Child Welfare Workers Research Articles

Exploratory factor analysis and reliability of the Child Welfare Employee Feedback Scale: Further revision (CWEFS-R)

Child welfare workers remain dedicated to the service and safety of families and children, despite decades of high rates of turnover and the consequential impact. Developing and obtaining practical tools to proactively engage the workforce and offset these challenges is a necessity. This article will present the development and psychometric analysis of the Child Welfare Employee Feedback Scale (CWEFS-R). Based on a sample of 511 frontline child welfare workers in one midwestern state, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) yielded a five-factor structure: (1) workload; (2) supervision; (3) organizational climate; (4) peer support; and (5) accomplishment. Further, criterion validity showed statistically significant correlations in the anticipated direction with each of the five subscales and Intent to Leave. Practice implications are discussed.

Examining Individual and Service Delivery Context Variables and Their Association with the Effectiveness of QPR Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training.

Suicide prevention training programs have spread rapidly within child and public-serving organizations, due to the alarming increase in youth suicide rates. Yet, within these organizations, roles and responsibilities can shape attitudes and intentions related to suicide prevention, thereby influencing the uptake of prevention efforts. As such, various organizational and individual factors can predict uptake, adoption, and maintenance of prevention efforts (Fixsen et al., 2005). To date, few studies have examined the service delivery context in understanding training effectiveness, especially as it relates to QPR (Question Persuade and Refer), one of the most widely disseminated suicide prevention gatekeeper programs. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to evaluate whether individual and organizational characteristics influenced the effectiveness and sustainability of training outcomes, and whether such differences existed among diverse child and public-serving delivery sectors. Several training outcomes that align with the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) were examined, including confidence, attitudes, social norms, and suicide prevention behaviors. Measures were assessed prior to and 90 days after the QPR program among a sample of 858 professionals. Community support personnel uniquely showed improvements on social norms while juvenile justice and child welfare workers engaged in more suicide prevention behaviors post training. While trainees across sectors had improved suicide prevention attitudes, law enforcement personnel were the exception. Organizational climate predicted change in suicide prevention attitudes, confidence, and social norms. Trainees who were older, Latinx, and Black had the most improvement on several training outcome variables, but these findings also varied within service sectors.

‘It's not like we use the word emotional abuse’. A study on Norwegian child welfare workers understanding of emotional abuse

BackgroundDespite the recognition of emotional abuse (EA) as the most pervasive and harmful of all forms of child maltreatment, it is argued to be less understood than other forms of child maltreatment. EA is regarded as a standalone form for maltreatment and an essential factor embedded in all other forms of maltreatment of children, such as physical and sexual abuse. Thus, it is crucial for child welfare workers to understand EA, as one of their core mandates is to prevent and protect children from all forms of maltreatment. ObjectiveThis study aims to explore how child welfare workers in Norway describe and understand EA. Participants and settingThe study included 24 child welfare workers in 6 child welfare offices in Norway. MethodsThe data were obtained from focus group interviews and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. ResultsOverall, the findings reveal that EA was unfamiliar to the child welfare workers, and that there is a low degree of awareness on EA among the study participants. Further, EA is closely connected to whether parents provide sufficient emotional care for their children and is understood as part of the complex situation surrounding the child. ConclusionsThis article concludes with the need for reflective and sensitive discussions regarding understanding and awareness of EA in child welfare work. This has the potential to lead to greater insights into how EA is understood by child welfare workers as well as to enhance child welfare workers' abilities to describe, communicate about, and document EA.

