Date of Award
6-2019
Document Type
Project
Degree Name
Master of Social Work
Department
School of Social Work
First Reader/Committee Chair
Simon, James
Abstract
The child welfare sector has been dealing with the issue of turnover for many years and it has yet to implement effective solutions to mitigate the problem. In this study, the researcher used a post-positivist approach to examine contributing factors that affect job longevity in child welfare. The researcher reviewed literature as well as used motivation and organizational support theory to determine what potential factors influence job longevity among child welfare social workers. The researcher gathered demographic information and qualitative data from ten interviews with child welfare social workers employed by the County of Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) with five or more years of experience.
The researcher conducted a content analysis of the data and identified three common themes that influence job longevity; supervisor support, self-gratification as a child welfare social worker, and self-care. Results showed that the impact of longevity at DCFS is strongly influenced by supervisor support and self-gratification suggesting a strong desire of child welfare social workers to willingly want to do the job and that supervisor support is one contributing factor to longevity. In addition, nearly all the participants identified self-care as having a positive impact on child welfare social workers. These findings suggest that child welfare social workers need additional training's, individual time with their supervisors, and self-care to increase longevity.
Recommended Citation
Betancourt-Perez, Veronica, "CHILD WELFARE SOCIAL WORKERS’ PERSPECTIVE ON FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE LONGEVITY" (2019). Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations. 816.
https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/816