eprints.keele.ac.uk trust in social... · web view2018-08-08 · as expected, trust beliefs in...

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TRUST BELIEFS IN SOCIAL WORKER AND WORKING ALLIANCE

Children’s Trust Beliefs in Social Workers: Scale Development and

Its Relation to Children’s Working Alliance with Social Workers

RUNNING HEAD: TRUST BELIEFS IN SOCIAL WORKER AND WORKING ALLIANCE

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Abstract

The study examined the relation between children’s trust beliefs in parents, children’s

trust beliefs in social workers and their working alliance. (YOU ARE MISSING THE

CRUCIAL ISSUE HERE: YOU ARE DEVELOPING THE FIRST SCALE TO ASSESS

CHILDREN’S TRUST IN SOCIAL WORKERS – TO MY KNOWLEDGE AT LEAST.

THIS NEEDS TO BE HIGHLIGHED IN THE ABSTRACT AND IN THE PAPER.

THE PURPOSE IS TO ESTABLISH A SCALE WHICH SHOWS RELIABILITY AND

VALIDITY. AS I UNDERSTAND IT, THE RELATION BETWEEEN THE NEW

SCALE AND WOKING ALLIANCE IS ONE TEST OF THE UTILITY OF THE

SCALE IF NOT ITS VALIDITY.) sample of 110 Italian children admitted to a day care

service by the Italian Social Services (M = 11.4 years, SD = 1 month) were administered the

Italian Children’s Generalized Trust Beliefs (ICGTB) Scale, the Children’s Trust Beliefs in

General Social Worker (CTBGSW) Scale and the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI). The

CTBGSW scale demonstrated: (a) validity by its three factor structure and (b) reliability by

exhibiting acceptable internal consistency (c) construct validity by correlations with ICGTB.

(CAN YOU DISTINQUISH BETWEEN VALIDITY AND CONSTRUCT VALIDITY

IN THIS CONTEXT?) As expected, trust beliefs in social workers were found to mediate

the relation between trust beliefs in parents and working alliance with social workers. The

findings yielded support for the Basis, Domain, and Target trust Framework and was

discussed with respect to the generalization of trust beliefs and the protective role of

interpersonal trust. (I DO WANT TO DRAW YOUR ATTENTION TO THE ISSUES

REGARDING TESTS OF MEDIATION IN CONCURRENT DATA. IS THIS

NECESSARY OR ADVISABLE?)

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Key Words: Trust Beliefs; Working Alliance; Children; Trust in Parents; Trust in Social

Workers; Social Services.

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Children’s Trust beliefs in Social Workers: Scale Development and

Its Relation to Children’s Working Alliance with Social Workers

Children’s trust in others has been regarded as the cornerstone of their interpersonal

relationships (Rotenberg, 2010). WHY DON’T WE DIVIDE THIS UP IN TERMS

OF CHILDREN’S TRUST IN MEMBERS OF THEIR IMMEDIATE SOCIAL

ENVIRONMENT SUCH AS MOTHERS, FATHERS, PEER, AND TEACHERS?

VS CHILDREN’S TRUST IN HEALTH PROFESSIONAL. Researchers have found

that children’s trust beliefs in mother, father, teacher, peers are associated with Theory of

Mind ability (Rotenberg, Petrocchi, Lecciso, & Marchetti, 2015) and longitudinally

predicts low aggression (Malti et al., 2013), high prosocial behavior (Malti et al., 2015),

and low loneliness (Rotenberg et al., 2015). RESEARCHERS HAVE EXAMINED

CHILDREN’S TRUST IN HEALTH PROFFESSIONALS AND found that

children’s trust beliefs in physicians are associated with their adherence to prescribed

medical regimes (Rotenberg et al., 2008) and that children’s trust beliefs in nurses are

associated with the frequency of interactions with nurses as assessed by number of visits

to medical centres (Rotenberg et al., 2015).

