Child Protection Work Research Articles

Participation in the Child Protection Assessment: Voices from Children in Estonia

This article explores children’s views and experiences of participation within the context of child protection assessment practice. The findings of this study enable child protection workers as well as other professionals to learn from children, what is needed to better engage children to participate in matters affecting them. A small-scale study included 14 children registered as children in need of assistance in child protective services from one region in Estonia through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate that children’s experiences and memories of their first contact with the child protection worker varied extensively. Some of the children had no experience talking to a child protection worker personally, meaning their voices were not expressed, heard, or considered in the decision-making process. Communication was lacking in the dialogue, and no deep conversations about family life, interventions, children’s needs, wishes, or hopes were reported. A lack of communication tended to be mainly part of younger children’s experiences. Based on models of children’s participation from the literature, contextual elements are proposed to enhance the active child participation process in child protection—child-centredness and inclusiveness. Implications for practice and future research are discussed with a focus on meaningful child participation.

Major findings from the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect 2018

BackgroundThe Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS) is the only source of province-wide statistics on families investigated by child welfare. ObjectiveThis paper presents key findings from the 2018 cycle of the OIS (OIS-2018) and highlights select policy and practice implications of these findings. Participants and SettingsThe OIS-2018 captured information directly from investigating child protection workers about children and families who were the subject of a child protection investigation sampled for inclusion in the study. MethodsThe OIS-2018 sample was drawn in three stages: first, a representative sample of child welfare agencies in Ontario was selected, then cases were sampled over a three-month period within selected agencies, and, finally, investigations that met the study criteria were identified from the sampled cases. The data collected for the OIS-2018 were weighted in order to derive provincial, annual incidence estimates. ResultsAn estimated 158,476 child maltreatment-related investigations were conducted in Ontario in 2018. In the majority of investigations, there was no documented physical or emotional harm to the child. The overall incidence of investigations remains unchanged between 2008 and 2018. The only statistically significant difference during this time period is an increase in risk investigations between 2013 and 2018. ConclusionsData from the OIS gives Ontario child welfare policymakers and practitioners an empirical basis for making evidence-informed decisions. Findings are compared to the United States and Australia.

“I do not want to cause additional pain …”–child protection workers’ perspectives on child participation in child protection practice

ABSTRACT This paper examines the perspectives of child protection workers (CPWs) (n = 106) on the participation of children in child protection practice in Estonia. The findings indicated that child participation was most related to the term “asking a child’s opinion.” On a theoretical level, CPWs considered the asking of a child’s opinion to be significant in child protection practice in order to make decisions in the child’s best interests. In practice, however, asking a child’s opinion was acknowledged to be dependent on the level of development and age of the child, whether there were any custody disputes, and time factors. The reflections of CPWs indicate a protectionist approach regarding child participation because they discussed the issue of children being vulnerable and how encouraging them to participate might be detrimental to their well-being.

Child Protection Work: ‘How Can We Make It a Better Experience?’

Child Protection Work: ‘How Can We Make It a Better Experience?’

Features of activities influencing development of the Other – analysis of the activity of family assistants

The aim of the work is to describe activities within the social work area. The article presents meta-reflection on the features of the activities of child protection workers, which indicate their characteristics. The thesis of the paper is the statement that understanding these activities requires reference to their constitutive features. The point of view adopted in the text concerns the recognition of activity in a dynamic, comprehensive way, taking into account the multiple relationships that are formed between different areas of activity. The text is not a survey report. The presented considerations are rather a reflection from a distance, inspired by the conclusions of narrative research conducted with child protection workers in 2011–2017. The reflection was enriched with literature corresponding to the adopted point of view on the activity analysis. The presented considerations may be of interest to readers located in the field of social work as researchers and/or practitioners who seek inspiration to discover, reinterpret or making strange what is known within the activities related to this field of practice.

Effect of Gender Roles and Workplace Violence on the Professional Quality of Life and Wellbeing at Work Among Child Protection Workers.

