A Qualitative Study of Social Work Assessment in Cases of Alleged Child Abuse

Abstract

SUMMARY While there has been considerable theorizing about how social workers think and act, there has been relatively little research in this area. In the study reported in this paper, in-depth interviews and observations of practice were used to explore the process of assessment undertaken by Australian social workers in a hospital specialist service and in a statutory child protection service. Using a semi-longitudinal approach which 'shadowed' 10 families (17 allegedly abused children), highly detailed data were collected from 42 observations of practice and 123 interviews with 12 hospital social workers and 15 child protection workers on how their assessments evolved over the life of these cases. While there were some individual differences between practitioners within each organization, of greater significance were the marked differences between the two groups in the variables to which they attended. Both groups tended to adopt a proceduralized model of practice which narrowed the range of factors considered in assessment. From the early conceptualizations of social casework (Richmond, 1917), the unit of attention has been said to be that of 'the person-situation configura tion' or the interaction of factors between the individual and the environment, as reflected in the notion of 'psycho-social assessment'. Since the 1970s, this has sometimes been described as an 'ecological' model (Germain, 1979). This term has its origins in Urie Bronfenbrenner's (1979) contextually ori ented theory of child development. Garbarino (1982), building on the work of his mentor Bronfenbrenner, has become well known in the child abuse and neglect field. To what extent psycho-social assessment has been the mental model adopted by social workers in their practice, however, has been