Balance of Work Focus in Child Welfare.

Work practice and values scales for child protection

Len Dalgleish,

Professor of Decision Making
Department of Nursing and Midwifery
University of Stirling,
Stirling, FK9 4BT
UK
Email: / Senior Fellow,
ChildProtectionResearchCenter
American Humane Association
63 Inverness Dr. East
Englewood, CO 80112
United States of America

Results from an item analysis of the worker focus scales from the SPIRT99 project conducted in BrisbaneAustralia during 1999 to 2001.

N is about 100 child protection workers across Queensland all employed by the State Department of Families, Youth and Community Care.

Analysis strategy.

I checked the coefficient alpha for all 19 items. This showed those items with low corrected item-total correlations. Then I ran an exploratory factor analysis on the 19 items. This used PC extraction. I played with a number of solutions – with the number of factors ranging from 1 to 3. Two of the factors were a ‘values’ factor and a ‘work practice’ factor. Another factor had items in which one of the alternatives was ‘There should be minimalist intervention aimed at strengthening families and the capacity to parent.”

I went back to the structure we built into the questionnaire. I sorted the 19 items into the 9 items that were pairs of ‘values’ type statements and 10 items that were pairs of ‘work focus’ statements. It did separate analyses for these two sets of items. I used the corrected item-total correlations to find the poor items. I trimmed them both back to 5 item scales.

However, I realised that I had two responses to each item. Participants indicated which of the pair they preferred and then rated their strength of preference on a 5 point scale. I used this to construct a continuous scale for each item going from very strong preference for family preservation to very strong preference for child protection (-5 to +5). I wanted the same items in each scale that loaded on a single factor solution for both the binary preferences and the continuous scale.

The three item scale and the five item scale below did this. I report the results below.

The original research was supported by an Australian Research Council, Strategic Partnership with Industry, Research and Training Grant ARCL007G/99.

One-factor solution for Work Practice sub-scale – Three items

Original item number / Continuous Preference / Binary
Preference / Statements
wpref2 / .763 / .785 / Work should be focused on keeping the family together.
Child protection workers should be willing to be an advocate for the child.
wpref15 / .829 / .852 / The client is the child and all other work is secondary.
Work should be focused on keeping the family together.
wpref18 / .774 / .703 / Work should be focused on protecting the child.
Work should be focused on keeping the family together.
%var / 63.5 / 59.9
Coeff-alpha / .706 / .662

One-factor solution for Values sub-scale – Five items

Original item number / Continuous Preference / Binary
Preference / Statements
wpref1 / .690 / .699 / Families are the best place for children to achieve their full potential.
There is a need to ensure the physical and emotional well being of all children.
wpref3 / .655 / .617 / Children’s rights should be safeguarded so they achieve their full potential.
The family’s right to guide the development of their children should be safeguarded.
wpref9 / .629 / .626 / The state has a responsibility to protect children.
Families are the best place for children to achieve their full potential.
wpref10 / .621 / .531 / There is a need to ensure the physical and emotional well being of all children.
The state should not be responsible for families or their children.
wpref12 / .761 / .726 / Families are the best place for children to achieve their full potential.
Children’s rights should be safeguarded so they achieve their full potential.
%var / 45.3 / 41.4
Coeff-alpha / .626 / .673

Instructions: In the following items you will be presented with a pair of statements. We want you to choose between them. We understand that you might endorse both statements but try to choose the statement that best reflects your general work focus and beliefs. Indicate your preference by circling A or B. You will see a statement more than once, but each pairing is different. There are no right or wrong answers.

Please rate the strength of your preference on the following scale of one to five.

Very Weak / Very Strong
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
Items / Which statement? / Strength of preference?
1. / Work should be focused on keeping the family together. / A / 1 2 3 4 5
Child protection workers should be willing to be an advocate for the child. / B
2. / The client is the child and all other work is secondary. / A / 1 2 3 4 5
Work should be focused on keeping the family together. / B
3. / Work should be focused on protecting the child. / A / 1 2 3 4 5
Work should be focused on keeping the family together. / B
4. / Families are the best place for children to achieve their full potential. / A / 1 2 3 4 5
There is a need to ensure the physical and emotional well being of all children. / B
5. / Children’s rights should be safeguarded so they achieve their full potential. / A / 1 2 3 4 5
The family’s right to guide the development of their children should be safeguarded. / B
6. / Families are the best place for children to achieve their full potential. / A / 1 2 3 4 5
The state has a responsibility to protect children. / B
7. / There is a need to ensure the physical and emotional well being of all children. / A / 1 2 3 4 5
The state should not be responsible for families or their children. / B
8. / Families are the best place for children to achieve their full potential. / A / 1 2 3 4 5
Children’s rights should be safeguarded so they achieve their full potential. / B

Balance of Work Focus in Child Welfare.Len DalgleishMay, 2010.

University of Stirling, UK

Children’s ResearchCenter, AHA, Denver, USA