(I WONDER IF WE COULD TIE THIS PARAGRAPH TO THE NEXT BY

SAYING HERE THAT RESEARCHERS HAVE EXAMINED CHILDREN’S

TRUST IN A RANGE OF SIGNIFICANT OTHERS BUT HAVE IGNORED

EXAMINING CHILDREN’S TRUST IN SOCIAL WORKERS WHO MAY PLAY

A CRUCIAL ROLE IN THEIR LIVES. ) FURTHERMORE, Authors have proposed

that children’s trust beliefs in social workers play a crucial role in their psychosocial

adjustment and are essential for the success of social work with children and their

families (see Hafford-Letchfield, & Spatcher, 2007). The research addressing that

proposition is scarce, though, and the current study was intended to redress that

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oversight. In order to fill-in that gap in knowledge, the current study was designed to: (a)

develop a psychometrically viable scale to assess the children’s trust beliefs in social

workers SO THAT…..

examine its relation to trust beliefs in parents AS A TEST OF WHAT …..

examine its relation to children’s working alliance with social workers AS A TEST OF

WHAT

SHOULDN’T YOUR NEW SCALE BE A BETTER PREDICTOR OF children’s

working alliance with social workers THAN EITHER A GENERALIZED TRUST

BELIEFS OR TRUST BELIEFS IN PARENTS? IT IS MORE CENTRAL TO HOW

CHILDREN ORIENT THEMSELVES TO SOCIAL WORKERS.

Conceptualization of Interpersonal Trust

The current study (CONSTRUCTION OF THE SCALE TO ASSSESS

CHILDREN’S TRUST BELIEFS IN SOCIAL WORKERS) was guided by the Basis,

Domain, and Target interpersonal trust framework (BDT; Rotenberg, 2010; Rotenberg et

al., 2010). The BDT specifies that trust comprises three Bases (reliability, emotional,

honesty), three Domains (cognitive/affective, behavior-dependent, behavior-enacting)

and two Target dimensions (familiarity, specificity). The three bases are: (a) reliability,

comprising fulfilment of words or promises, (b) emotional, comprising refraining from

causing emotional harm and maintaining confidentiality, (c) honesty, comprising telling

the truth and engaging in behavior guided by benevolent rather than malevolent

intention.

The BDT framework further emphasizes that interpersonal trust is the result of

reciprocity between individuals, notably in dyadic interaction (see Betts et al., 2015), that

results in establishing a common social history with significant others. From those social

common histories, comprising reciprocal fulfilment of promises, refrain from causing

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emotional harm, and maintaining confidentiality, a unique level of trust towards various

target has established (Rotenberg, 2010).

The BDT has served as the basis for developing three-factor (reliability, emotional,

and honesty) scales in mothers, fathers, teachers, peers, physicians and nurses

(Rotenberg et al., 2005; Rotenberg et al., 2008; Rotenberg et al., 2015) and several other

measures of trust beliefs (i.e., Rotenberg, Petrocchi, Lecciso, Marchetti, 2013). The

current study was CARRIED OUT to develop a three-factor scale to assess children’s

trust beliefs in social workers that assessed the three bases of trust beliefs (i.e, reliability,

emotional, and honesty). (DO YOU WANT TO CARRY THIS ON… TO

INDRODUCE THE NEXT SECTION?)

Working Alliance Within Child and Social Workers

The strength and quality of working relationship between social worker and client

has received increasing attention (Marsh, Angell, Andrews, & Curry, 2012; Killian,

Forrester, Westlake, & Antonopoulou, 2015) based on the psychological concept of

working alliance. Working alliance or therapeutic alliance has been developed within

psychotherapy literature (see Horvath et al., 2011) to measure the quality of the

relationship between patient and psychotherapist. Bordin (1979, 1994) conceptualized

working alliance as including the perceived quality of the bond between client and

therapist (named bond dimension), the agreement of the goals of the therapy (named goal

dimension), and the agreement of the tasks to reach those goals (named task dimension).

Two are the main reasons for the fruitfull application of the warking alliance concept

outside the psychotherapy. First, Bordin's (1994) position applies its principles from a

general theoretical perspective to any situation in which a person has a relation with a

professional (see also Horvath, 1994). Second, Bordin’s theoretical framework elicited

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the development of several forms of the Working Alliance Inventories (WAI; see for

example Horvath, 1981; Horvath & Greenberg, 1986, 1989) which are questionnaires

with acceptable psychometric characteristics and three-factor structures corresponding to

the three dimensions of bond, goal, and task.