아동청소년복지 종사자 역량에 관한 요구 분석

Objectives The purpose of this study was to provide basic data to explore the direction of practice of strengthen-ing the professional competency of child and youth welfare workers.
 Methods The subjects of the study were collected from 163 child and youth welfare workers from July 2022 to March 2023. The measurement tools were based on 14 standards of The NASW Standards for Social Work Practice in Child Welfare of the National Association of Social Workers.
 Results As a result of the study, according to the method of deriving the priorities of Borich need and The Locus for Focus model, the common high needs were ‘Administration’, ‘professional development’, ‘qualification’, and ‘collaboration’. And the next needs were ‘advocacy’ and ‘supervision’.
 Conclusions Based on the research results, strengthening qualification standards for professional development and reinforcement, preparing a systematic supervision system, institutional reorganization to improve excessive workload and caseload, opening of essential courses in conservative education to create an appropriate horizontal communication system and flexible organizational culture, active advocacy activities was suggested.

Discretionary decision making in child welfare – An experimental vignette study of the use of interpreter services

This paper focuses on child welfare workers’ discretionary decision making. They can rely on routines, procedures and manuals as part of their work, but in the end, they still have to make a choice, based on the available information at the time. Discretionary decision making is a way of reasoning when facing uncertainty in professional work and when laws, rules and systematic knowledge must be applied in specific cases. A larger body of research on discretion and discretionary decision making in social work has developed, but there remains much ground to cover in terms of empirical analyses of how discretionary processes play out in real-life contexts.The two main research questions ask how the characteristics of each child and context and of social workers and their work situation affect the latter’s decision to use interpreter services in their work with unaccompanied minors and children from minority backgrounds. The decision to use or not to use interpreter services in different situations, as an act of discretionary decision making by child welfare workers, is analysed in this paper. To study discretionary decision making among child welfare workers, a combination of a traditional survey and a vignette experiment has been used, bringing together organisational features, individual traits and situational characteristics. The findings indicate that interpreter services are less likely to be used in acute situations and more likely to be used with the children whom the child welfare staff members know better, irrespective of the children’s language skills. The analyses also show varying effects of the staff’s training and educational backgrounds, and surprisingly, the negative effects of institutional guidelines. One possible interpretation of this is that the guidelines are perceived as rigid constraints, instead of positive recommendations for actions.

The decision-making ecology of child welfare emergency placements

Child welfare decisions are often made amid uncertainty, in which child welfare workers must consider a range of complex factors. Especially in emergency cases, the decision process is often challenging due to limited time and information. Based on individual interviews with child welfare workers from Norwegian child welfare services (n = 19) and emergency services (n = 7), this article examines what affects decisions being made in emergency cases. Interviews were thematically analysed. As a framework, the decision-making ecology is used as an inspiration. Results show that case factors influencing decisions were specifically the topic of concern; parents’ attitudes; family network, and the child’s wishes. One decision-maker factor was CW workers’ experience, and for organizational factors, the participants emphasized clear routines for what to do in emergency cases, working as a team, and considering family networks. For external factors, other agencies’ assessments of the case; guidelines, and available alternative measures were found to influence the decisions. These various factors seem to have a dynamic and, at times, competing influence in several cases.To facilitate better decision-making in emergency cases, child welfare leaders should foster an organizational culture that emphasizes reflection on and awareness of how different factors and their dynamics influence decisions. This could also serve as the foundation for policy changes related to external factors affecting these decisions.

Learning from child welfare staff experiences during the pandemic: Practices to maintain and discontinue

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic led to multiple changes in the ways child welfare agencies operate. Child protection agencies had to make rapid changes that impacted where and how staff operate. Minimal research has examined child welfare workers' views of these practices. ObjectiveThis qualitative study seeks to understand CPS workers' perspectives regarding practices utilized during the pandemic. Staff provided input into practices they found beneficial and hope to see maintained and those they hope to see discontinued. Participants and settingThe full study involved 267 staff members from 50 agencies across Ohio; this study examines qualitative data from 100 staff members who responded to two open ended survey questions. MethodsThis qualitative study used thematic analysis to analyze two open ended questions from a survey sent to all the child welfare agencies in Ohio. ResultsThematic analysis of practices staff hoped to continue after the pandemic resulted in five themes: Nontraditional Site and Schedule, Remote Meetings, Safety Protocols, Communication and Support, and Helping Children and Families. Thematic analysis or practices staff hoped would end after the pandemic resulted in six themes: Masking, Virtual Meetings, Mandated Work Location, Unreasonable Policies, Overloading and Overwhelming Staff, and Separation from Coworkers. ConclusionsStudy results fill a gap in the research by asking CPS staff about their experiences and recommendations after practicing during COVID-19 restrictions. The most common recommendation from staff was to continue offering a nontraditional site and schedule. This study highlights the importance of soliciting and learning from staff perspectives.

