Adult images of childhood and research on client children

The point of departure in this article is a client study with children who had received services from child welfare, school counselling or child psychiatric clinics, compared to a cohort study targeting all children in the same community. It discusses whether parents' reservations towards letting their client children participate in the study indicates a fear of the researchers interfering in family life, and how the choice of research strategies influence the images constructed of client children and their families. A common finding in the two studies was that the children themselves provided the most positive information about their lives. It is argued that adult images of children as either vulnerable, and thus in need of protection, or competent, and thus with an ability to participate, influence access to, as well as construction of, client children's lives.     

Child welfare caseworkers' perspectives on the challenges of addressing mental health problems in early childhood

Although nearly half of child maltreatment victims are under the age of five and at high risk for developing serious emotional or behavioral problems, few young children involved in the child welfare system receive treatment. As the first point of service contact, child welfare caseworkers can play a key role in quickly identifying children with mental health problems and linking them to services. This study examines caseworkers' perspectives on the challenges of addressing mental health problems in early childhood. Based on five focus groups conducted with 50 caseworkers from an urban, public child welfare agency, results suggest that although workers acknowledge the importance of early intervention, difficulty identifying mental health needs in early childhood and workplace barriers impede linkage to services. Given the lasting impacts of early experiences on children's development, it is imperative that these challenges be addressed. Implications for systematic mental health screening and caseworker training are discussed.     

An Appraisal of Fathers' Perspectives on Fatherhood and Barriers to Their Child Welfare Involvement

The present study provides insight into the extent and rationale of fathers' involvement with their children and the child welfare system. This qualitative study explored 12 child welfare–involved fathers' perceptions of fatherhood and factors that facilitate and inhibit case planning involvement. The findings indicate that most fathers strongly desired to stay involved with their children but felt they needed to overcome social workers' negativity, unfair agency policies and practices, and economic difficulties in order to complete their case plan goals and remain in their children's lives. Recommendations are provided for child welfare policy, practice, and research.     

How to house a child: providing homes for Jewish children in interwar Poland

After World War I Jewish community leaders in Poland addressed the increasing number of orphans due to the war and continued violence by placing children in foster care and building orphanages run by local non-governmental organisations. The care of children in private homes was seen as the most practical solution to the crisis and a real alternative to the establishment of institutions. The records of these non-governmental organisations and the writings of Jewish community leaders reveal that the discussion regarding institutions and private care reflected a desire to provide effective and efficient services but was also a sign of the institutional immaturity of the organisations that had emerged to address the needs of children. Proponents of both institutions and private care advocated greater supervision of these services and, if not institutionalisation, more organisation of those working in child welfare and of children's lives. Believing that such supervision would make the children under their care into more productive, responsible adults, the leaders of Jewish children's aid associations in Poland viewed positively the increasing involvement of non-governmental organisations and the state in the intimate lives of families.     

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

This 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.     

The elementary-school functioning of children with maltreatment histories and mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities: A mixed methods inquiry

This mixed methods inquiry examined the school functioning of elementary school-aged children with maltreatment histories and mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities. Quantitative analyses of linked social service and education administrative data bases of 10,394 children in Minnesota with maltreatment histories indicated that 32% were eligible for special education services. Of those children with maltreatment histories and identified disabilities, 73% had mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities. The most frequent primary disabilities categories were specific learning disabilities (33%) and emotional/behavioral disabilities (27%). Children with maltreatment histories and mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities scored significantly below children with maltreatment histories and no identified disabilities on standardized assessments of math and reading, and this gap increased with grade level for math. Qualitative interviews with 22 child welfare professionals and 15 educators suggested why some children with maltreatment histories, especially those with mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities, struggle in school. Risks to school functioning included children's and families' multiple unmet basic and mental health needs which can mask or overshadow children's mild disabilities; poor cross systems collaboration between child welfare, education and mental health systems; and inadequate funding, especially for mental health services. Protective factors included child engagement in school, parent engagement with child welfare services and a professional culture of cross-systems collaboration. Implications are discussed for holistic child, family and system-level interventions.     

Fathers in child welfare: What do social work textbooks teach our students?

