Predictors of Resilience in Child Protection Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities for Organizations to Create Conditions for Workforce Resilience

Child protection is associated with high levels of stress and burnout. Instead of focusing on negative outcomes for staff, this paper presents the findings from a doctoral study in Northern Ireland to report the predictors of... [ view full abstract ]

Child protection is associated with high levels of stress and burnout. Instead of focusing on negative outcomes for staff, this paper presents the findings from a doctoral study in Northern Ireland to report the predictors of resilience. The consequences of negative outcomes from working in child protection is widely reported in the extant literature. There are many concerns about cycles of attrition from child protection jobs and high levels of inexperience in this critical area of practice due to workforce turnover. This paper discusses how there are opportunities for employing organizations to explore and respond to the factors found to enhance resilience. Workload was a confirmed predictor of emotional exhaustion which in turn was found to be a predictor of depersonalisation. Relationships at work with managers and peers was found to be an area of congruence, and a resilience builder for staff.
Methods: Mixed methods were used but the current paper focuses on quantitative results. N = 162 participants from front line child protection social work; 43% response rate. Multiple hierarchical regression models were used to find the predictors of outcome variables for resilience and burnout (emotional exhaustion EE; depersonalisation DP; personal accomplishment PA).
Findings: More than one third of the variation in resilience can be explained by emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment and age, post qualifying awards and being female (gender a control variable). The finding that workload is a predictor of EE is highly relevant as high EE is associated with the exhaustion component of burnout. A majority also scored high regarding congruence in relation to relationships at work with managers and peers.

Conclusion

Employers have ability to manipulate factors associated with resilience and therefore the results of this study provide an evidence base and an opportunity for intervention strategies around workload and interpersonal supports for building staff resilience.