Training Child Welfare Professionals to Support Healthy Couple Relationships: Examining the Link to Training Transfer

Abstract

Integrating healthy relationship and marriage education (RME) into child welfare services is a relatively recent initiative. Guided by the theoretical work in child welfare training evaluation, the current study describes the development and testing of a new RME training for child welfare professionals. Based on data collected from 272 trainees, results from structural equation modeling indicate a linear association between learner attitudes and newly acquired knowledge and skills to perceptions of training usefulness, which, in turn, influenced implementation of RME skills with clients. Implications for the delivery and evaluation of programming, in general and specific to RME, are shared.

KEYWORDS:

• family engagement
• evidence-based practices
• research methodology

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to recognize our national, state, and local partners who provided feedback and support throughout the project in addition to our project partners who contributed to the development and implementation of the curriculum training: Kelly Warzinik, University of Missouri; Kim Allen and Andrew Behnke, North Carolina State University; H. Wallace Goddard and James Marshall, University of Arkansas; and Anthony Santiago, Iowa State University.

FUNDING

Funding for this project was provided by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Grant: 90CT0151. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

NOTE

Notes

1. Post-scores were used instead of difference (pre-post) scores because analyses focused on the predictive ability of absolute post-training levels on variables, and not levels of change.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ted G. Futris

Ted G. Futris, PhD, CFLE, is an Associate Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA.

David G. Schramm

David G. Schramm, PhD, CFLE, is an Associate Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO.

Tae Kyoung Lee

Tae Kyoung Lee, MA, MS, is a Doctoral Student in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA.

William D. Thurston

William D. Thurston is a Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA.

Allen W. Barton

Allen W. Barton, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Center for Family Research at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA.