The impact of COVID-19 on child welfare-involved families: Implications for parent–child reunification and child welfare professionals

Abbie E Goldberg,David Brodzinsky,Patience Crozier,Jacqueline Singer

doi:10.1177/25161032211045257

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted children and parents involved in the child welfare system and the professionals working with these families. Using survey data collected August–September of 2020, this mixed-methods study examined the perspectives of 196 child welfare-involved professionals (77 attorneys, 99 caseworkers, and 20 therapists) in the United States about the impact of COVID-19 on parents of origin, children, foster parents, and child welfare professionals. Particular attention was paid to the implications of COVID-19 and associated challenges for parent–child contact and reunification. With respect to professional stresses, more than half of participants worried about their own personal safety and health amidst COVID-19, and more than three-quarters expressed concerns about the safety and well-being of child welfare-involved families. Participants, especially attorneys, expressed concerns about parent–child contact and disruptions to reunification. In-person parent–child visits had all but ceased during the early part of the pandemic, and participants identified barriers to effective virtual visits, including lack of foster parent oversight, technology issues, and children’s developmental stage and/or lack of engagement. Attorneys were especially critical of the cessation of in-person visits and viewed this as a serious threat to child-parent bonds and reunification. Participants, especially child welfare workers, voiced concerns about children’s mental health and educational outcomes amidst the pandemic. Findings have implications for attorneys, child welfare workers, and other practitioners who directly and indirectly interface with child welfare-involved families.

Highlights

COVID-19 has had significant implications for families, especially those involved in the child welfare system
Potential participants were told that the researchers were “interested in child welfare professionals’ perspectives on the challenges facing families involved in the child welfare system during COVID-19, those related to contact and the use of virtual forms of communication.”
Our analysis focused on participants’ description of the child welfare system, visits, reunification, and COVID-19 and was informed by prior literature and family stress and ecological systems frameworks, as we were attentive to the interrelated and cascading nature of the stresses experienced by families and caregivers involved in the child welfare system, from the perspective of professionals involved in that system

Summary

Introduction

COVID-19 has had significant implications for families, especially those involved in the child welfare system. Technology-mediated contact was initiated, which has raised concerns among professionals about serving the needs of families, especially those with (a) young or special needs children or (b) limited access to technology (Pisani-Jacques, 2020; Singer & Brodzinsky, 2020). To further understand this issue, the current study used data from child welfare workers, therapists, and attorneys to examine COVID-19’s implications for families involved in the child welfare system and for child welfare professionals. This study addresses professionals’ perspectives on the challenges and stresses experienced by parents of origin, children, foster parents, and child welfare professionals in the US as a result of the pandemic, and the perceived impact of these challenges on parent–child visitation, the reunification process, and the well-being of children and families more broadly.

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion