Is relationship and marriage education relevant and appropriate to child welfare?

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

“…Despite the need for and interest in RME (Mooradian et al, 2011;Sar et al, 2010), integrating RME into child welfare services remains a controversial matter because of the lack of awareness regarding the relevance and benefits of RME to child welfare as well as the perceived barriers inherent in implementing RME Schramm et al, 2013). As such, the development process began with identifying and exploring the problem (e.g., relevance of RME to child welfare clients, interest from and potential barriers to CWPs employing RME) in order to inform a well-reasoned theory of change that could be implemented and tested.…”

“…Specifically, our aim is reflected in two research questions. The first question is whether training in RME, which is often viewed as a controversial topic in which most CWPs have little research-based training (Christensen, Antle & Johnson, 2008;Schramm et al, 2013), lead to immediate learning-measured by changes in attitudes and perceived knowledge. The second question addresses how individual learner attitudes, affective and utility reactions to training, and learning ultimately influence the transfer of training information to application in services provided.…”

“…The constructs described below were informed by the training evaluation model proposed by colleagues (2008, 2010). Additional information about the scales and individual items is available in Futris et al (2013).…”

“…Curriculum development (the inputs) was initially informed by data collected from state-wide needs assessment surveys conducted in MO and NC to identify and explore CWPs' initial attitudes and baseline experience with RME, topical and client needs, and potential concerns and barriers to training participation and transfer (see Schramm et al, 2013). Informed by these findings as well as research related to the teachable principles and skills that promote healthy couple relationships (Futris & Adler-Baeder, 2013), and in consultation with national, state, and local partners who reviewed and provided feedback during the development process, the training curriculum evolved.…”

“…Antle, Frey, Sar, Barbee, and van Zyl (2010) have noted that strengthening couples and families could serve as both a primary prevention strategy for foster and kinship care providers whose relationship might be taxed following a placement of a child in their home, and as a secondary prevention strategy for families already in the child welfare system by strengthening the couple relationship and thus minimizing the negative spillover effects of couple conflict on children. Research has shown that, in addition to client interest (Mooradian, Hock, Jackson, & Timm, 2011), child welfare professionals (CWPs) believe that RME is both relevant and appropriate for the work they perform (Sar, Antle, Bledsoe, Barbee & van Zyl, 2010;Schramm, Futris, Galovan, & Allen, 2013) and that training can facilitate positive shifts in attitudes that could facilitate the integration of RME into child welfare programming . As the field of child welfare expands its focus to preventive services and includes trainings on ''controversial topics'' such as RME, it is critical that evaluation models assess the effectiveness of such trainings.…”