Displaying 21 - 30 of 99
Abstract
This secondary analysis involved exclusively parents with children placed in kinship care by a child welfare agency. It examined associations between parents’ receipt of needed services and 6 sets of variables measuring parents’ needs, access to service providers, social structural factors, demographic factors, family resources, and child welfare interventions experienced. The sample of 731 parents was extracted from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being II. Data were analyzed using generalized least squares random-effects modeling. Analysis showed an association…
This report provides a review of international and national models of engagement, support and advocacy for parents who have contact with child protection systems. How statutory child protection systems engage with parents ultimately affects the outcomes for children, including safety, permanency and wellbeing. While social work practices that emphasise people’s self-determination and strengths are recognised as fundamental to eliciting change in parents when care standards have faltered, there is widespread acknowledgment of the struggle child protection authorities have to meaningfully…
Abstract: Most countries operate procedures to safeguard children, including removal from parents in serious cases. In England, care applications and numbers have risen sharply, however, with wide variations not explained by levels of socio-economic deprivation alone. Drawing on extensive research, it is asserted that actuarial decision tools more accurately estimate risks to children and are needed to achieve consistency, transparency, and best outcomes for children. To date, however, child protection has not achieved gains made within comparable professions through statistical methods. The…
Abstract
Knowledge regarding the needs of parents whose children are placed in out-of-home care is still limited and studies focusing on interventions targeting this group are scarce. This article explores birth parents’ views on their needs and perceptions of support delivered by two different interventions: one offering support to individuals and the other providing a parental group. The methodology comprised a thematic analysis of 14 qualitative interviews. Parents’ expressed needs revolved around five issues: participation and influence in the relations with child welfare services;…
Abstract
Although psychotherapeutic treatment (e.g., counseling and therapy) is often offered to clients involved with child protective services (CPS), the existing literature includes few voices of mental health clinicians regarding their work and clients in the child welfare system. The current study seeks to address this gap by exploring clinicians’ views on the issue of child maltreatment and CPS-involved parents’ parenting. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews revealed that clinicians acknowledged the strengths of CPS-involved parents as well as the challenges that may have…
Abstract
Parents play a critical role in the progression and outcomes of juvenile dependency (child welfare court) cases. Yet, very little is known about these parents’ knowledge, attitudes, and experiences. We examined legal understanding and attitudes among 201 parents involved in ongoing dependency cases in California and Florida via semi-structured, in-person interviews. We expected parents’ understanding to be low and attitudes to be negative, particularly among parents of color and low SES parents. We expected greater dependency understanding to be related to more positive justice…
Abstract: This article presents data from the first large-scale study of fathers involved in repeat (or recurrent) care proceedings in England. The project complements important research on mothers and recurrence. It consisted of three elements: an analysis of population-level administrative data from the Child and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS), a survey of fathers in pre-proceedings and care proceedings, and a qualitative longitudinal (QL) study of recurrent fathers. Here we report findings from the survey and the QL study, offering an expanded definition and…
Privacy and confidentiality in the Children’s Hearings System have always been paramount. However, anecdotally it was felt that more work needed to be done to ensure people’s voices are respected and treated in confidence. In order to fully understand the relationship between privacy and confidentiality in the Children’s Hearings System, this research explored three broad questions: (1) How privacy and confidentiality impact on the participation of young people and their parents and carers in the Children’s Hearings System, (2) What is the relationship between advocacy and privacy and…
Abstract
This article studies how three groups of professional decision-makers – child welfare workers, experts on children and judges – exercise discretion in decisions on adoption from care in the Norwegian child welfare system. The analysis is based on near 500 decision-makers’ responses to a vignette about David, a four-year-old boy whose foster parents want to adopt him. After reading the vignette, decision-makers were asked to choose a measure for David: adoption or continued foster care. They were thereupon asked (1) which specific features of the case were decisive to their…
Abstract
The article deals with the issues of family assistance from the perspective of working with the biological family of a child placed in foster care. Family support, implemented by assistants, consists of helping to overcome difficulties in order to prevent children being taken away and placed in a foster care environment, and when this happens, focusing on seeking change and creating safe conditions for their return. Studies cited in the text indicate that biological parents face many problems, among which alcohol addiction is the most common. The assistant, working with the family…