Year of Publication

2024

College

Public Health

Date Available

6-30-2024

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (M.P.H.)

Committee Member

Dr. Elizabeth Riley

Advisor

Dr. John Lyons

Committee Member

Dr. Michael Cull

Abstract

The rising prevalence of exposures to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) demands a coordinated public health response, as a significant body of research details the cumulative impact of ACEs on chronic morbidities contributing to reduced life expectancy. Child welfare workers (CWW) are embedded in this public health effort, tasked with preventing and mitigating the impacts of ACEs through family and prevention services. The National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS) may improve the wellbeing of CWWs and the effectiveness of Child Welfare (CW) services by improving the quality of safety culture within CW organizations. To inform NPCS quality improvement efforts, our project used a Latent Class Analysis (LCA) on TeamFirst Assessment of Safety Culture (TASC) data collected in 2021 and 2024 to identify latent subgroups of CWWs in a large statewide CW system based on patterned responses. Despite LCA’s popularity, there is no commonly accepted statistical indicator for determining the expected number of latent classes within a given sample. Using Guttman’s minimum lower bound for latent profile analysis, a 7-Class LCA solution was selected. Seven latent classes of CWW responses were characterized from lowest to highest safety culture concern to summarize state and county implementation needs and define organizational strengths. From baseline in 2021 to follow-up in 2024, there was a significant 13% increase (95% CI 10% – 15%) in the prevalence of “Engaged and Strong Culture” workers, which may reflect the system’s dedication to advancing a safety culture through membership in the NPSC.

Funding Information

None to report.

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