Child Welfare Social Workers Research Articles

The impact of violence prevention behaviour on threats and violence among child welfare social workers

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to determine whether Violence Prevention Behaviour (VPB) at coworker-, supervisor-, and top-management levels is related to risk of exposure to threats and violence among child welfare social workers. The study design was a two-wave prospective questionnaire survey data of child welfare workers in Norway with a time-lag of six months between baseline (N = 678) and follow-up (N = 424), Overall cohort response rate was 34 per cent. Mean exposure to threats and violence was 10.08 (SD = 14.83) events at baseline and 8.75 (SD = 13.61) events at follow-up. A zero-inflated negative binomial model showed that Top management level VPB was associated with a significantly lower risk of exposure to threats and violence (β = −.22, p < 0.01) at baseline, and follow-up (β = −.19, p < 0.01). VPB at the coworker level was associated with higher levels of threats and violence at baseline (β = .19, p < 0.01), but not at follow-up. Supervisor VPB was not associated with levels of threats or violence. Efforts from top management to prioritise safety in decisions, and clearly communicating these safety prioritisations to staff, will strengthen VPB and thereby be beneficial for reducing the occurrence of threats and violence among child welfare social workers.

“Suffering in silence”: How social workers in child welfare practice experience and manage burnout

Social workers in child welfare practice encounter dilemmas, tensions, contradictions, ambiguities, and ambivalence as they attempt to meet the competing demands of the Tri-sphere — the formal child welfare system, the professional theories and values guiding practice, and the child welfare service recipients. This study explored how these encounters result in worker burnout and how that is managed. The study used a constructivist grounded theory approach. Data were collected in St. John’s, NL, Canada, employing in-depth individual interviews with 18 frontline child welfare social workers. Findings reveal that child welfare social workers regularly experience varied feelings and emotions of burnout and utilize a variety of self-care strategies to manage. Recommendations include a call for child welfare agencies to provide opportunities for workers to feel heard and acknowledged about any negative feelings and emotions, strengthen positive peer supports, and promote essential self-care practices such as offering reduced membership cost for physical activities.

Exploring Burnout Prevention: Self-Care and Coping Strategies for Child Welfare Social Workers in Penang

Exploring Burnout Prevention: Self-Care and Coping Strategies for Child Welfare Social Workers in Penang

Rights-based social work as a practice. The role of child welfare social work in the repatriations of Finnish children from the camps in north-eastern Syria

ABSTRACT In this article, we present an interdisciplinary analysis that combines perspectives of law and social work on the role of child welfare social work in Finnish repatriations of children from camps in north-eastern Syria after the territorial losses of the terrorist organisation ISIS in 2019. We used qualitative data that consists of interviews of professionals, which we analysed using thematic analysis. The findings show how a rights-based approach to the issue of repatriation helped to decrease tension in a highly politicised situation, making children’s rights the starting point of the decision making process followed by a professionally led bureaucratic process in which several children were repatriated from the camps in Syria. Social workers’ decisions in individual cases both affected the legal obligations of the state to repatriate and the repatriation processes. The actions taken by the social workers emerge as practices of rights-based social work. Importantly, the role of social workers has been essential in how rights of the children were negotiated and understood in an evolving process between authorities.

The Impact of Emotional Dissonance on Turnover Intent in Child Welfare Social Work: Test of a Moderated Mediation Model

ABSTRACTHigh employee turnover represents a substantial problem in child welfare work. To prevent turnover, knowledge about risk factors, mechanisms, and conditional factors that can explain turnover and turnover intent is highly important. This study investigated a moderated mediation model with (1) emotional dissonance as a predictor of subsequent turnover intent, (2) job dissatisfaction and burnout as potential mediators, and (3) being overly nurturing as a potential moderating variable. The associations were examined using data from a two‐wave prospective questionnaire survey of 424 child welfare workers in Norway. Emotional dissonance was positively related to burnout and job dissatisfaction (cross‐sectionally) and had a significant indirect association with increased turnover intent 6 months later (prospectively) through burnout, but not job dissatisfaction. An antagonistic interaction effect of being overly nurturing was found on the association between emotional dissonance and burnout, and the indirect association with turnover intent. Specifically, having low scores on the overly nurturing trait had a protective effect on burnout and turnover intent in cases of low to moderate exposure to emotional dissonance. In cases of high emotional dissonance, all employees reported the outcomes as equally negative irrespective of their tendency to be overly nurturing. The findings highlight the importance of organizational efforts that can help child welfare workers deal with emotional demands.

