The Better Facilitators' Competence Leads to the Higher Level of Participants' Engagement? an Empirical Study from the Family Involvement Meeting (FIM)

Background and Purpose

Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) is a strategy to engage family members and social service professionals in child welfare practice to make decisions for the child and family (Olson, 2009). The Family Involvement Meeting (FIM) is a mid-Atlantic state implementation of FGDM to improve the engagement. The participants’ engagement contributes to the better child welfare outcomes (Dawson & Berry, 2002). The success of FGDM partly depends on the FIM facilitators’ quality, behaviors, and skills (Dawson & Berry, 2002; Olson, 2009). The purpose of this study is to 1) compare the engagement level among FIM participants, and 2) examine whether the facilitator’s competence affects the level of participants’ engagement.

Methods

As a part of the statewide evaluation, FIMs feedback surveys were distributed to all participants to measure their satisfaction with the meeting (N=460) from May 2013 to August 2014. To compare the engagement level, we analyzed the engagement level among family members (36.5%, n=168), social service workers and supervisors (30.2%, n=139), and other professionals (31.9%, n=144). The engagement scale (Cronbach’s α＝.879) has seven items, including understanding the purpose, feeling prepared, feeling comfortable, everyone is here, having enough time to talk, feeling like part of the team, and agreeing on the plan. The facilitator’s competence (Cronbach’s α＝.990) is the sum of six items, including the knowledge, the respectful and courteous attitudes, focusing on the purpose, remaining neutral, making participants feel comfortable, and using time well. The ratings are on a four-point scale: Strongly Agree, Agree, Not Agree, and Strongly Not Agree. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to analyze the differences of measures among participants. To measure effects of facilitators’ competence on participants’ engagement, logistic regression was conducted. Participants engagement variable was coded as dichotomous variables with 1=agree and 0=disagree.

Results

ANOVA results show that statistically significant differences among family members, workers and supervisors, and other professionals found in regards to the level of engagement (F= 3.80, P = .023), and family members’ engagement scores were lower than others. ANOVA result also shows that differences among family members, workers and supervisors, and other professionals are statistically significant in the evaluation of the facilitator’s competence (F= 4.860, P = .008). The family members (19.43 ± 6.04) have lower total mean than workers and supervisors (21.07 ± 5.72), and other professionals (21.26 ± 4.77). The results of logistic regression show that the facilitator’s competence (OR = 1.117, P = .001) is a significant predictor of the engagement among all participants.

Conclusions and Implications

Results of this study indicate that the FIM is an effective tool to engage family members, although compared to workers and other professionals, family members were less engaged in the meeting. Facilitators should take more efforts on improving family members’ engagement in the preparation stage, during the meeting stage, and after-meeting stages, and bridging the family members’ needs with child welfare outcomes. Additionally, more training on facilitators’ engagement skills is highly recommended in the future child welfare education and practice.