Secondary Traumatic Stress and Public Child Welfare Workers’ Intention to Remain Employed in Child Welfare: The Interaction Effect of Job Functions

ABSTRACT High exposure to Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) is a significant risk factor for public child welfare workers’ intention to remain employed in child welfare. This study examined whether the negative impact of STS differed according to workers’ job functions by analyzing survey data collected from 1,053 public child welfare workers. STS was negatively associated with workers’ intention to remain. Furthermore, The negative impact of STS was greater among ongoing case managers than among assessment case managers. We conclude that child welfare organizations should develop trauma-informed policies and organizational support targeted to different patterns of STS by job functions.

Enhancing Supports for Novice Workers in Child Welfare: A Study of Coaching for Child Welfare Interns

Coaching in child welfare settings shows promise as a supplement to traditional agency-based supervision. This study investigates the perceived benefits and challenges of an innovative coaching model for social work students with child welfare internships. Focus groups were conducted with student interns, former interns, and coaches. Focus group participants perceived coaching as helpful for professional development and influential in decisions to stay in child welfare. Participants also contrasted supervision experiences with coaching experiences, finding coaching to be more supportive. Findings point to the potential of coaching and/or strengths-based supervision for fostering commitment to child welfare.

Creating conditions that encourage youth engagement in family child welfare case planning meetings: A youth perspective

Youth in foster care are often excluded from participating in planning for their permanent homes and making other decisions about their lives. In the past decade, there has been an increasing call for laws, policies, and practices that ensure a youth’s right to participation in child welfare and other youth-serving systems. Child welfare, which is often associated with trauma, lack of power, and other disadvantages for involved families, is a complicated context for engaging youth in the processes intended to protect them. From the motivational perspective of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), child welfare workers can understand promoting engagement as creating conditions that meet a youth’s basic psychological needs. The current study used SDT as a framework to analyze in-depth interviews with youth about their experiences with family case planning meetings. Findings explain why different family meeting practices promoted or undermined youth engagement by creating certain contextual conditions (warm/caring, structured/predictable, and supportive of genuine preferences). Some family meeting practices functioned differently in promoting youth engagement depending on the extent to which youth experienced their needs being met. SDT offers both a way to understand casework practices in terms of the conditions they create, and a framework for reflecting on why certain practices operate in different ways for different youth. Workers who understand that engagement stems from meeting individual needs will be better able to promote youth participation in family meetings and their well-being.

How children and young people understand and experience individual participation in social services for children and young people: a synthesis of qualitative studies

ABSTRACT Although there is a growing knowledge base on children and young people’s (CYP) participation in child welfare and social work, it is necessary to systematically describe and summarise the knowledge from their subjective perspectives. This study has conducted a meta-analysis of qualitative research on CYP’s experiences of individual participation in social services for children and young people. We specifically focus on what the research literature can tell us about how they understand the concept of individual participation and which professional practices they find essential for their participation in the services. The aim is to present knowledge about individual participation in social services seen from the CYP perspective.

The quality of collaboration with child welfare scale (Q-CCW): Development and validation

Collaborations in child welfare are crucial for addressing complex needs and improving outcomes for children and their families. In this study we aimed to develop and validate the Quality of Collaboration with Child Welfare (Q-CCW) scale to assess working relationships between providers and child welfare workers. The scale was developed to assess four attributes of collaboration: quality of the working relationship, responsiveness, joint understanding, and communication. Following its construction, the scale was administered to a sample of 208 participants, including mental health clinicians, foster/kinship parents, and lawyers/evaluators. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a one-factor solution, indicating a unified construct of quality collaboration, that demonstrated reliability. The Q-CCW can facilitate the measurement and improvement of collaborations in child welfare, thereby contributing to enhanced service delivery and positive outcomes for children and families.

