Impact of Individual, Organizational, and Environmental Attributes on Voluntary Turnover Among Juvenile Correctional Staff Members

Both individual characteristics and organizational attributes were significant predictors of turnover intentions. The individual characteristics were age, race, and education; the organizational variables were job satisfaction, stress, and staff support and communication. In general, organizational attributes were stronger predictors of turnover. Only one variable pertaining to the quality of correctional environment--facility’s amount of care toward juveniles--was significantly related to turnover. In contrast to findings of previous research, dangerousness, gender, and tenure were not related to staff turnover. The most important finding was that stress was one of the primary causes of turnover. Staff members who reported higher levels of stress were at a exponentially higher risk of turnover. Earlier studies found that relationships with correctional administrators and between staff members are often the sources of stress for staff members. Notes, tables, references, appendix