Exposure to workplace violence puts child protection workers at risk for adverse occupational outcomes. While previous studies have identified protective and risk factors, individual differences in gender roles have yet to be explored. Moving beyond sex, the present study aims to examine the ways in which gender roles influence exposure to workplace violence, professional quality of life, and wellbeing at work among child protection workers. A randomized sample stratified by sex of 301 Canadian child protection workers (male: 15.6%, female: 84.4%) completed validated questionnaires of gender roles, professional quality of life, and wellbeing at work. We assessed mean differences using analyses of covariances controlling for clinical experience and type of work. We then assessed the moderating effect of gender roles on other variables through hierarchical multiple linear regressions. Androgyny (high masculinity and high femininity) was associated with higher scores on positive indicators of professional quality of life and wellbeing at work. However, gender roles showed no significant moderating effect on the relationship between exposure to violence, professional quality of life, and wellbeing at work. Results suggest that androgyny could be related to potential psychosocial benefits for child protection workers.

Distress Tolerance and Emotion Regulation as Potential Mediators Between Secondary Traumatic Stress and Maladaptive Coping.

The extant literature has illustrated that protective service workers experience negative repercussions associated with their job (including the development of secondary traumatic stress; STS) and may utilize maladaptive coping mechanisms. Developing an improved understanding of factors that might explain the relationship between STS and the utilization of maladaptive coping mechanisms is warranted. This study sought to examine emotion regulation and distress tolerance as potential mediators between STS and the utilization of maladaptive coping mechanisms. Participants were 152 elder protective service workers and 105 child protective service workers who completed an online survey of self-report measures of emotion regulation, distress tolerance, STS, and coping behaviors. A parallel multiple mediator model was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the hypothesis that distress tolerance and emotion regulation would mediate the relationship between STS and the utilization of maladaptive coping. Our hypothesis was partially supported as the effect of STS on maladaptive coping was mediated by emotion regulation but not by distress tolerance. The results from this study have both prevention and intervention implications. From a prevention perspective, efforts could be directed at teaching emotion regulation skills to those at risk for developing STS as a mechanism for decreasing the probability of denial, substance use, behavioral disengagement, and self-blame that may occur as a consequence of STS. From an intervention perspective, some of the negative sequelae of exposure to STS may be averted by teaching EPS and CPS workers who present with STS symptoms, emotion regulation skills.

A child's right to protection during the COVID-19 crisis: An exploratory study of the child protective services of Estonia.

In 2019 the novel Coronavirus COVID-19 was discovered, and the following year the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. This pandemic is unprecedented in human history and affects all aspects of life. In this article, we explore the pandemic's impact on child protective services in Estonia and survey a representative sample of child protection workers (n=81), asking three open-ended questions designed to explore child protection practice. These questions concern the impact on organisational design, the workers' ability to conduct a diagnosis of a child's care context, and what knowledge they could draw upon, as well as the decision itself. The overall findings indicate that the organisational design left practice unprepared; there was a general lack of ability to act upon referrals and also to conduct investigations to evaluate care contexts. Furthermore, there is a general lack of knowledge of how to deal with protective practices and conduct decision-making during crisis situations.

Managing intense work demands: how child protection workers navigate their professional and personal lives

ABSTRACT Child protection workers remain understudied in research on ‘frontline’ workers, even though they are often exposed to the traumatic circumstances of their clients’ lives on top of their intense workload, tight deadlines and day-to-day crisis management. Extensive evidence has shown that both clients’ needs and work demands combine to diminish child protection workers’ well-being, leading them to experience immense stress, burnout and decreased morale, ultimately compelling them to leave their jobs. Our qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews of child protection workers (N = 15) in Australia examines how child protection workers navigate their daily work and non-work lives. Analysis of the interviews revealed unique contextual characteristics about child protection workers’ professional and personal boundaries and the strategies they adopt to navigate their work and non-work roles and responsibilities. Our study’s findings call for more assistance and resources for child protection workers with implications for their managers and organisations.

Evidencing better child protection practice: why representations of domestic violence matter

ABSTRACT Lawyers and child protection workers are actively engaged in the process of constructing and representing domestic violence and risk through the processes of collecting, documenting and presenting evidence. These processes frequently reflect the application of dominant gendered stereotypes commonly perpetuated within patriarchal societies through institutional practices. Such practices commonly include: constructing mothers who parent in the context of domestic violence as failing to protect their children, rendering invisible domestically violent men by collecting limited evidence about their perpetration patterns and fathering practices and decontextualising survivors’ mental distress and/or problematic substance misuse. Drawing on feminist theory and using the example of legal practice in the Queensland statutory child welfare department, this Comment argues that hegemonic gendered representations frequently disadvantage women mothering in the context of domestic violence. The Comment illuminates how domestic violence informed capacity-building activities catalysed practice improvements particularly in relation to how evidence is collected, documented and presented.