Leaders as the targets of workplace bullying - prevalence and outcomes

PurposeBullying of leaders is an underexplored topic in organizational research. To fill this knowledge gap, the aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of bullying of leaders and to examine whether holding a formal leadership position influences the relationships between exposure to bullying and the outcomes job satisfaction and depression.MethodsData from two separate surveys were employed: (1) A cross-sectional occupation specific sample comprising 678 Norwegian child welfare social workers; (2) A nationally representative probability sample of 1,608 Norwegian employees with two time-points (6 months’ time-lag).ResultsAnalyzing multiple indicators of workplace bullying, holding a formal leadership position had no impact on the initial risk of being bullied. Analyses of prospective data showed that leaders report a somewhat stronger increase in levels of bullying over time compared to non-leaders, although the effect size was small. With exception of a small buffering effect on the cross-sectional association between exposure to bullying behaviors and job satisfaction in the second sample, holding a leadership position had no effect on the strength of the association between bullying and outcomes.ConclusionThe findings show that leaders have the same risk of being bullied and are influenced by bullying in roughly the same manner as non-leaders. Organizational measures and interventions against bullying should therefore consider leaders as a risk group in line with other employees.

How Do Child Welfare Social Workers Assess the Leadership of Their First-line Managers? A 15-Year Perspective

Abstract The study aimed to investigate how child welfare social workers assessed the leadership of their first-line managers over a period of fifteen years and to examine whether the assessments have changed over time. More specifically, the analysis focused on the extent to which social workers perceive the leadership of their first-line managers to be empowering, supportive and fair. Data were collected in the years 2003 (n = 293), 2014 (n = 300) and 2018 (n = 309) using the same questionnaire, mainly based on QPS Nordic, which was distributed to social workers working with investigations of children and youth. The results show that the social workers assessed all measured aspects of their first-line managers’ leadership as better in 2014 compared to 2003 and significantly better in 2018 compared to 2003. In light of previous studies showing that child welfare managers experience less optimal conditions for their leadership, the results are surprising. How is it possible that the first-line managers, despite their own descriptions of a more difficult leadership situation, are seen as more supportive, empowering and fair in their leadership from the social workers’ perspective? Possible explanations for the social workers’ better assessments over the years, such as specialisation, are discussed.

Social work in an assembly line? The development of specialisation in child welfare and further internal division of work between 2003 and 2018

ABSTRACT Organisational specialisation characterises present social work in Sweden as internationally. Specialisation is often expected to lead to higher professional expertise. This study provides an overview of the development of specialisation and workforce characteristics in child welfare based on survey data collected in 2003, 2014 and 2018. The aim was to describe the development of specialisation and discuss the conditions for professional expertise in child welfare work. The results indicate that child welfare work is increasingly work task specialised. Social workers reported performing fewer tasks in 2014 and 2018 compared to 2003. This could be understood mainly as a form of statutory specialisation, indicating a shift in the professional role. Also, with the tendency to divide the work into only one or two phases of the process, child welfare work today almost resembles work at an assembly line. Compared with 2003, the statutory child welfare social workers surveyed in 2014 and 2018 were also significantly younger and less experienced. Since decision-making in child protection is a highly complex and challenging task, a question is if the development may be a survival strategy of the organisations rather than an opportunity for developing expertise.

Secondary Traumatic Stress and Burnout Among Child Welfare Social Workers in Southern China: Focusing on Resilience and Social Support

ABSTRACT This study aimed to examine factors associated with secondary traumatic stress (STS) and burnout and test the direct effect of resilience and the indirect effect of resilience via social support on STS and burnout among child welfare social workers in Southern China. Results indicated that higher levels of resilience and social support were significantly associated with lower odds of STS and burnout, and there was a significant indirect effect of resilience via social support on STS and burnout. Results imply that it is critical to facilitate positive effects of resilience on decreasing STS and burnout via providing social support.