The quality of working relation with social worker has considered a key factor to

predict the strength of family involvement into the intervention, family service

completion (Girvin, DePanfilis, & Daining, 2007; Killian, Forrester, Westlake, &

Antonopoulou, 2015; Korfmacher, Green, Spellman, & Thornburg, 2007), and positive

outcomes (Lee & Ayon, 2004; Munro, 2011). Within child welfare service, children are

the other actors of the relation with the social workers together with their families. In

that vein, it is relevant to know something about working alliance from children’s point

of view, because they are engaged and personally involved in the relation with the social

worker. (THIS SEEMS WEAK. DO YOU WANT TO SAY THAT IT IS

WORTHWHILE TO EXAMINE CHILDREN’S TRUST IN SOCIAL WORKERS

BECAUSE THAT TRUST SHOULD HAVE EFFECTS ON THE EXTENT TO

WHICH THE CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES COOPERATE WITH

SOCIAL WOKERS? )

There has been few experience to translate the working alliance concept into the

child welfare services (see Marsh, Angell, Andrews, & Curry, 2012). Two studies

administered the WAI, but only from parents’ point of view (Altman, 2008; Killian,

Forrester, Westlake, & Antonopoulou, 2015). Both of them found a stable three-factor

structure and Killian et al. (2015) demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity as

well. There is paucity of research, thought, regarding children’s working alliance

towards social worker and the relation between individual differences in children’s

working alliance and their trust beliefs in others. The purpose of the research was to

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redress that oversight.

Children’s Working Alliance and Trust Beliefs in Others

The purpose of the current study was to examine the Trust Beliefs and Working

Alliance (TBWA) hypothesis which posits that children’s trust beliefs in significant

others (parents, social worker) are associated with children’s working alliance with social

workers. (THIS IS DIVEGENT. BESIDES THE CHILDREN’S TRUST IN

SOCIAL WORKERS YOU ARE INCLUDING THEIR TRUST IN PARENTS AS

A FACTOR. THIS NEEDS TO BE INCLUDED IN THE PAPER MUCH

EARLIER. YOU NEED A RATIONALE FOR WHY TRUST IN PARENTS

COUNTS.) A version of the Children’s Trust Beliefs in General Social Worker

(CTBGSW) scale was developed to test the TBWA hypothesis. It was expected that the

scale would be composed of three factors (reliability, emotional, and honesty bases),

demonstrate acceptable internal consistency, and significant correlations with

corresponding dimensions from the Italian Children’s Generalized Trust Beliefs scale

(Rotenberg, Petrocchi, Lecciso, Marchetti, 2015).

TBWA hypothesis was derived from BDT framework and Attachment Theory

principles and evidence regarding the role of trust to enhance quality of relationships

between children and professionals. (IF YOU FOLLOW THIS YOU NEED TO

DESCRIBE IT MUCH EARLIER. THE REAL PROBLEM IS THAT YOU DO

NOT HAVE A MEASURE OF ATTACHMENT. IN PRACTICE YOU DO NOT

NEED IT. INDEED THERE IS LITTLE NECESSITY FOR IT. THERE HAS

BEEN A STRONG CHALLENGE TO CONSIDERING TESTS OF MEDIATION

IN CROSS-SECTIONAL DATA. IT IS NOW UNWISE TO DO SO. MOREOVER,

YOU ARE MISSING THE VERY IMPORTANT POINT OF WHY CHILDREN’S

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TRUST IN SOCIAL WORKERS SHOULD BE RELATED TO THE WORKING

ALLIANCE. CONSIDER HOW TRUST BELIEFS/BEHAVIORS ARE

NECESSARY FOR CHILDREN TO CO-OPERATE WITH SOCIAL WORKERS:

THE CHILDREN NEED TO RELY ON THE SOCIAL WORKER’S WORD OR

PROMISE (RELIABILITY), ACCEPTANCE OF DISCLOSURE (EMOTIONAL)

AND HONESTY OF COMMUNICATION (HONESTY). YES, RECIPROCITY

OF THOSE PLAYS A ROLE. THEORETICALLY EACH OF THOSE BASES

SHOULD BE IMPORTANT. YES, THERE SHOULD BE A RELATION

BETWEEN CHILDREN’S GENERALIZED TRUST BELIEFS ON YOUR

ITALIAN SCALE (IF YOU INCLUDED ALL TARGETS IN THE SCALE)