Research indicates that fathers in the child welfare system provide benefits to children's well-being and positive development, yet child welfare workers often do not engage fathers in services. Previous studies in Canada and the United Kingdom have found that child welfare training perpetuates negative perceptions of fathers. The current study conducted a content analysis of 217 vignettes in the texts used in required classes for students completing a concentration in child welfare classes in nine schools of social work at the public universities in a Southern U.S. state. Coding was completed independently by three researchers with an inter-rater reliability of 79%. Findings indicated that despite men being the perpetrator in 51% of vignettes, women were portrayed in just over half of vignettes (51%) as the sole caregiver responsible for ensuring the child's safety when the abuse occurred. The data were organized into five themes of how men and women were portrayed in the vignettes: Men as Threat, Men as No Different than Women, Men as Irrelevant, Men as Absent, and Women as Default Clients (the first four suggested by Scourfield (2001), and the last by the researchers). Results indicate that the bias against including fathers in child welfare services reported in other studies seems to start at the beginning of students' learning about child welfare work, in their required textbooks. Recommendations include updating child welfare textbooks to better address the role of men and fathers in children's lives, and increasing professors' and field instructors' awareness of the bias against men and fathers in child welfare.     

Neglected voices: Lessons from forensic investigation following neglect

In the field of child maltreatment research, it is known that child neglect is a relatively neglected phenomenon. The current study addresses children's perceptions of neglect and the importance of taking into account the processes that children undergo while providing their perceptions. This qualitative study used thematic analyses of forensic investigations of children with external evidence suggesting high probability of neglect. The aim of the study is to characterize the manner in which children narrate their experiences and perceptions following neglect and what lessons can be learned from these narratives. Forensic investigations were carried out with fifteen children, five girls and ten boys, aged seven to twelve years. All of the suspects were the children's biological parents, nine mothers and six fathers. The narrative analysis of the children's interviews generated five themes. These predominant themes represent the children's experiences regarding the maternal or paternal neglect: (1) Difficulties identifying neglect; (2) neglect revealed as the narrative of family life unfolds; (3) loyalty to parents; (4) collective view (siblings and me); and (5) prominent feelings (hope for the future, fear, and sadness). This study has implications to understanding children's testimonies in cases of neglect and for welfare practices. The inability of children to verbalize the neglect they underwent in the initial interview contributes to the understanding of the importance of allocating resources to families and community services and not only relying on report-response strategies.     

An innovative child welfare pilot initiative: Results and outcomes

Successful family reunification is achieved only about 50% of the time when children are in foster care. Parents' ability to access and complete court ordered services are paramount in determining whether the family can achieve reunification. However, the research on how to best facilitate service access and utilization are sparse. A matched sample of 100 families with no prior child welfare involvement and at least one child in out of home care were selected from Department of Children and Family closed administrative case files. This study compared 48 families who received traditional child welfare services to 48 families who received a Family First model intervention (PFFP) from a large urban public child welfare agency. The independent variables were the elements that distinguished the Family First model from traditional child welfare services and included the number of caseworkers for the life of the case, caseload size, and service needs met through community partnerships. The dependent variables were the stability of the children's out of home placement, the time to reunification, the length of agency involvement, the stability of reunification at one year follow up, subsequent substantiated child maltreatment reports one year after the cases were closed, the distance a placement location was from the home of the family at intake, the match between identified needs and the timely access of services. Hierarchal regression and survival models were constructed to examine elements of the intervention for their impact on family outcomes. The results suggested that a community partnership model that incorporated family engagement, enhanced service provider accessibility, reduced caseloads, one caseworker for each family, are associated with successful reunification outcomes. Moreover, the intervention families were more likely to have their needs met with clinical or economic services, experienced fewer days in out-of-home placement, shorter involvement with the agency, reduced placement moves and were more likely to be reunified sooner compared to the group who received standard child welfare services. At one year follow up, the intervention families also had fewer substantiated child maltreatment reports and children were more likely to be living in the parental home. Implications for policy, research and practice are presented.     

