the study, (after median 1.4 months), directly after the intervention (median 6.6 months) and at two follow-up occasions (respectively, median 12.5 and 49.2 months after the first measurement). At the last measurement, data were available for 33, 45 and 34 families respectively.

Results

Multilevel analysis showed more positive changes in parental wellbeing, competence and behavior (more consistent behavior and less rejection) during the intervention period in the Home-Start group than in the two other groups. At the three year follow up, the Home-Start group showed, compared to the other groups, more improvements in parenting (more responsiveness), but also diminished child externalizing and internalizing behavior problems (less oppositional defiant behavior, affective problems and anxiety problems).

Conclusions

Home-Start seems a promising family support intervention that deserves to be studied more extensively.     

Smokers' behavioural responses before and after the 2012 tobacco excise increase

The New Zealand tobacco tax has been increased annually since 2010, and this paper determines the short-term impacts of the 2012 tax increase. We analysed two separate sets of telephone surveys of current smokers and recent quitters conducted over a six-month period (three months before and three months after the tax increase), and compared the level of behaviour change before and after the tax increase. We found that the 14.5% increase in tobacco excise had an impact on smokers. From both surveys, we saw an increase in smoking-related behavioural change (quit/tried to quit/cut down). However, the rate of change was different by ethnicity and past three-month quit attempt status. Specifically, non-Māori and those who have made a recent quit attempt had increased likelihood of reporting a smoking-related change. Despite being a major priority target group in tobacco control, Māori smokers were not benefited by the 2012 increase in tax excise.     

LoTTS parent-infant interaction coding scale: Ease of use and reliability in a sample of high-risk mothers and their infants

Reliable and valid measurement of parent-infant interactions is necessary to demonstrate parental skill acquisition, but existing observational coding schemes are too complex for practical use in most human service settings. The LoTTS Parent-Infant Interaction Coding System (LPICS) was developed specifically to require minimal training and to be maximally useful for human service (rather than research) settings. The LPICS consists of three global scales and four behavioral counts. Undergraduate students participated in approximately 9 h of training and coding using the LPICS. Low inter-rater reliability scores initially necessitated modifications to the LPICS in order to enhance reliability. The revised scoring procedure showed more promise, particularly for three behavior counts: talking to the infant (ICC = .86, excellent), touching the infant (ICC = .90, excellent), and smiling at the infant (ICC = .66, good), and one global scale: parental warmth (ICC = .58, fair). The revised LPICS may have utility as a brief, simple, and easy-to-teach observational measure of parent-infant interactions.     

Suicide prevention in the dot com era: technological aspects of a university suicide prevention program

Western Michigan University's Suicide Prevention Program utilizes multiple technological components, including an online training course, a Web site, and 2 social networking Web site profiles, as integral aspects of a comprehensive program. This article discusses the development, maintenance, use, and impact of the technological aspects of this program, which complement other program activities in meeting program goals. The Web site and use of social networking Web sites have been very well received by members of the university and wider community. Although initial outcomes of each component are positive, low participation in the online training course has limited the usefulness of pretest-posttest comparisons. It is thought that other campus suicide prevention programs may benefit from using technology as a primary method in their suicide prevention programming efforts.