Indicators for Safe Family Reunification: How Professionals Differ

Many professionals who work with substance-affected families consider the time limits prescribed by the Adoption and Safe Families Act (1997) to be unrealistically short. The high prevalence of substance use in child welfare cases requires professionals to quickly determine when it is safe to reunify children placed because of abuse or neglect in concert with this serious family problem. This exploratory study identified similarities and differences on different indicators of safe reunification between judges who hear juvenile cases, private agency child welfare caseworkers, and substance abuse counselors. The study examined these professionals\u27 rating of the importance of each indicator. Judges, caseworkers, and counselors from a large midwestern state were surveyed. All groups agreed on the importance of 15 of the 19 identified areas of functioning. Judges and substance abuse counselors significantly differed onfourfactors; counselors and caseworkers differed on two. Implications of the findings for practice are discussed

Work attitudes and intention to quit among workers in private child welfare agencies operating under performance-based contracts

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Administration in Social Work, 36(2), February 2012, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/03643107.2011.564723 .Not much is currently known about how employment in child welfare agencies operating under performance-based contracts affects worker attitudes related to retention. This study focuses on the relationship of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and conflict between work and family to intention to quit among privatized child welfare staff. An online survey was completed by 152 workers employed by private child welfare agencies operating under performance-based contracts. Results indicate that job satisfaction and work-family conflict predicted intention to quit. Implications for agency practice and further research, particularly in the area of work-family conflict, are discussed.University of Kansas School of Social Welfare and the U.S. DHHS/ACF Children’s Bureau, Grant Number 90CT015

Balancing the Demands of Employment and Family Life: Results of the Family Caregiving Survey

This article describes patterns of work and family balance that were examined for employed parents who give family care to children with serious emotional disorders. A secondary analysis of data from the Family Caregiver Survey was performed for a subsample of 184 caregivers employed outside the home or having a partner employed full time. Families having different work structures (patterns of part- or full-time employment and of parenting arrangements) reported significantly different levels of job stress, pleasure in work and intimate relationships, work used as coping, and satisfaction handling home responsibilities. Although reported child behaviors were significantly related to stress attributed to children and family, the behaviors were not related to work structure, job stress, or support service use

A Markov Model for Monitoring and Projecting Movement of Children in Placement Under A State Child Welfare Agency

157 p.Thesis (D.S.W.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1979.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

A Markov Model for Monitoring and Projecting Movement of Children in Placement Under A State Child Welfare Agency

157 p.Thesis (D.S.W.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1979.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD