Correlation between Group Home Caregiver Gender and Organization Outcomes
Keywords:
Group home, trauma informed care, rate classification level, Likert scale, Ordinal scale, ANOVA, Chi-Square test, correlation analysis, regression analysis.Abstract
When agencies such as the Child Protection Services, Department of Probation or Child Welfare Services place children in out-of-home care, there seems to be incidents where clients are not afforded adequate protection. Children and youths are further injured and a cycle of maltreatment by caregivers working at these care agencies starts. System-generated trauma from stressful and emotionally overwhelming experiences such as multiple placements, frequent changes in schools, and peer groups has called for the research of studies leading to evidenced-based practices that prove effective in the treatment of this population. The purpose of this quantitative research is to explore the correlation between caregiver gender and adolescents’ trauma related behaviors in nine group homes. Independent t-test procedures were conducted to determine the mean differences between genders. A two tailed significance level of .05 was specified. The findings revealed that gender was significantly related to trauma related behaviors. Male staff members reported experiencing more client aggressive behaviors than female staff members. It is recommended that further study be conducted on group homes to understand how organization characteristics impact client successes while in out-of-home treatment and care.References
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