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The retention of public child welfare workers is of increasing concern in today's social work job market. This article presents results of a longitudinal study developing predictors of turnover among newly hired public child welfare workers. Comparisons are made between predictors of intention to leave and predictors of actually leaving the job as alternative outcomes. Attitudes of workers in response-to-job conditions are more likely to predict intention to leave than actually leaving. Time to receiving a full caseload, which is under the control of administrators, is an important predictor of leaving the job. Other lessons for administration are discussed.

Objective This study examined the characteristics and patterns of child abuse among immigrant Korean families in Los Angeles and critical variables that contribute to the type of placement made by the child protective services (CPS) system. Method Data were obtained from reviewing and analyzing 170 active Korean case files maintained by the Asian Pacific Unit (APU) of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (LAC-DCFS) during July through September, 2001. Logistic regression analysis was employed to examine the odds of children being kept in or removed from the home. Results Some of the major findings from this study include: (1) immigrant Korean families are more likely to be charged with physical abuse (49.4%) and less likely to be charged with neglect (20.6%) in comparison with all other groups in Los Angeles (13.2% and 27.1%, respectively); (2) the circumstance under which physical abuse occurred most frequently was corporal punishment used by Korean parents with an intention to discipline their children; and (3) the context under which emotional abuse occurred among the Korean families was likely to be children's witnessing domestic violence. In addition, the logistic regression showed that response status, referral source, living arrangement, victim's relationship to perpetrator, and chronicity of abuse were significant in predicting out-of-home placement. Conclusions An analysis of Korean child abuse cases reported to child protective service revealed that culture and child rearing practices shaped the patterns of child maltreatment. A culturally sensitive approach is strongly suggested for effective child abuse prevention and intervention services with this group by CPS agencies.

This paper examines the impact of a new and promising case-based management information system on child welfare case management practices in two California counties. The objectives were to measure the extent to which computerization affected casework practices and to identify factors that influenced the effects of computerization. An exploratory longitudinal one-group pre-post design was used. Contrary to expectations, few differences were found, although workers spent more time alone after implementation of the system. A key finding is that the amount of time that caseworkers spent with clients was not reduced by the computer system.

Using the introduction of a computerized case information system to large public welfare agencies as a natural experiment, this study explores child welfare workers' satisfaction with the new system, the impact of the new computers on their attitudes toward their jobs and their agencies, and the manner in which workers' expectations of the new system prior to implementation changed after implementation. While satisfaction with the system was low, changes in attitudes toward the agency were minimal. The expectations of workers about the computers, positive and negative, were exaggerated beyond the reality that ensued after implementation. Implications for administrators are discussed.

Current welfare-to-work programs grapple with the issue of putting welfare recipients to work immediately or investing in long-term education and training. Because of the 1996 welfare reform time limits, “work first” approaches are predominating. This paper examines the innovative program developed by Goodwill Industries of Southern California, which meets the challenges of implementing a work first model with a low-skill Spanish-speaking population, while also providing services to overcome barriers to employment. This is accomplished in the context of a unique profit-generating business enterprise, which makes program participants both clients and employees.

Dale Weaver , PhD, is lecturer and research associate, and Teheskel Hasenfeld , PhD , is professor ; Department of Social Welfare, School of Public Policy and Social Research, University of California, Los Angeles, 5313 Public Policy Building, Box 951656, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656; e-mail: zekeh@ucla.edu. Mandatory central port forts the Job Act of feature the of Opportunities welfare-to-work 1988 past of decade. (P.L. the 100-485), welfare The and programs Family Basic reform through Skills are Supefa central feature of the welfare reform ef

Mandatory welfare-to-work programs are a cornerstone of current welfare reform efforts, but achieving compliance has been difficult for these programs, in part because the organizational issues facing welfare-to-work programs have not been considered. In this analysis of case management practices in four of California's Greater Avenues to Independence programs, we demonstrate how organizational arrangements influence client compliance with program requirements. Compliance is associated with an ideology that does not stigmatize welfare recipients, goals that stress education and skill training, a service technology that is people-changing, and dispute management strategies that emphasize lenience and professional treatment.

This study examined the characteristics of child abuse among immigrant Chinese families in Los Angeles. The study also identified some of the critical variables contributing to the selection of one of two types of placement (in home or out of home) by the child protective services system. Data were obtained from 221 active Chinese case files maintained by the Asian Pacific Unit of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. The extracted data were presented with logistic regression analysis to examine the odds of children being removed from the home. The most prevalent type of maltreatment experienced by the Chinese victims was physical abuse, and the rate of physical abuse was higher than in the general child welfare population. Chinese children are less likely to be removed from their homes than are non-Chinese children. Implications for practice include the need for focusing services on Chinese parent education and family preservation.

s EVENTY years ago Albert Neiwer discovered the gonococcus. A paper on this subject today probably attracts less attention than it has at any time since its discovery. When a disease ceases to be a problem to treat or control it becomes of less scientific interest. Perhaps the next generation will find this a more interesting subject, because by then all of the peoples of the world will be sensitive to penicillin and all the organisms will be resistant to it, and it may again become popular and necessary at least to attempt a diagnosis before therapy is instituted. From Dr. Charles Lankford’s work and teaching at the University of Texas we learned the value of bacteriological cultures in detection of the gonococcus, in contrast to the inadequacy of t,he stained smear in women. In known cases of gonorrhea in women, gram-negative diplococci were found in stained smears in less than 20 per cent of the cases, in comparison with routine cultures on proteose peptone hemoglobin agar which yielded a corre:ct diagnosis in more than 75 per cent of the cases. More than 40,000 cultures from the cervix and female urethra were studied in our department. When oxidase-positive gram-negative diplococci were found on these cultures, they were further studied by their fermentation reactions on various sugars, such as glucose, sucrose, maltose, levulose, and mannitol. The gonococcus will ferment glucose and none of the other sugars. The Neisseria sicca ferments all of the sugars except mannitol. It is this organism to which we wish to call attention because physicians who depend upon staining procedures for the diagnosis of gonorrhea may make false-positive diagnoses. Early in the summer of 1945, it was proposed that all women inmates of State Eleemosynary Institutions be subjected to complete gynecological examinations. Most of these patients are indigents of the State. Few had had an evaluation of their pathological or nonpathological gynecological conditions. The project was interesting not only because of the health service we might render these patients, but also because the medical information that might be obtained would give an opportunity to compare the findings in this controlled group with the reports of uncontrolled groups. The fact that there are more than 12,000 women in Texas State Eleemosynary Institutions who are under control as to their activities and diet, as well as all their environmental conditions, suggests the scope of the statistical data which might be obtained. Here