Training of child welfare social workers: American, British, and Ukrainian approaches

The article considers the training of child social workers in the UK, the USA, and Ukraine. The study aim relates the structure, content, and forms of training. Theoretical, and comparative methods allowed to generalize the available data on the issue current state of professional training of social workers. The results of the study allow concluding that the common features of American, British, and Ukrainian system of social workers training for the work with children are: (i) the use of a variety of teaching forms, methods, and technologies; (ii) the curriculum orientation on the unity of theoretical and practical components; courses addressing direct work with children and families, social policy, social services for children and families with much attention to the aspects of adoption, foster care, juvenile justice, child abuse, child neglect, etc. The research outcomes testify that the principal difference between models of social workers training is the accent of curriculum in the UK and the USA on the issues of preventive care, social and legal protection of children, and in Ukraine − on the deviation’s correction, on the therapeutic assistance.

Capturing invisibility: child welfare social worker's interventions and assessment planning in presentations of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder(s)

PurposeChild welfare services (CWSs) globally continue to absorb high rates of children living with or suspected of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Such high prevalence rates render CWS with major ethical and moral dilemmas of meeting complex needs. Currently, many jurisdictions are challenged by diagnostic capacity and cost implications of formal FASD diagnosis. This paper aims to recommend a screening protocol to address management gap between FASD initial presentation and formal diagnosis.Design/methodology/approachThis is a follow-up paper from a grounded-theory study of a sample (N = 18) of child welfare social workers (CWSWs), allied health professionals and foster parents. A stepwise protocol was developed through systematical interpretation of the final data.FindingsThe application of a five-step screening protocol would greatly support CWSW in meeting the needs of children with suspected FASD. This CWSWs-led assessment model incorporates a clinical evaluation to exclude neurodevelopmental conditions caused by known genetic disorders, followed by behavioral and neurocognitive psychosocial assessments.Research limitations/implicationsThis study had several limitations. Firstly, as a specific social work-based sample, it is not necessarily representative of the wider population of social workers globally due to different cultural responses to FASD in CWSs. The transferability of findings will have to be considered due to cultural variations concerning FASD.Practical implicationsBy offering a management and nonlabeling approach, this five-step screening protocol offers a delineated pathway for CWSW and addresses the major professional frustrations while seeking to plan safe care for a child suspected of having FASD.Social implicationsThe research offers a pragmatic low-cost to society to alleviate the mounting social and monetary implications of FASD. A large percentage of children impacted by prenatal alcohol exposure do not qualify under formal clinical diagnostic guidelines. Leaving these children without intervention is problematic. The recommendation of this study addresses this critical gap in services. The primary aim is to alleviate the burden on this cohort of vulnerable children by offering nonlabeling neurodevelopmental screening.Originality/valueThe direct implications of FASD and how it impacts CWS are well documented. However, few studies focus on the critical interface of FASD and the role of CWSW responsible for planning their safe care. This paper offers a novel pragmatic and functional multistep protocol to aid CWSW in this complex area of practice.

Experiences of child welfare social workers in addressing substance use among maltreated young mothers to prevent child maltreatment

AbstractSubstance use during the perinatal period and while parenting can pose a significant risk to children's safety and well‐being. Mothers who have experienced child maltreatment are more likely to use substances than mothers without a history of maltreatment. This study explores how child welfare social workers experience supporting young, maltreated mothers struggling with substance use to prevent the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment. Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted with four social workers working with young mothers with a history of maltreatment and substance use. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis revealed two themes: (1) grappling with system challenges and (2) supporting strategies for disrupting intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment. The results highlight the need for systemic changes around support for social workers who work with young mothers who use substances and have a history of maltreatment, and substance use treatment and mental health programs themselves. Mothers need access to prenatal programs that are trauma‐informed, non‐judgemental and that support participants' basic needs and parenting skills.

