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Research on challenges in child welfare work can overshadow important strengths and resilience in its workforce. This study presents an analysis of child welfare workers' continued engagement in their work despite high levels of stress, relentless worker turnover, and poor organizational climates. It uses a parallel process, mixed method design to conduct an exploratory study of factors that keep workers engaged in their child welfare jobs. Findings include distinct storylines that center on outcomes for children, change and growth in families, and emotional and pragmatic support from coworkers. Results suggest that efforts to deepen the resilience of frontline caseworkers can build on the strengths they themselves express: their commitment to children and families and their support of each other.

Objective: Organizational climate has emerged as an important factor in understanding and addressing the complexities of providing services in child welfare. This research examines the psychometric properties of each of the dimensions of Parker and colleagues' Psychological Climate Survey in a sample of voluntary child welfare workers. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis was utilized to analyze data on 640 child welfare workers providing services directly to children and families. Results: Strong models were developed for each dimension. Each validated model was more parsimonious than in the original instrument but supported the theoretical underpinnings of each. Discussion and Applications to Social Work: Psychological climate in voluntary child welfare agencies can be assessed along each of four dimensions identified by Parker and colleagues: job, role, organization, and supervision. Those wishing to examine psychological climate in voluntary child welfare settings should consider using the models identified in the current research.

A number of proxies have been used in child welfare workforce research to represent actual turnover; however, there have been no psychometric studies to validate a scale specifically designed for this purpose. The Intent to Leave Child Welfare Scale is a proxy for actual turnover that measures workers' intention to leave. This scale was validated in the current study by a CFA. The resulting factors were compared to actual turnover. Nearly two in three workers who indicated that they had considered looking for a job in the past year actually left their agencies (60.0%). A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to determine the validity of the Intent to Leave Child Welfare Scale. The best fitting model consisted of three factors with acceptable fit statistics ( X2 = 28.6, p = 0.04; RMSEA = 0.05, 90% RMSEA CI = 0.01-0.08; CFI = 0.99; TLI = 0.98). Identified latent factors included "thinking," which included observed variables related to workers thinking about leaving their current jobs; "looking," which included observed variables related to workers searching for a new job; and "acting," which included observed variables related to workers actually taking physical steps to seek a new job. Once a good fitting model was identified, binary logistic regression was conducted to determine odds ratios to predict who actually left their agencies. Each of the identified latent factors was significantly predictive of actual leaving (thinking: OR = 1.24, p = 0.00; looking: OR = 1.25, p = 0.00; acting: OR = 1.28, p = 0.01).

Objective: This research examines the psychometric properties of the Perceptions of Child Welfare Scale (PCWS). This instrument is designed to assess child welfare workers' understanding of how society views their role and their work. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was utilized to analyze data on 538 child welfare workers. Results: The final model consisted of three latent variables with 14 indicators related to stigma, value, and respect (χ2 = 362.33, p = .00; root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = .09; 90% confidence interval [CI]: [.08, .09]; comparative fit index [CFI] = .96; Tucker–Lewis Index [TLI] = .95). Discussion: The way in which workers believe others view their work suggests an increasingly complex prototype for understanding workforce issues. Those wishing to examine societal factors related to child welfare workforce issues could use this validated instrument.