Narrative Child Protection in Hungary. The Importance of Knowing the History of the Families in Need in the Social Work with Children

Abstract The study is reflecting on the nature and features of social work with families with children, attempting to discuss social work as assistance and apprehension and to detect whether there is any causal link between the efficiency of social work and the narrative approach and the “unstoried”, “faceless” condition of the families. We argue that professional attitude aimed at providing child protection support is not possible without knowing the story of families with children. Without a helping attitude, no real social work is possible, and thus the client remains invisible and faceless in the process of child welfare or child protection interventions. Besides the actual situations of story-based intervention in social work (micro level), narrativity is also important for the transparent and adequate functioning of the system (mezzo level); moreover, it can become a factor of paradigm shift in social and political discourse on social work and its target groups (macro level). The study is based on the research entitled Child Protection Trends Supporting Children’s Well-Being carried out within the Research Scholarship granted by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2017–2020). The research focused on the family concept of child protection professionals and their views of the clients that can be deducted from this concept. The research also examines the notion and functions of the family from the viewpoint of children, young people and their parents as well as the professional attitudes and interventions determined by these perceptions. Research results show that due to the diversity and complexity of the problems of families in the purview of the child protection system one cannot reflect on professional solutions along types of problems. Successful functioning and efficient child protection rely rather on revealing individual and specific needs. All this indicates that child welfare and child protection work is possible only if built on personal stories.

이번엔 아동을 제대로 보호할 수 있을까?－아동보호전담요원 도입에 대한 탐색적 연구－

본 연구는 ‘포용국가 아동정책’과 관련하여, 공공 아동보호수행체계 전담인력으로 2020년 10월에 새롭게 고용될 예정인 아동보호전담요원 도입시 필요한 전제조건과 아동보호체계가 원활히 작동하기 위해서 전담인력에 부과될 필요가 있는 역할에 관하여 탐색하였다. 이를 위해 아동보호체계 최일선에 있는 아동보호업무 담당 공공 및 민간종사자, 총 44명에 대한 초점그룹인터뷰(Focus Group Interview: FGI)를 수행하였다. 6차에 걸쳐서 수집된 인터뷰 자료를 분석한 결과, ‘아동보호전담요원 도입전 선결과제’ ‘아동보호전담요원 주요 업무’ ‘아동보호전담요원 도입후 예상문제’라는 3개 주제와 13개의 하위범주가 도출되었다. 연구를 통해 도출된 결과를 바탕으로 아동보호전담요원 제도가 현실에 안착하기 위한 방안으로 구체적인 업무매뉴얼 마련, 인력의 전문성 확보 및 양질의 근로조건 제공, 교육체계의 정비, 전문적인 수퍼비전 체계 마련 등을 제안하였다.

Participation of Children Involved in the Child Protection System \u2013 Validation of the Meaningful Participation Assessment Tool (MPAT)

Children have the right to participate in child protection investigations. Although research suggests that participation is related to positive outcomes of children in the child protection system, children’s participation is not always facilitated in practice. Therefore, it is important to validate tools that can be used to further investigate children’s participation. We examined the psychometric properties (i.e., reliability, internal validity, and external validity) of the Meaningful Participation Assessment Tool (MPAT), which measures the degree in which child protection professionals enable children’s participation in child protection investigations. The MPAT is based on the Model of Meaningful Participation (Bouma et al. 2018) and distinguishes three domains of children’s participation in child protection: 1) informing, 2) hearing, and 3) involving in decision-making. It consists of 13 items. We validated the MPAT based on data from 292 child protection cases. We concluded that the MPAT was reliable, internally valid and externally valid. The MPAT’s reliability was reflected by substantial Cohen’s Kappa coefficients ranging from .63 to .92. The Mokken scale analysis revealed a strong scale of 8 items (H = .70, Rho = .89). Items on seeing and hearing children about child protection topics seemed relatively more easy to achieve compared to items on providing children with information, which suggests that child protection workers may struggle most with informing children. Lastly, we concluded that the MPAT might be externally valid because we found higher MPAT scores for subgroups based on child protection institution, age, and gender, which was in line with our expectations.