BECAUSE CHILDREN’S TRUST BELIEFS IN SOCIAL WORKERS IS AN

EXTENSION OF THOSE BELIEFS. INDEED, THE OPTIMAL RELATIONS

ARE BETWEEN EACH BASIS SUBSCALE IN GENERALIZED TRUST

BELIEFS AND CHILDREN’S TRUST BELIEFS IN SOCIAL WORKERS. YOU

DO NOT NEED THE IWM AND IT IS NOT EXPLICIT ENOUGH TO EXPLAIN

WHY TRUST REALLY AFFECTS DEVELOPMENT – WHICH IS EXPLAINED BY

THE BDT. RECALL THAT WE EVENTIALLY IDENTIFIED THAT

EMOTIONAL TRUST WAS ASSOCIATED WITH TOM. SADLY, THE IWM

SERVES TO OBSCURE IMPORTANT MECHANISMS RESPONSIBLE FOR

CHILDREN’S SOCIAL FUNCTIONING.)

First, the association between children’s trust beliefs in parents and children’s trust

beliefs in social workers is derived from the principles of the Internal Working Model

(IWM; Bowlby, 1969; 1973; 1980) of the Attachment Theory and the reciprocity of the

exchanges within family members of the BDT framework (Rotenberg, 2010). The IWM

is a cognitive structure build during early childhood which affects later psychological

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functioning. Securely as opposed to insecurely attached children develop an IWM

comprising social expectations characterized by a sense of trust in others and by positive

thoughts regarding the intentions of other people’s behaviors (Cohn, 1990; Lieberman,

1977). The IWM provides a cognitive structure to generalize trust to significant others

(teachers, peers, physicians, social workers). The BDT framework (Rotenberg, 2010)

further emphasizes that children build trust through a common social history within

family and then generalize trust beliefs to significant others (see also, Rotter, 1967, 1971,

1980).

In line of this hypothesized link, researchers have found that children’s social

expectation in significant adults are guided by their IWM (REF). Other authors

(Hafford-Letchfield, & Spatcher, 2007) have proposed that children’s trust beliefs in

social workers play a crucial role in their psychosocial adjustment and are essential for

the success of social work with children and their families.

Second, the association between children’s trust beliefs in social workers and

children’s working alliance with social workers is based on the research showing that

trust beliefs in others (i.e., the expectations that others fulfil promises, keep secrets, and

being honest) affect the quality of their relationships with other significant adults

(INSERIRE REF).

In line with this hypothesized link, authors have found that children’s trust beliefs

is a key element for the cooperative relationship with physicians. Trust beliefs were

associated with children’s adherence to prescribed medical regimes (Rotenberg et al.,

2008) and with the frequency of interactions with nurses as assessed by number of visits

to medical centres (Rotenberg et al., 2015). As a partial empirical evidence of the

association between trust in social workers and children’s working alliance it has been

found that interpersonal trust is a key element for the cooperative relationship with

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physicians. It has been found that children’s trust in physicians is associated with their

adherence to prescribed medical regimes (Rotenberg et al., 2008) and that children’s trust

beliefs in nurses is associated with the frequency of interactions with nurses as assessed

by visits to medical centres (Rotenberg et al., 2015). (YES, TRUST IS ASSOCIATED

WITH THE CO-OPERATION .. BUT WHY IS IMPORTANT. THIS BEARS ON

THE CURRENT ISSUE AS PREVIOUSLY OUTLINED.)

Based on those principles, the TBWA hypothesis states that children’s trust

beliefs in parents are generalized to professionals such as social worker and, because

those are reciprocated by them, exposes the child to a good quality relation. As a result

of that links, children’s trust beliefs in parents are linked to children’s trust beliefs in

social worker which in turn affect working alliance towards social worker. Nevertheless,

there is a lack of research that addresses the hypothesized paths and the current study

was designed to redress that oversight. (THIS IS TOO GENERAL GIVEN THE

NATURE OF THE BDT.)

The present study

A version of the Children’s Trust Beliefs in General Social Worker (CTBGSW)

scale was created to test the Trust Beliefs and Working Alliance hypothesis (TBWA). It

was expected that the scale would be composed of three factors (reliability, emotional,

and honesty bases), demonstrated acceptable internal consistency, and significant

correlations with corresponding dimensions from the ICGTB scale.