‘Good parenting’ among middle-class families: a narrative positioning analysis of Norwegian child welfare workers’ stories

ABSTRACT This article investigates norms of parenting in the context of the Norwegian child welfare service (CWS). Research from both international and Norwegian contexts shows that current parenting ideals are built on middle-class values that are often taken for granted. However, there is limited knowledge about the interaction between the CWS and middle-class families. Through narrative positioning analysis, we explore how child welfare workers (CWWs) construct the identities of two middle-class families in contact with the service and how the CWWs’ ideals about parenting are expressed through these stories. Both families are positioned as well-off, and the CWWs provide classed and gendered descriptions of the parents that coincide with dominant narratives of intensive mothering. As clients, the parents are constructed as active adaptive agents and active expert agents. The CWWs relationally construct themselves as a catalyst for change and as a support. The analysis provides insight into how the middle-class ideal is almost unnoticeably being solidified as a standard, and we metaphorically see the interaction between the parents and the CWS as ‘status maintenance ceremonies’. We argue that a narrative positioning analytical framework can be further developed and used to increase reflection on social work practice and education.

Game-based learning: Teaching child welfare workers to engage child sex trafficking victims using “Case By Case”

Child sex trafficking (CST) is the exchange of something of value for any sexual act with a minor. Public child welfare agencies are responsible for serving CST victims. In response to the critical need for training child welfare workers on engaging survivors of CST, we describe an innovative game-based training model used to train over 1000 workers in Maryland. The “Case-By-Case” game uses case studies to shape small group discussions, role playing, skill drills for child welfare workers to build their capacity to identify and engage survivors. Initial evaluations indicate a significant increase in knowledge and self-efficacy for training participants. The model may hold promise for social work education in this critical area, as well as for other types of professional training for social workers.

Immigrant Parents’ Experiences of Child Welfare Assessment Processes in Child Maltreatment Cases: Implications for Trust

The purpose of this article is to contribute to an in-depth understanding of how immigrant parents’ experiences of the child welfare assessment process shape their trust in the Norwegian child welfare services (CWS). The study is based on qualitative data generated through semi-structured interviews with six immigrant parents who have previous or ongoing contact with the CWS. The study finds that the parents’ experiences of the child welfare assessment process influence their trust in the CWS in a variety of ways, with the central themes being: (1) interactions with child welfare workers; (2) transparency and (un)predictability of the process and outcome; and (3) the risk-oriented, problem-focused and adversarial nature of the assessments. Whilst the parents’ positive experiences of the assessment process are associated with trust, their ambivalent and negative experiences are related to mistrust and distrust in the services respectively.

Child Welfare and Social Work Education

Social work has long been involved in child welfare practice. Though lauded as well- intended and admirable work, the profession’s involvement in the child welfare system is fraught with contradictions, ethical tensions, and a legacy of historical trauma and deep mistrust in Black and Native American communities. Challenging this legacy requires an honest look at how schools of social work participate in policies and practices that work to uphold racialized surveillance and forcible family separation. Accordingly, this paper invites readers into a critical conversation regarding social work’s collaboration with child welfare systems via Title IV-E training programs. To these ends, we draw on the conceptual framework of abolition as a useful tool for interrogating and disrupting social work’s relationship to child welfare.

Experiences of Child Welfare Workers in a Child Sex Trafficking Training

ABSTRACT Child welfare workers are serving victims of child sex trafficking (CST) more frequently in their daily interactions, but they are ill-equipped to understand CST as a phenomenon or how to meet the needs of minor victims. Specialized training targeted to teach child welfare workers about various aspects of CST including risk factors, identification of victims, local and state laws about CST, and services for victims exist but are not readily available or consistent. The current study is a qualitative examination of child welfare workers’ perspectives on CST training in a Mid-Atlantic state. Focus group participants identified 17 key ideas within four themes about the challenges of working with survivors of child sex trafficking, the strengths and value of training, training improvements and ongoing needs, and missing resources for survivors. Policy implications include further child trafficking training for workers, and more specialized income and housing resources for survivors, toward the United Nations goals of empowering women and girls, and building a more just, peaceful, and inclusive society.

