LAUSR

Abstract The child protection service workforce has been constantly challenged by high turnover due to the stressful nature of the job. To address high turnover, prior research has examined a wide range of predictors of child protection workers' intent to leave. This study aimed to identify the interrelationships of risk and protective factors, job satisfaction and burnout to child protection workers' intent to leave, the relative impact between job satisfaction and burnout on intent to leave, and their mediating roles for the risk and protective factors. Analyzing survey data from 93.9% of all public child protection workers in South Korea, we estimated a structural path from risk and protective factors to child protection workers' job satisfaction, burnout, and intent to leave. Path analysis revealed that with the significant effects of emotional exhaustion (β = 0.52, p