Child welfare in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic—Emerging evidence from Germany

BackgroundThe coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on the situation and well-being of children and their families, while simultaneously affecting the ability of welfare services for children and youth to support vulnerable families. As measures of contact restrictions were introduced to contain the virus, and schools and childcare facilities closed, the potential risk to child welfare could hardly be overlooked. ObjectivesFocusing on Germany, this article aims to explore some of the effects of the COVID-19 measures on children and families. Furthermore, it examines a number of key challenges for child protection practitioners. These include identifying potential cases of child maltreatment without the support normally provided by teachers and child carers; and establishing and maintaining contact with clients under physical distancing rules. MethodsThe article is based on a review of German and English language scientific and journalistic articles, position papers from professional associations and other gray literature. It benefits from recently published (interim) results of empirical studies conducted in Germany, which explore child welfare issues in the pandemic. ConclusionUnder COVID-19, the child welfare system faces unprecedented challenges and uncertainty (e.g. (partial) loss of cooperation opportunities with key partners) whilst showing signs of remarkable resilience (e.g. child protection workers’ ability to adjust to new conditions). While the potential of digitalising work processes in child protection has become apparent in the pandemic, the proven continuous face-to-face contact between practitioners and their clients is neither dispensable nor replaceable.

Exploring subtypes of children’s exposure to intimate partner violence

Background and purposeExposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most investigated form of maltreatment in Ontario, Canada. Given the potential for negative outcomes for children exposed to IPV, a better understanding of these cases is needed to provide the most optimal service response. The purpose of this paper is to examine the the increase in exposure investigations between 2008 and 2013. Three forms of exposure to IPV are considered in this study: (1) direct witness to physical violence, (2) indirect exposure to physical violence, and (3) exposure to emotional violence. Methods: The study used the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS) data from 2008 and 2013. The OIS is a cyclical, cross sectional provincial child welfare study conducted every five years. Changes in the characteristics of IPV were examined by exploring key variables including the incidence of the specific form of IPV, referral source, and decisions made by child protection workers. Results: There were an estimated 22,347 investigations for exposure to IPV in 2008 and an estimated 31,300 investigations 2013. The overall substantiation rate for this type of investigation also increased with some important variations between subtypes. The number of substantiated investigations for exposure to emotional violence increased significantly between 2008 and 2013, from a rate of 4.21 investigations per 1000 children to 7.16 investigations per 1000 children. There was also a slight increase in the rate of investigations for direct witness to physical violence, but this increase was not statistically significant. In 2013, cases for exposure to emotional violence were 1.6 times more likely to be opened for ongoing child protection services than in 2008, while the rate of transfer to ongoing child welfare services for other exposure subtypes remained unchanged. The main sources of referral for IPV exposure investigations were police (59%), custodial parents (12%), and schools (9%). The proportion of police referrals has remained relatively stable between 2008 and 2013, but referrals by schools and custodial parents have changed within subtypes. Referrals by custodial parents for exposure to emotional violence investigations have doubled. Referrals by schools for direct witness to physical violence investigations have grown by a factor of 2.2. Conclusions and Implications: The continued increase in investigations referred for children’s exposure to IPV is concerning given that the service response remains unchanged. Custodial parents appear to be one of the primary sources of this increase. These results have important policy and practice implications and suggest that a true differential service response is needed for child protection cases referred for exposure to IPV, particularly exposure to emotional violence. These cases would benefit from a more comprehensive response by professionals, including police, shelter and support services, child protection, and schools. Better service coordination and inter-agency collaboration may also prevent families from being re-referred to child protection services.

Screening for economic hardship for child welfare-involved families during the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid partnership response

BackgroundPandemics have a wide range of economic, health and social consequences related to both the spread of a disease and efforts made by government leaders to contain it which may be particularly detrimental for the child welfare-involved population. This is because child welfare agencies serve some of the highest needs children and families. A significant proportion of these families face economic hardship, and as a result of containment measures for COVID-19, more families inevitably will. ObjectiveGiven the range of negative consequences related to the pandemic and the evolving supports available to families, child protection workers needed a clinical tool to guide and support work with families informed by an understanding of economic hardship. The objective of this paper is to report on the development and implementation strategy of a tool to be used for practice intervention during the pandemic. MethodsAction research methodology was utilized in the creation of the clinical tool. The tool’s development and implementation occurred through an academic/child welfare sector partnership involving child welfare agencies representing diverse regions and populations in Ontario, Canada. Factor analysis of representative child welfare data from the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect 2018 (OIS-2018) on economic hardship was used to inform the development of questions on the clinical tool. ResultsThe development and implementation strategy of the clinical tool are described, including the results from analyses of the OIS-2018. ConclusionsFuture directions for the project are discussed, including considerations for using this tool beyond the pandemic.

