Perceived Behavior Control, Professional Responsibility, and Burnout Among Chinese Child Protection Social Workers: A Mediation Analysis

Background/Purpose:

Child protection social workers experience higher levels of work stress (Lloyd et al., 2002; Huang, 2014). Prior studies indicated that most Chinese child protection social workers were driven by professional responsibility to vulnerable populations (Zhang, 2018). Sometimes these social workers also experience low levels of perceived behavior control over the reporting of suspected child abuse (Shi & Shi, 2013; Wang & Zhang, 2018). All these may contribute to burnout among child protection social workers (Leiter & Maslach, 2004; Rafferty et al., 2001; Shi & Shi, 2013; Wang & Zhang, 2018). This study aims to examine associations among perceived behavioral control, professional responsibility, and burnout among child protection social workers in China and further test whether professional responsibility mediates the association between perceived behavioral control and burnout.

Methods:

Cross-sectional data were collected from child protection social workers (N = 620) in a metropolitan city in Southern China in July 2020. The dependent variable was burnout measured using the Professional Quality of Life scale (Stamm, 2010). We recorded it as a dummy variable indicating whether they had moderate levels of burnout (1 = yes if a score ≥ 23 and 0 = no if a score < 23). The independent variable was perceived behavioral control over the reporting of suspected child abuse, measured using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = definitely no and 5 = definitely yes) with eight items. The mediator was professional responsibility measured by seven items regarding social workers’ understanding of their professional responsibility. Covariates included professional skills, social support, and social demographic variables such as sex, age, marital status, education, income, social work education background, having a child, and years of child protection working experiences. Descriptive analysis, logistic regression, and mediation analysis were conducted using STATA.

Results:

The majority of child protection social workers were female (85.81%), with an average age of 29.30 years. The average years of child protection working experience were 3.07. A total of 40.16% had a child, 65.32% had a social worker license, 52.58% had an undergraduate degree or above, and 44.52% had an income < RMB 60,000/year. About three-quarters (72.58%) of social workers reported a moderate level of burnout. Results from logistic regression identified several protective factors of burnout, including more perceived behavior control over the reporting of suspected child abuse (OR = 0.94, p = 0.019), more professional responsibility (OR = 0.90, p < 0.001), higher social support (OR = 0.51, p < 0.001), and higher income (OR = 0.64, p = 0.035). In addition, professional responsibility (indirect effect: 0.96, 95% CI [0.94, 0.98]) mediated the association between perceived behavioral control and burnout.

Conclusions and Implications:

The findings indicated that child protection social workers with a higher level of behavioral control and a better sense of professional responsibility were less likely to burn out. Providing child protection social workers more autonomy via strengthening professional responsibility is a potential way to decrease burnout.