The role of education, participation in departmental decisions, and burnout in social support and consulting networks in juvenile probation departments

Juvenile probation officers (JPOs) play an important role as decisionmakers for adolescents under their supervision in the community. While some research has examined how individual and organizational characteristics may affect their decisionmaking, this is the first study to examine the role of social networks that naturally occur within the juvenile probation department workplace. Specifically, demographics, attitudes about participation in the workplace, and burnout were examined as predictors of social support and consultation networks within the workplace. The current study was exploratory in nature. Participants were JPOs who supervised adolescents in the United States within one state. JPOs who felt more involved in workplace decisionmaking processes reported receiving more social support from their colleagues. JPOs with some graduate education or a Master’s degree were less likely to provide consultation to others on tough cases or to be rated by others as providing social support. Implications are discussed.