"Responsibility at-risk": Perceptions of stress, control and professional effectiveness in child welfare work settings.

Abstract

Given that professional child welfare work has often been characterized as consisting of low control and high stress, the aim of this study was to examine the specific role that these factors played in self-reported assessments of professional effectiveness. This cross-sectional study analysed the responses of 192 child welfare direct practitioners. Respondents were from four national random samples, from 1979 to 1990, of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Three work stress scales, and one composite worker control scale were employed as independent measures, and two scales of professional effectiveness were employed as the key dependent measure. A range of other exogenous variables were examined in relation to perceptions of professional effectiveness. Simultaneous and hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that: (1) Worker control was not consistently low in child welfare; rather, it was variable. (2) Decreases in worker control consistently predicted decreases in professional effectiveness perceptions, as well as inconsistent increases in work stress. (3) None of the three work stress scales predicted decreases in professional effectiveness perceptions, after controlling for effects of worker control. (4) No evidence was found for a moderating role of worker control in a proposed stress-perceived professional effectiveness relationship. Overall, these findings suggest the centrality and the variability of worker control as a potential independent and mediating factor in child welfare professional effectiveness perceptions. The implications of these findings for service design within child welfare work settings are discussed.