Premium
The relationship between reactance and engagement in a child welfare sample
Author(s) -
Mirick Rebecca G.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
child and family social work
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1365-2206
pISSN - 1356-7500
DOI - 10.1111/cfs.12022
Subject(s) - reactance , welfare , context (archaeology) , psychology , social psychology , dimension (graph theory) , sample (material) , developmental psychology , political science , mathematics , geography , engineering , chemistry , archaeology , chromatography , voltage , law , pure mathematics , electrical engineering
Parents frequently do not engage in child welfare services. A lack of engagement can lead to significant negative consequences for families. A relationship between psychological reactance and engagement in the context of child welfare work has been theorized but not examined empirically. This paper presents the results of a preliminary descriptive study ( N = 43) which found a significant negative relationship (r = −0.277, P < 0.05) between individual reactance levels and levels of engagement in child welfare services. A four‐dimension measure of engagement was used. Significant relationships were found between reactance and the dimensions of working relationship (r = −0.260, P < −0.05) and mistrust (r = 0.340, P < 0.05) and a similar trend was seen with a third dimension, receptivity (r = −0.245, P = 0.056). There was no significant relationship between reactance and the fourth dimension, buy‐in. The implications of these findings for child welfare work are explored.