Uncovering Subgroup Growth Patterns in Organizational Cultural Competence Among Child Welfare Workers: Latent Mixture Modeling

Background: Organizational cultural competence (OCC) refers to organizational efforts to integrate cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills into its policies, practices, and services. OCC is essential for working effectively with children and families from diverse backgrounds. Although cultural competence operates at multiple levels, existing studies have predominantly examined worker-level competence rather than organizational-level competence. Furthermore, OCC has been studied as a fixed and constant factor rather than investigating its dynamic nature and potential changes over time. We address these gaps by examining how workers’ perceptions of OCC change over time. We also identify subgroups with distinct trajectories of OCC and explore worker characteristics associated with subgroup memberships.

Methods: We analyzed data from the Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families, a statewide longitudinal cohort study of child welfare workers. The final sample involved 380 child welfare workers who completed the OCC scale at three time points: 12 months, 30 months, and 48 months post-hire. OCC was measured using a six-item scale assessing the frequency of organizational cultural competence practices (e.g., diverse hiring practices) on a five-point Likert scale. Worker demographic and professional characteristics, including gender, age, race/ethnicity, position, social work education, and initial caseload, were also collected. We conducted latent growth modeling (LGM) to explore overall OCC trends using Mplus. Growth mixture modeling (GMM) was used to identify distinct subgroups based on OCC trajectories. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine worker characteristics predicting subgroup memberships.

Results: LGM indicated a significantly positive initial OCC level (intercept = 11.878, p < .001), with substantial individual variability (variance = 9.733, p < .001). Although the overall OCC trajectory was negative over time (slope = -.24), this decline was not statistically significant (p = .143). However, substantial variability in change rates was observed across individual workers (variance = 2.117, p < .05). GMM identified two distinct subgroups: group 1 (n = 252), characterized by higher initial OCC and stable over time, and group 2 (n = 128), characterized by lower initial OCC and significant decline over time. Logistic regression analysis revealed that female workers (OR = .42, p < .05) and those with higher caseloads (OR = 1.05, p < .01) were more likely to be classified as the declining OCC subgroup.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings demonstrate that the trajectories of OCC varied among child welfare workers. Specifically, two distinct patterns emerged: stable OCC vs. declining OCC. The declining pattern was particularly significant when the initial OCC level was low. This result underscores the importance of early organizational investment in developing OCC from the onset of employment, such as assigning OCC liaisons to support new hires. Moreover, findings suggest that child welfare organizations should proactively support female workers and workers handling high caseloads to enhance and sustain OCC over time. Inclusive leadership strategies and enhanced organizational resources might be beneficial. Finally, it is important to regularly assess OCC and adapt organizational policies and practices to effectively meet the evolving needs of cultural competence.