In line with the TBWA hypothesis, it was expected that children’s trust beliefs in

social worker should serve as a mediator between children’s trust beliefs in parents and

children’s working alliance. The effect of gender as a moderator variable on the

observed correlations path was considered.

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Method

Participants

The participants were 110 Italian children (67 boys) with mean age = 11 years-4

months (SD = 1 month) ranging from 8 years to 14 years. They were admitted to a day

care service by the Italian Social Services; 99 of them lived with their natural family, 12

lived with a short-term foster care family. Families were composed of 2 to 9 members

with a mean of 4.30 (SD = 1.5). Reasons for being admitted to the local social services

were mandatory/involuntary for 48 families (i.e., the Juvenile Court established

compulsory meetings with social worker) and non mandatory for 62 (i.e., the Juvenile

Court suggested to schedule meetings with social worker to prevent negative outcome).

Children were Italian citizens with European White background and were enrolled in

public schools serving low and middle class neighborhoods in southern Italy.

Participation was secured by parental signed consent as recommended by APA/BPS

ethics guidelines.

Mothers’s age ranged from 25 to 62 years (M = 40 years-5 months, SD = 7 months)

and fathers’ age from 27 to 66 years (M = 45 years-9 months, SD = 10 months).

Mothers’ educational level averaged 8.8 years (SD = 3.03) which corresponds to Junior

High/Secondary School. Fifteen mothers were unmarried, 51 married, 41 divorced, and

3 widowed. Fifty nine mothers were housewives, 42 employed for wages, 4

unemployed, 3 retired, and 2 self-employed. Fathers’ educational level averaged 8.07

years (SD = 2.66); 79 were employed for wages, 20 unemployed, 3 retired, 2 self-

employed, and 6 participants did not share information about their profession.

Measures

Trust beliefs in significant others. The Italian Children’s Generalized Trust

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Beliefs scale (ICGTB; Rotenberg et al., 2015) was administered. Twenty-four items

described short stories with a child and his/her mother (or father, or teacher, or peers) as

protagonists. Participants imagined being protagonist of each story and judged

accordingly if the target character (mother, father, teacher, or peers) keeps promises

(reliability), fulfills confidentiality and avoids criticism and embarrassing (emotional),

and tells the truth (honesty). The children provided the answers on a Likert five-point

scale from 1 (very unlikely) to 5 (very likely).

Evidence for internal consistency and confirmatory factorial structure is shown by

Rotenberg et al. (2015). Means for the three bases of trust (reliability, emotional,

honesty) and for trust beliefs in parents were calculated with higher scores denoting

greater trust. The ICGTB scale demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (α = .81, rs

> .23), as did for trust beliefs in parents (α = .74, rs > .22) and for the three bases

subscales: α = .63, rs > .29 (reliability), α = .67, rs > .27 (emotional), and α = .68, rs

> .21 (honesty). (WHAT HAPPENED TO CHILDREN’S TRUST IN PEERS AND

TEACHERS? WHY AREN’T THEY INCLUDED?)

Trust beliefs in social worker. The Italian Children’s Trust Beliefs in General

Social Worker (CTBGSW) scale was created for this study. Eighteen items were

developed describing interactions between a child (same gender of the participant) and a

social worker who behaved through the three bases of trust (reliability, emotional,

honesty). Participants provided the answers on a five-point Likert scale (1-very unlikely

to 5-very likely). Means for the three bases of trust were calculated with higher scores

denoting greater trust in social worker.

Working Alliance with Social Worker. The Working Alliance Inventory (Horvath,

Greenberg, 1989) was modified to measure the quality of children’s working relation

with their social worker. The original version of the WAI for adults was composed of 36

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items and measured the three dimensions of the client-therapist relation (task, bond,

goal).

The original 36-items WAI (Horvath, Greenberg, 1989) was modified to measure

the alliance between child and social worker from the child’s point of view taking into

account the specific setting in which the questionnaire was to be used (i.e., day-care

social services). Two authors of the present research independently worked on the

original 36-items WAI for adults to develop a viable scale for children. Because judged

too difficult for children or not related to social services environment, 18 items were

deleted. The remaining 18 items were subjected to a linguistic revision: (a) the

expression ‘therapist’ was replaced by ‘social worker’; (b) the blank line that needed to

represent the name of the therapist or client in the original questionnaire was replaced by

‘my social worker’; and (d) the terms ‘sessions’ and ‘therapy’ were changed to

‘meetings’.