The Perceived Job Performance of Child Welfare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

While the evidence on the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being of frontline social workers is emerging, the research on the impact of the pandemic on their performance is scarce. The presented study explores how the relationship between work environment predictors and perceived stress explains the job performance of child welfare social workers during the pandemic using survey responses of 878 child welfare social workers. The findings revealed the mechanism through which environment predictors and perceived stress interacted in explaining job performance during a time of large-scale crisis. We found that C.W. social workers who experienced greater COVID-19-related service restrictions reported poorer job performance, that perceived stress disrupted workers’ supervision and autonomy, and that supervision and job autonomy protected C.W. social workers from the adverse effects of perceived stress and workload on their job performance. Conclusions included the importance of autonomy and supervision in mitigating job-related stressors and the need to adapt and enhance child welfare supervision during times of national crisis.

Hearing the voice of child welfare social workers: planning safe care for a child with or suspected of having fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs)

PurposeIn the early 1970s, clinical evidence emerged documenting causal links between prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and children’s behaviors as observed by child welfare social workers (CWSWs). Unfortunately, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) remain on the margins of public health priorities. The purpose of this study was to elicit the views of child welfare social workers when responding to case of or suspected FASD.Design/methodology/approachA sample (N = 18) of CWSWs, allied health professionals and foster parents were interviewed.FindingsFindings indicate that social workers struggle with their statutory duty to plan safe care for children with or suspected of having FASD. Emergent themes include struggling with advocacy, professional devaluation and lack of procedural guidance.Practical implicationsSocial workers need a clear pathway and FASD knowledge to guide their interventions and enhance their capacity to advocate for affected children.Originality/valueAn abundance of research documents the direct effect of PAE on physical, cognitive and behavioral outcomes. However, few studies focus on the critical interface of children with an FASD entering public care and the social workers responsible for planning their safe care. This study sought to document social workers’ response to this vulnerable cohort of children.

Media Coverage of Child Welfare Social Workers and its Effect on Professional Self-Esteem: The Moderating Role of Family and Social Support

Abstract Negative coverage in the media of social workers employed in the field of child welfare frequently appears in the wake of tragedies within families. Though social workers cannot always prevent incidents of this kind, the media, and consequently the public, blame them for dereliction of duty, an attitude that can affect their professional self-esteem. The present research poses the question of how negative versus positive media coverage of social workers in the field of child welfare affects their professional self-esteem, and whether family and social support can moderate such an outcome. In order to examine this question, a controlled empirical study was carried out with ninety-nine social workers. The participants were divided randomly into three groups, each exposed to media coverage of a different nature: positive, negative and neutral. They were then asked to complete a professional self-esteem questionnaire. The results point to a significant relationship between education, professional seniority, family and social support and professional self-esteem. Thus it was found that family and social support moderated the effects of negative media coverage on professional self-esteem. The implications of the findings for the professional practice of social workers are discussed.

Lower Demands but Less Meaningful Work? Changes in Work Situation and Health among Social Workers in a 15-Year Perspective

Abstract The study aimed to investigate how working conditions, intention to leave and self-rated health among Swedish social workers in child welfare have developed over the course of fifteen years. In 2003 (n = 309), 2014 (n = 313) and 2018 (n = 305), the same questionnaire was distributed to social workers who were working with the same tasks in the same geographical areas. The results show that the social workers in 2018 overall rate their working conditions as better than they did in 2014, and in most respects also better than in 2003. The most salient improvements are that work demands in 2018 are described as significantly lower than in earlier years, and organisational climate, group work and support from their superior and co-workers are seen more positively. Despite these positive developments, the changes in how the social workers rate their health and to what extent they intend to leave the workplace were minor. Also, how the social workers rated positive challenges in work and the extent to which they perceived their work as meaningful or felt that their skills and knowledge often were useful in their work had deteriorated. Possible factors as the influence of New Public Management and increased use of manuals and forms are discussed.

