Juvenile Correctional Officers: Turnover Intention, Employee Retention, and Job Satisfaction.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of the quantitative study was to evaluate data collected from Juvenile Correctional Officers (JCOs) and Juvenile Correctional Administrators (JCAs) to determine to what degree, if any, there was a correlation amongst these variables impacting turnover intention (intention to leave) among JCOs in Georgia. There were two research questions examined by using data that were collected from staff and administrators using two different surveys in SurveyMonkey. Each survey was analyzed separately. The demographics of the JCO staff were presented and summarized. The theoretical framework of the study lies in the foundations of Lambert’s (2001) theoretical framework for Model of Correctional staff Turnover and Fedrick Herzberg's Two Factor Theory (1966) (also known as Motivator Hygiene Theory). The quantitative correlational design approach measured the problem of turnover rates within the JCO’s positions as it pertains to decreasing turnover rates. JCOs within the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice responded and completed a Survey Monkey survey that provided data in critical areas highlighting JCO concerns, experience, demographics, and insights into their jobs as well as perceptions of both offender populations and administration. After the data were analyzed, the validity and reliability of the measures, as well as the assumptions of the Spearman correlation, were examined and summarized. The descriptive statistics for the JCO staff and administrative surveys were shared. Research question one; was assessed with Spearman correlations, and the null hypothesis was rejected. There was a moderate negative correlation between turnover intentions and satisfaction among such that as satisfaction decreased, turnover intention increased. Research question 2; was also assessed with Spearman correlations, and the null hypothesis was accepted. None of the turnover variables were significantly correlated with any of the motivations for quitting. The study includes recommendations for further research in the juvenile correction field to increase validity and compare results.