The purpose of this study was to look at the impact of domestic violence trainings on attitudes and beliefs of child welfare services (CWS) social workers. The investigator administered a written survey to measure beliefs about domestic violence. Research subjects included participants of the Public Child Welfare Training Academy (PCWTA) Core training, which included a one-day training on domestic violence. Analysis of the survey questions measured participants' attitudes about reporting child abuse, removal of children exposed to domestic violence, and victim blaming. Overall, data analysis revealed no significant change in attitudes after the DV trainings. However, the change in attitudes about victim blaming was significantly greater for participants identifying as White/Caucasian than the rest of the participants, and participants identifying as Hispanic/Latino reported a slight change in the opposite direction than the rest of the participants. These differences in responses by race and ethnicity call for further research and for trainers to re-look at the cultural application of their DV trainings. Finally, further research is needed to investigate the impact of these attitude changes upon the decision-making behaviors of the CWS workers in the field.
