Predictors of Job Satisfaction and Intention to Leave Among Child Welfare Service Providers Working within Multidisciplinary Teams

Background and Purpose:  Turnover rates are a concern in the child welfare (CW) system. CW workers who stay in their positions must feel a sense of satisfaction from their work.  Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs), which bring together professionals from different disciplines, are becoming commonplace in CW but could be viewed as a frustrating bureaucratic policy, a factor influencing CW providers’ overall job experience.  However, little is known about how providers’ attitudes and skills regarding MDTs may affect their job satisfaction and turnover, which can be predicted using intention to leave (ITL).  To address the gap, this study has two research questions: 1) Do MDT-related attitudes and skills have an impact on overall job satisfaction, while controlling for background variables?  2) Does job satisfaction predict ITL, while controlling for background variables?  In both questions, background variables include age, education, position, number of open cases, years with agency, years working with MDTs, number of jobs working with MDTs, and supervision frequency.

Methods:

Using availability sampling, CW providers participating in MDTs for at least 3 months (N=114) were recruited from private CW agencies in a Midwestern state. They completed a web-based survey which included: 1) Attitudes scale: 15-item scale examining respondents’ MDT-related attitudes (Cronbach’s alpha: .835), 2) Team Skills Scale: 16-item scale assessing respondents’ perceptions of MDT-related skills (Cronbach’s alpha: .934), 3) Job Satisfaction Scale: 10-item scale assessing job satisfaction (Cronbach’s alpha: .828), 4) ITL Scale: 4-item scale assessing respondent’s ITL (Cronbach’s alpha: .956).  Hierarchical multiple regressions were used.

Results:  The majority of respondents (84.2%) were female and White (81.6%) and averaged 37.5 years old.  A majority worked as either a community or home-based therapist (38.1%) or case manager (32.4%) and met with their supervisor once a week or more (51%).  Participants reported an average caseload of about 10, 8.17 years working with MDTs at about 3 jobs, and approximately 3 years at their current job.  CW providers reported positive attitudes toward MDTs and their effectiveness and rated their own MDT skillset as generally proficient or better.

RQ #1: Model examining whether MDT-related attitudes and skills impacted job satisfaction was significant, F(11,71)=2.014, p=.038; R²_adj.=.113.  MDT-related attitudes and skills were not significant predictors, but supervision frequency was positively associated with job satisfaction (β =1.716, p=.013) while being a therapist was negatively associated (β =-5.128, p<.013).

RQ #2: Model examining whether job satisfaction predicted ITL was significant, F(8, 83)=9.225, p<.001; R²_adj.=.420. Job satisfaction was the only significant predictor and negatively associated with ITL (β =-.465, p<.001) as all background variables and MDT-related attitudes and skills were not significant predictors.

Conclusions and Implications:The findings have implications for CW providers and agencies working with MDTs.  Providers appear to believe in the concepts of MDTs and have acquired the needed skills to be successful.  Additionally, MDTs do not appear to have a direct impact on job satisfaction or ITL.  However, CW agencies interested in increasing job satisfaction and decreasing ITL should focus on increasing supervision frequency and provide extra support to therapists.