Job satisfaction and intentions to quit of marriage and family therapists: A comparsion of work settings

William A Smith, Purdue University

Abstract

This study surveyed marriage and family therapists (MFTs) employed in private practice, community agencies, and other settings to determine whether global job satisfaction and quit intentions varied by job setting, and to determine what demographic, workplace, and role stressor variables contributed to these outcomes. A national randomly selected sample of 266 marriage and family therapists completed measures of job satisfaction, quit intentions, and role stressors, in addition to demographic and workplace information. It was hypothesized that MFTs employed in private practice would report higher job satisfaction and lower quit intentions than those employed in community agencies. In support of the hypotheses, results showed that MFTs employed in private practice reported significantly higher global job satisfaction and significantly lower intentions to quit than those employed in community agencies. There were no differences between the private practice and other groups on these outcomes. No differences in job satisfaction and quit intentions were found between men and women, and there was no evidence that gender moderated the effect of practice setting on either outcome. MFTs employed in community agencies reported lower income, fewer clinical contact hours per week, more administrative hours per week, a higher percentage of high needs/high risk client caseload, and higher role ambiguity, role overload, and role conflict than MFTs in private practice and other settings. Despite these differences, results suggest that MFTs across settings are generally satisfied with their jobs, have low quit intentions, and report low levels of role stressors. The best predictor of global job satisfaction across all settings was satisfaction with the nature of work and the best predictor of quit intentions was global job satisfaction. The investigator suggests future directions for research given the limitations of the current study and discusses implications for these findings for the profession of marriage and family therapy.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Sprenkle, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Occupational psychology

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