The final 18 items required children to think about their relation with their social

workers and reply on a 7 points-Likert scale how much they agreed with each item. Six

items for each dimensions (task, bond, and goal) composed the new version of the WAI-

SW for children. Means for the three dimensions of working alliance were calculated

with higher scores denoting greater alliance in social worker. (THIS IS A BIT

PROBLEMATIC BECAUSE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER TO ASSESS

THIS FROM THE SOCIAL WORKER’S OR PARENT’S PERSPECTIVE – AS A

MORE OBJECTIVE CRITERION. STILL, THIS REPRESENTS THE NOTION

THAT CHILDREN’S TRUST BELIEFS IN SOCIAL WORKERS IS

ASSOCIATED WITH THEIR WILLINGNESS TO FORM AN ALLIANCE WITH

THE SOCIAL WORKER. THIS IS OK TO TEST AND SAY. YOU WOULD

EXPECT THIS ON THE BASIS OF THE BDT AND RELATED RESEARCH. I

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WOULD MENTION THE USE OF MORE OBJECTIVE CRITERIA IN YOUR

DISCUSSION. THERE ARE TWO ISSUES HERE: (1) YOU ARE, IN EFFECT,

DEVELOPING A SCALE OF CHILDREN’S PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR

WORKING ALLIANCE WITH SOCIAL WORKERS – A NEW UNTESTED

SCALE ITSELF; AND (2) THE THREE FACTOR STRUCTURE MEANS THAT

YOU NEED TO EXAMINE THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THOSE AND THE

OTHER VARIABLES. THIS WILL GET A BIT COMPLICATED. )

Results

Psychometric Properties of the CTBGSW and WAI-SW Scales

The 18 items of the CTBGSW scale were subjected to a reliability analysis. Six of

the 18 items were removed because they did not exhibit adequate corrected item-total

correlations and thus reduced the internal consistency of the overall scale. The final

CTBGSW scale was composed of 12 items that comprised 4 items assessing the same

basis of trust beliefs. The CTBGSW scale as a whole demonstrated acceptable internal

consistency (α = .74, rs > .26), as did the three bases subscales: α = .66, rs > .36

(reliability), α = .64, rs > .33 (emotional), and α = .79, rs > .52 (honesty).

The 12 items were subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis using Structural

Equation Modelling. The hypothesized three factors model (shown in Figure 1) showed

good fit to the data, χ2 (51) = 67.11, p = .06, CFI (comparative fit index) = .94, RMSEA

(root mean square error of approximation) = .05. The standardized regression weights

for the three bases and covariances between reliability and emotional and between

reliability and honesty attained significance at p <.05. All the regression weights

exceeded the recommended value of .30 (see Kline, 2005). Figure 1 shows the CFA

model for the CTBGSW scale.

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_ _ _ _ _

Insert Figure 1 approx. here

_ _ _ _ _

The 18 items of the WAI-SW scale were subjected to a reliability analysis. Nine of

the 18 items were removed because they did not exhibit adequate corrected item-total

correlations and thus reduced the internal consistency of the overall scale. The WAI-SW

scale as a whole demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (α = .XX, rs > .XX), as

did the three dimensions, α = .85, rs > .47 for task, α = .88, rs > .48 for bond, and α

= .66, rs > .29 for goal.

The 9 items were subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis using Structural Equation

Modelling. The hypothesized three factors model (shown in Figure 2) showed good fit to the data,

χ2 (24) = 41.81, p = .014 CFI (comparative fit index) = .97, RMSEA (root mean square error of

approximation) = .08. The standardized regression weights for the three bases and covariances all

attained significance at p <.05. All the regression weights exceeded the recommended value of .30

(see Kline, 2005). Figure 2 shows the CFA model for the WAI-SW scale.

_ _ _ _ _

Insert Figure 2 approx. here

_ _ _ _ _

Correlations between Measures

Table 1 shows correlations between the CTBGSW and the correponding dimensions of the I-CGTB.