Child Protection and Welfare During the COVID 19 Pandemic: Revisiting the Value of Resilience-Building, Systems Theory, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma-Informed Approaches

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to present a reading of child protection and welfare practice in the recent covid 19 pandemic, with reference to several popular concepts in social work. The focus is on the relevance of these concepts to the contemporary circumstances in which child protection and welfare social workers often now find themselves. The specific intention is to extract learning from four traditionally popular approaches in social work, namely, resilience-building, systems theory, ACES and trauma-informed approaches. This will be achieved by first introducing, and then explaining key ideas and conventions of each approach. Here, relevant and established literature will be referenced to inform explanations. As the utility of the systemic perspective for child protection work is already well established, the paper considers how this perspective can be extended to assist in work with children and young people in the pandemic who have Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). In this paper, exploration of the detail of that extension lies in resilience building and trauma-informed practice. Whilst concepts of trauma-sensitivity and resilience are variously embedded in ACEs literature, their mutual treatment tends to be deficient in one regard. Specifically, these concepts are often not thought about in a systemic manner, necessitating the inclusion of a systemic lens. Overall, the case of child protection and welfare social work offers an important focus by which one might question the relevancy of these approaches to contemporary practice in a global pandemic. In concluding, the paper’s core proposition is revisited. Specifically, it is argued that the focal approaches, traditionally popular in social work, remain both instrumental and imperative, for understanding the complexities of child protection and welfare unfolding in a global pandemic.

Too Vulnerable to Participate? A Systematic Literature Review of the Gap between a Right to Participate and Participation, in Welfare Services

AbstractThere is a need to reconceptualize children as competent and reflective actors in their own lives, acknowledging their right to be heard and to participate in meaningful ways. This article explores and suggests the means to overcome the gap between the formal right to participate and meaningful participation in welfare services that involve evaluating a child’s family environment. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic literature review to synthesize the qualitative literature on how children and young people who have been in contact with child welfare services experience participation in the making of decisions that affect their well-being. The articles collected from eight scientific databases indicate that despite a growing general emphasis on the importance of child participation over the past 25 years, the operationalization of children’s right to be heard is challenging in child welfare services. There are challenges at both the organizational level, with the failure to fully acknowledge and operationalize children’s right to be heard in a sufficient manner, and at the individual level, with a need to improve opportunities for communication that facilitate trustful relationships between child welfare social workers and children in need. Based on previous studies of participation in a child welfare context at different levels, we conclude that a legally clear framework in combination with the realization of Skivenes and Strandbu’s definition of participation would increase the chances that children’s interests and right to be heard are respected, protected, and implemented.

Dealing with risk in situations of poverty: when complexity in frontline practice becomes wallpaper for organisational policy

ABSTRACT A recent body of research draws on the concept of child welfare inequality and shows that social inequalities, such as poverty, are reproduced in and through child welfare and protection interventions. We therefore examine how the recent preoccupation with risk relates to ways in which frontline social workers in child welfare and protection deal with poverty. Our contribution is based on a qualitative research project in a governmental organisation in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) that implements the Australian risk assessment method Signs of Safety (SofS). We explore how frontline social workers who implement Signs of Safety in Flanders deal with risk in situations of poverty, and identify four strategies of discretion in dealing with poverty: (1) poverty as a complicating factor, (2) poverty as a concern, (3) poverty as an undercover concern for social workers, and (4) poverty as a social problem that requires structural responses. Our research findings particularly show that the interaction of frontline social work with organisational policy is crucial. Rather than framing poverty as ‘the wallpaper of frontline practice’, we argue that the complexity and struggle at stake in frontline practice becomes ‘wallpaper’ for child welfare and protection organisational policy in Flanders.

Not Rocket Science: Implementing Efforts to Improve Working Conditions of Social Workers

Abstract The aim of the study was to investigate if the working conditions of child welfare social workers in one municipality would be improved after the implementation of three initiatives: weekly small group supervision for newly educated social workers, team-strengthening activities and training for the team leaders. Five teams consisting of thirty-six child welfare social workers and five team leaders participated. At project start and after the two project years (2017–2018), the social workers’ perception of their working conditions was measured by a questionnaire (QPS Nordic). After the two years the social workers rated several aspects of their working conditions more positively. They were more satisfied with the organisational climate and leadership and with the collaboration in their work group. Turnover, which had been high for many years, had almost stopped and vacancies were now filled. The social workers were now more often satisfied with the quality of their work. Interestingly, these positive changes had occurred at the same time as the social workers now reported higher demands and more often experienced role conflicts. The overall results of this small-scale study indicate that working conditions of social workers can be improved after the implementation of rather modest means.