Complexity Theory and Child Protection and Welfare: A Tool of Hindsight and/or a Tool to Assist Improved Decision Making in Child Protection and Welfare Work

Abstract Child abuse and neglect is a ‘wicked problem’ (Devaney, J. and Spratt, T. (2009) ‘Child abuse as a complex and wicked problem: Reflecting on policy developments in the United Kingdom in working with children and families with multiple problems’, Children and Youth Services Review, 31(6), pp. 635–41.). Child Protection and Welfare (CPW) systems are open systems in which a wide variety of practitioners and families themselves contribute to outcomes. Small interacting changes in one part of a CPW system can lead to unpredictable and systemic effects so linear, technocratic solutions are not sufficient in addressing this complexity. Whilst CPW systems may aim to make clear roles and responsibilities, steered by legislation and regulatory guidance, complex systems do not behave as system designers expect. Recent literature has demonstrated a turn to complexity theory and systems theory concepts for understanding and working in the world of child protection. This article suggests a practice framework based on complexity theory concepts of self-organisation/emergence/adaptation, path-dependency and bifurcation. The utility of the framework is tested by its application to a fictionalised case study built on a thematic analysis of five National Review Panel published case reviews in the Irish child protection context (2019–2020). We argue that complexity theory may be a useful tool for both post hoc analytics as well as providing a proactive tool for application to practice to assist decision making in CPW systems, services and organisations.

Engaging Victims of Child Sex Trafficking: Training for Child Welfare Workers

Abstract Child sex trafficking (CST) is the exploitation through commercial sex of a minor under 18. Federal law requires state child welfare agencies to respond and provide services to victims of CST. Social workers report lacking an understanding of state and federal law related to human trafficking, as well as resources for victims, and are often inadequately trained for identifying and serving survivors. As part of a CST awareness training including lecture, discussion, and game-based learning, child welfare workers were surveyed on their knowledge about CST and their self-efficacy in serving and engaging with survivors. Regression analyses showed that the training was associated with a positive change from pre- to posttest, on both knowledge (R2 = .472) and self-efficacy (R2 =.381), even when controlling for gender, race, experience, pretest knowledge, and position. Interactive trainings for child welfare workers on child trafficking survivor engagement that use a victim-centered, strengths-based lens are a promising practice.

Evidence-Informed Decision Making in Child Welfare: A Randomized Control Trial Evaluation

ABSTRACT Purpose Child welfare practice often requires direct intervention with vulnerable children and families, whereby workers are responsible for various services and decisions that may have a lasting impact on families involved in the child welfare system. Research illustrates that clinical needs are not necessarily the only factor at the foundation of decision making; Evidence-informed Decision Making (EIDM) can act as a foundation for critical thinking and deliberate practice in the context of child welfare service delivery. This study evaluates an EIDM training that aimed to enhance workers’ behavior and attitude toward the EIDM process with a focus on research. Method This randomized control trial evaluated the effectiveness of an online EIDM training for child welfare workers. The training consisted of five modules that were completed at the team (n = 19) level at a rate of approximately one module every three weeks. The training intended to promote the exploration and use of research in everyday practice by critically thinking through the EIDM process. Results Due to attrition and incomplete posttests, the final sample size was 59 participants (intervention, n = 36; control, n = 23). Generalized Linear Model Repeated Measures analyses found an EIDM training main effect on confidence in using research and research use. Discussion and Conclusion Importantly, findings suggest that this EIDM training can influence participant outcomes related to engaging in the process and the use of research in practice. Engagement with EIDM is one mechanism to promote critical thinking and exploration of research during the service delivery process.