———-

insert table 1 approx here

———-

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As expected, each scale of the CTBGSW, namely reliability, emotional and honesty scales, was

correlated with the comparing scale of the I-CGTB. There were also appreciable correlations

between the three scale of the CTBGSW and reliability and emotional dimensions of the I-CGTB.

Finally, there were internal correlations between the scales of each measures.

YOU ARE MISSING A LOT HERE. MOST IMPORTANTLY THE CORRELATIONS

BETWEEN THE SUBSCALES OF THE CTBGSW AND CTB-SW, AS WELL AS CHILDREN’S

TRUST IN PARENTS.

Test of Hypothesized Mediation

According to the model, children’s trust beliefs in social worker (CTB-SW) should serve as a

mediator between children’s trust beliefs in parents (CTB-P) and children’s working alliance

(CWA). The expected mediation was assessed by PROCESS (REF HERE) and by the 10,000

bootstrap resample procedure. When CTB-P was the predictor, the test of simple mediation yielded

significant: (1) effects of CTB-P on CTB-SW, b = .10 (SE = .10), t(108) = 4.24, p < .0001, (2)

effects of CTB-SW on CWA, b = .80 (SE = .013, t(107) = 6.02, p < .0001. Direct effect of CTB-P

on CWA was not significant. The bootstrap results for the 95% confidence level were .17 for the

lower confidence level and .58 for the upper confidence level. Because zero did not fall with this

range, the indirect effect of CTB-SW attained significance at p < .05. The findings yielded support

for the hypothesis that trust beliefs in social workers served as a mediator between children’s trust

beliefs in parents and children’s working alliance.

Gender as a Moderator of the Observed Correlations and Paths

T-tests and hierarchical regression analyses (HRAs) were carried out to test whether gender

moderated the observed correlations shown in Table 1. T-test was significant for children’s trust

beliefs in parents, t(108) = 2.15, p = .033, with boys having higher scores (M = 3.63, SD = .61) than

girls (M = 3.35, SD = .71). Hierarchical regression analyses were carried out with gender served as

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potential moderating variable and it was dummy coded. The predictors were: (Step 1) children’s

trust beliefs in parents, (Step 2) gender and (Step 3) predictor * gender term (see Cohen, Cohen,

West, & Aiken, 2003). The HRAs were not significant and did not yield a significant measure *

gender interaction. As a consequence, gender was not found to moderate the observed relations. The

Mediation Analysis was carried out with gender served as a moderator of the hypothesized model

which showed that gender did not moderate the observed paths.

Discussion

The first aim of this research was to provide a viable scale to measure children’s

trust beliefs in social worker. As expected, the CTBGSW scale demonstrated validity by

its three-factor structure (reliability, emotional, honesty), acceptable internal consistency,

and construct validity by correlations with the same dimensions of the I-CGTB.

The second aim of this research was to test the TBWA hypothesis which posits

relations between children’s trust beliefs in parents, children’s trust beliefs in social

worker, and children’s working alliance towards social worker. As expected, in support

of the TBWA hypothesis, children’s trust beliefs in social worker has found to serve as a

mediator between children’s trust beliefs in parents and children’s working alliance

towards social worker.

The Children’s Trust Beliefs in General Social Worker scale showed adequate

psychometric properties (validity and consistency) and those were similar to qualities

found for the original CGTB scale for English speaking children (Rotenberg et al., 2005)

and its Italian version (Rotenerg et al., 2015). The results demonstrated that CTBGSW is

a viable scale to investigate children’s trust beliefs in social worker. Broadly, the

findings show that the BDT interpersonal trust framework (Rotenberg, 2010) is

applicable to the investigation of children’s trust beliefs in significant others.

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The findings yielded evidence for the hypothesized distal linkage (and thus paths) between

children’s trust beliefs in parents and children’s working alliance towards social worker, as well as

for the hypothesis that children’s trust beliefs in social worker served as a mediator between those

two variables. The findings yielded support for the notion that children’s trust beliefs in parents, as

part of their IWM, provides the cognitive structure to generalize their trust beliefs to social worker

and thus affects the quality of relations between children and social worker.

