Abstract
AbstractSocial workers within child protection services report that families marked by high levels of conflict between separated parents are among the most challenging cases to handle. Few studies however have focussed on how social workers themselves experience and meet with parents involved in hostile martial interactions. This article reports on a qualitative study involving 31 social workers and provides an analysis of their experiences and dilemmas in working with such families. Findings demonstrate that social workers struggle to find ways to help high‐conflict families and often find themselves at an impasse. Parents involved in such conflict are highly resistant to change, and social workers struggle to engage with them over concerns about their children. Furthermore, findings suggest that social workers lack organizationally allotted time to assist the parents. I conclude by discussing ways in which emotional support, empowering interventions, and strength‐based approaches enable social workers to manage relationships with high‐conflict families. More research on this topic is needed to support and promote better practices for social workers to be more effective in assisting high‐conflict families.
Highlights
Many social workers within child protection services (CPS) find their work with children living in families with a high level of conflict between separated parents difficult, exhausting, and frustrating (Jevne & Ulvik, 2012; Saini et al, 2012, 2018)
Half of the practitioners had more than 10 years of experience working in the CPS field, and seven social workers had been employed at the same office for more than 5 years
My findings revealed that social workers struggle to define whether and how interparental conflict affects parents' parenting abilities and whether conflict itself represents a risk to children's well‐being
Summary
Many social workers within child protection services (CPS) find their work with children living in families with a high level of conflict between separated parents difficult, exhausting, and frustrating (Jevne & Ulvik, 2012; Saini et al, 2012, 2018). Part of what keeps parents in a state of high conflict is their failure to reach a compromise or resolution about the child's residence, financial support, and daily routines or about methods of child rearing (Cashmore & Parkinson, 2011; Gulbrandsen, 2013; Weingarten & Leas, 1987). When parents are in the process of divorcing in Norway, disagreements regarding parental responsibility and the child's place of residence and contact with each parent are initially handled via mandatory mediation at a local family counselling office, which is part of the country's welfare services (Gulbrandsen & Tjersland, 2017). The family counselling office offers 1 hour of obligatory mediation
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