Impacts of child welfare worker and clientele characteristics on attitudes toward trauma informed-care

Abstract

Background: There is increasing recognition of the need to integrate trauma-informed care (TIC) into child welfare practices, given the high rates of trauma experiences among children and youth across these settings. The implementation of TIC is facilitated by various elements, including worker attitudes, yet further research is needed to illuminate the factors that influence child welfare workers’ positive regard for TIC. Objectives: This study aims to explore the relationship between child welfare worker attitudes regarding TIC with workers’ and clients’ individual characteristics. Methods: N = 418 child welfare workers from 11 agencies completed two measures: a demographic questionnaire as well as the French translated version of the ARTIC-35 questionnaire comprised of five subscales. Linear mixed effects models were run for each ARTIC subscale, examining how child and worker factors affect attitudes toward TIC. Results: Participants indicated relatively positive attitudes toward TIC. Managerial staff in offender units scored higher on the subscale regarding their beliefs about the causes underlying child behaviors and on the subscale regarding beliefs about the secondary effects of trauma, than their counterparts in protection units serving boys. Managers scored higher than frontline staff on worker self-efficacy, response to problem behavior, and on-the-job behavior subscales. Workers with a community college degree—and not a university degree–indicated greater sense of self-efficacy. Conclusions: This study points to the importance of paying attention to the characteristics of both workers and clients that may influence inclination toward TIC principles, as a means to build effective integration of this approach in child-serving settings.