False allegations and caseworker conflict: Stressors among long-term foster parents

Abstract This qualitative study explored the wisdom and expertise of 19 foster parents who averaged 20 years of fostering experience to learn their most formidable challenges while interacting with the child welfare system as well as sources of support. Phenomenological methods revealed patterns in foster parents’ shared experiences. Findings revealed two significant stressors linked to decision-making: 1) feeling disempowered and undervalued by child protection workers, and 2) coping with false allegations and the investigation process. System-level configuration of roles and power placed stakeholders in an adversarial rather than collaborative position. Their licensing social workers and other long-term foster parents were the strongest sources of support. Findings suggest that stressors may be alleviated with an inclusive and collaborative approach toward decision-making about child placement decisions, recurring trainings on the allegation process, assigning a support social worker during investigations, and cultivating an ongoing supportive community among foster parents.

A systematic review of children’s participation in child protection decision‐making: Tokenistic presence or not?

AbstractThis article examines children's views on and experiences with participation in the child protection system's decision‐making process. The systematic review follows the PRISMA statement and includes 12 peer‐reviewed articles published in academic journals from 2006 to 2017. Findings suggest that children's contact with their worker was limited or non‐existent, which minimised opportunities to express views regarding their situation; child–worker contacts lacked dialogue, information about the process of intervention and trusting relationships, meaning that without a voice, children were not engaged in making decisions. Although data are limited, they suggest little or no dialogue with children by child protection workers. Furthermore, children voiced their experiences of not being informed of or understanding the process or decisions made about their lives.

“Essential” services, risk, and child protection in the time of COVID-19: An opportunity to prioritize chronic need

In many North American jurisdictions, socioeconomically vulnerable families are more likely to be involved with child protection systems and experience ongoing challenges. The current public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on these families via unemployment, “essential” work, isolation, and closures of childcare and schools, with negative implications for children’s developmental wellbeing. Experts warn that while child protection referrals have gone down, children who are at risk of maltreatment are less exposed to typical reporters (e.g., school professionals). At the same time, physical distancing measures are prompting many human service settings to shift toward virtual intervention with children and families. In this commentary, we suggest that a focus on short-term risk in the response to COVID-19 may obscure support for children’s long-term outcomes. We propose two policy considerations: (1) in the immediate term, that child protection workers be deemed “essential”; and (2) in the longer term, that permanent, universal basic income guarantees be implemented to support a baseline of predictability both in families’ material wellbeing and in fiscal budgets in the case of a future crisis. As we write, it is impossible to predict the longevity of these closures nor the extent of their impact on children and families. However, the present article mirrors commentary following previous crises noting the importance of going beyond immediate health risk mitigation to consider wellbeing with regard to children’s development and families’ socioeconomic needs in the long term.

Child participation in child welfare removals through the looking glass: Estonian children’s and professionals’ perspectives compared

Participation is one of the basic rights of the child, which includes participation in juridical decision-making processes that affect the life of the child; however, considering the complexity of judicial proceedings such as child welfare removal and the peculiarities connected to a child as a vulnerable human being in his/her developmental process, this is not an easy topic. The outcome of child participation, whether harmful or beneficial, depends on many different factors, including the quality of professionals’ activity during the process. In this paper, we discuss professionals’ ability to support children’s positive participation in decision making in Estonian child welfare removal. In our analysis, we compare children’s perspectives with professionals’ perspectives. The children’s perspectives are based on their lived experiences of removal, and the professionals’ perspectives originate from the views of child protection workers (CPW) and advocates who represent children during removal proceedings. The data derive from the authors’ recent research projects. First, we secondarily analyzed a selection of transcripts of interviews (n = 20) with children with lived experience of removal from Estonian research for a Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) project (2013–14). Second, we analyzed the Estonian part of the inquiry data from the Improving Decisions through Empowerment and Advocacy (IDEA) project (2017–19) questionnaires administered to specialists (n = 107), with a particular focus on the respondents’ comments and answers to the qualitative open-ended questions. The conceptual framework for the comparison is based on Lundy’s model of child participation. The results show significant differences between children’s and professionals’ interpretations of child participation and a deficit of dialogues between children and professionals in child welfare removal proceedings.