Classification of Latent Classes and Analysis of Related Factors Regarding Workplace Adversities among the Social Workers Employed in Social Welfare Centers

The purpose of this study is to classify the latent classes of workplace adversities among the social workers employed in social welfare centers, to identify the individual and organizational characteristics that influence this classification, and to examine whether there are differences in the intention to change jobs and the intention to change workplaces based on the derived latent classes of workplace adversities. To achieve the research objectives, a mail survey was conducted 1,450 social workers employed in social welfare centers located in Busan Metropolitan City. Among the returned surveys, data from 1,152 individuals were used for latent class analysis. In particular, the R3STEP and BCH approaches, which consider classification errors, were applied using a three-step estimation method. The analysis results identified four latent classes of workplace adversity for social workers, named 'high adversity type', 'administrative workload type, 'emotional labor type', and 'low adversity type'. Second, individual characteristics such as gender, age, career, and position, and organizational characteristics such as organization type and supervision system were found to have a statistically significant effect on the latent class classification. Finally, it was found that the intention to change jobs and the intention to change workplaces are higher for the 'administrative workload type', 'emotional labor type', and 'high adversity type' compared to the 'low adversity type'. Additionally, while the intention to change jobs is higher for the 'high adversity type' compared to the 'administrative workload type', no statistically significant difference was found in the intention to change workplaces. Based on these findings, implications for fostering a safety culture in social welfare centers were suggested.