Abstract
Turnover among child welfare workers is a serious and well-documented problem. One of the reasons it is particularly troubling is that it disrupts relationships between young people in care and their child welfare professionals. These relationships have the potential to provide support to and enhance outcomes for youth who arguably already have a considerable history of relationship loss. To date, scholarship has focused primarily on the causes and remedies of turnover, instead of the effects. This study explores the lived experience of turnover from the child's perspective, adding an important and underrepresented voice in the literature. The findings presented in this article originate from a two-year, multi-perspective, multi-method qualitative study exploring relationships between young people in care and their child welfare professionals. Youth narratives reveal that turnover: happens frequently; is often abrupt and poorly processed; occurs with all their child welfare professionals; and is a relationship loss. These losses were found to impact the emotional and relational well-being of youth in a variety of complex ways. Practitioners, supervisors, administrators, researchers, and policy makers alike will find the child-centered and relationship-based approach to turnover discussed in this article, important and timely.