The current findings yielded support for the idea that children’s trust beliefs in social workers

play a crucial role in their psychosocial adjustment and are essential for the success of social work

with children and their families (see Hafford-Letchfield, & Spatcher, 2007) by showing that the

quality of working relation is associated with trust beliefs. Our results extend the empirical

evidence showing that children’s trust in physicians is associated with the quality of their

relationships with physicians (measured as adherence to prescribed medical regimes or frequency of

visits; Rotenberg et al., 2008; Rotenberg et al., 2015). According to the TBWA hypothesis,

children’s trust beliefs in significant others increase the likelihood that they engage in collaborative

behaviors which are reciprocated by social worker and promote the quality of their relationship.

The findings showed that children’s trust beliefs in parents were higher for boys than girls

which is not consistent with some studies (see Betts & Rotenberg, 2007; Rotenberg et al., 2004) that

found higher level of trust for girl than boys. The current findings showed, though, that gender was

not responsible for the relation between children’s trust beliefs in others and their working alliance.

In summary, the current study has yielded the development of the Children’s Trust

Beliefs in Generalized Social Worker scale and provides support for the TBWA

hypothesis in that children’s trust beliefs in parents were associated with their working

alliance with social worker through the mediation of children’s trust beliefs in social

worker.

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Limitations and Direction for Future Research

In future, researchers might wish to examine the following two issues. First, the current

study examined concurrent relations among trust beliefs and working alliance. Longitudinal

research is needed to provide clearer evidence for the hypothesized causal relations.

Second, current research showed that trust beliefs in social worker contributes to the quality of

the child-social worker relationship. Research has found that the quality of working relation with

social worker influences the strength of family involvement into the intervention and family service

completion (Girvin, DePanfilis, & Daining, 2007; Killian, Forrester, Westlake, & Antonopoulou,

2015; Korfmacher, Green, Spellman, & Thornburg, 2007), and bring them into positive outcomes

(Lee & Ayon, 2004; Munro, 2011). As children admitted to a day care service are the other active

actors of the relationship it would be desirable to promote children’s working alliance with social

worker employing the full potential of the trust beliefs to enhance children’s involvement and

positive outcomes.

21


Figure Captions

Figure 1: The three-Factor Model of the Children’s Trust Beliefs in Social Worker Scale

All paths and covariances attained the significance, p < .05

.39

.79

.60

.64

.74

.53

.62

.73

.37

.31

.70

.46

.81

.35

.04

.52

e12

e11

e10

e9

e8

e7

e6

e5

e4

e3

e2

e1

Honesty

Emotional

Reliability

Item 12

Item 11

Item 10

Item 9

Item 8

Item 7

Item 6

Item 5

Item 4

Item 3

Item 2

Item 1

22


Figure 2: The Three-Factor Model of the Working Alliance towards Social Worker

All paths and covariances attained the significance, p < .05

.84

.83

.76

.88

.86

.79

.84

.74

.38

.94

.95

.93

e9

e8

e7

e6

e5

e4

e3

e2

e1

Task

Bond

Goal

Item 9

Item 8

Item 7

Item 6

Item 5

Item 4

Item 3

Item 2

Item 1

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Figure 3: The Mediation Model testing the TBWA Hypothesis with bs (and ps between brackets).

Note: CTB-P= children’s trust beliefs in parents; CTB-SW= children’s trust beliefs in social worker; CWA= children’s working alliance towards social worker; ns= not significant.

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Table 1: Correlations between I-CGTB and CTBGSW dimensions.

M (SD)

1 2 3 4 5

Reliability ICGTB 3.64 (.64) .56*** .55*** .44*** .34*** .52***

Emotional ICGTB (1) 3.67 (.67) .31** .33*** .42*** .47***

Honesty ICGTB (2) 3.10 (.75) .15 .13 .72***

Reliability CTBGSW (3) 4.04 (.64) .41*** .22**

Emotional CTBGSW (4) 3.81 (.74) .27*

Honesty CTBGSW (5) 3.62 (.79)

Note: CGTB= Children’s Generalized Trust Beliefs Scale; CTBGSW= Children’s Generalized Trust Beliefs in Social Workers; * p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001; df = 108

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References

eprints.keele.ac.uk trust in social... · web view2018-08-08 · as expected, trust beliefs in...

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