A Framework for Studies of Separation in Child Welfare

Abstract

Research on separation in child welfare uses concepts from a number of theoretical perspectives, including family development, organization theories, and population statistics. These can be linked by a scheme of critical decision points in the admission of children to care, including community identification and disposition of the problem, the decision to initiate child welfare services, and service outcome. Associated with these decision points are seven types of studies, which, it is argued, will produce findings which can be interrelated. Some aspects of epidemiology are useful, though child separation should be considered not as some analogy to a disease but rather as a social intervention.