"Absorptive capacity in child welfare: measurement challenges and item development," is new research by the SSW's Jenny Afkinich, PhD candidate Andrew Winters, former SSW faculty member Geetha Gopalan and the SSW's Charlotte Bright. The work appears in the recent issue of the Journal of Public Child Welfare.
ABSTRACT:
Promoting successful implementation of evidence-based practices within child welfare agencies necessitates accurately measuring absorptive capacity (i.e., the ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit knowledge) through valid and reliable assessment. However, a measurement tool does not exist for child welfare agencies. As such, this exploratory study identified existing measures and items relevant to absorptive capacity in child welfare. The study resulted in 12 identified measures, comprising 98 applicable items. This research is a first step toward creating a measure for use in child welfare settings that will guide practice and administration decisions through valid measurement.