Children's Perceptions of Their Relationships with Coresiding and Non-Coresiding Fathers

In this study the perceptions of children who reside with their fathers and children who live apart from their fathers are compared on a number of relationship qualities. Residential status significantly affected the likelihood of a father being named as some- one who was important in thc life of the child, as well as the likeli- hood of the father being named as someone the child went to for help with a reccnt srressful event. However, for those fathers who were named by their children, the child's perception of the general quality of the relationship and the amount of social support it provided did not differ by residential status. In addition, noncoresiding fathers were seen as filling the functional roles of teacher, supporter, and challeng- er at a higher level than co-residing faUiers. It appears that residential status may reduce the child's access to his or her father, but that those fathers who maintain contact remain important, functional people in their children's lives and important sources of support in times of stress. The need to change the common rception that noncoresid- ing fathers are unimportant in the lives o P" their children is discussed.     

Exploring Ways to Get Divorced Fathers to Comply Willingly with Child Support Agreements

Most public policy attention given to the child support issue has focused on the impact of involuntaly measures rather than the factors that may encourage fathers to comply willingly with their child support agreements. In this study of 255 divorced fathers, the researcher examines several possible predictor variables of child support compliance, including the divorce proceedings, type of child support agreement, custody arrangements, and frequency of the father's contact with his children. Fathers with shared physical and shared legal custody, and fathers having more frequent contact with their children, were more likely to be in compliance. The results strongly suggest that more attention should be given in divorce agreements to provisions that will enhance the father's involvement in the physical and decision-making aspects of his children's lives so as to increase the likelihood of his involvement in the financial aspects.     

Birth Mothers' Perceptions of Their Parented Children's Knowledge of and Involvement in Adoption

An examination of birth mothers' perceptions of the relationship between the children she is parenting and the children she placed for adoption offers unique insight into the life course of openness. In the present study, 94 birth mothers from the United States participated in a semi-structured interview, discussing their oldest parented children's knowledge of and experience with their siblings placed for adoption. Results show that 59 birth mothers have an oldest parented child who is aware of their adopted sibling, although 4 of these do not know their true relationship with the adopted sibling. Of these, 27 had direct contact with the adopted sibling, 4 had indirect contact through the birth mother, and 1 had previous contact that has since ceased. A majority of birth mothers indicated that their oldest parented child would like more contact, direct contact, or more information about the adopted youth. Implications for research and practice with birth mothers and their children separated by adoption are discussed.     

Children's work and children's well‐being: Implications for policy

This article argues for holistic consideration of children's work. Dominant discourse on “child labour” attends only to dangers of children's work, leading to policies that damage some children's chances for development. Far from being universally negative in children's lives, appropriate work contributes to their well‐being and development, and to transitions to adulthood. Children's work can convey benefits for sustenance and quality of life, provide learning to complement and support school, offer psycho‐social benefits, particularly in building self‐esteem, and help develop social relations and responsibility. These benefits are especially critical for marginalized children. Common policies of abolishing child labour based on age of employment rather than potential harm deny such benefits to younger children.     

Family Life With Children With Disabilities: The Key Role of Rehabilitation

This study examines the effects of children's medical impairments and functional disabilities and the use of medical care and rehabilitation on three family consequences (job changes, severe financial problems, and sleep disruptions). We use a life course perspective on the interlinked lives of family members, countertransitions, and career contingencies to understand the family impact of child disability. Using data from the 1994 and 1995 National Health Interview Surveys (N= 3,446), we find that the rehabilitation services that children receive account for (mediate) a large part of the observed association of children's medical impairments and disabilities on these family outcomes. Assistance in obtaining rehabilitation for children with disabilities could reduce the family costs and disruptive countertransitions associated with raising children with disabilities.     

THE EFFECTS OF SINGLE MOTHERS' WELFARE USE AND EMPLOYMENT DECISIONS ON CHILDREN'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

We examine the effects of single mothers' welfare use and employment decisions on children's short‐run cognitive development, as measured by their preschool standardized math test scores. We control for three mechanisms through which these decisions might affect children's outcomes: direct monetary benefits, parental time invested in the child, and nonpecuniary benefits from in‐kind transfer programs such as Medicaid. We employ a correction function approach and control for state‐fixed effects to address the endogenous nature of welfare participation and employment decisions. Our estimates suggest that although each additional quarter of either mother's employment or welfare use results in only a small increase in a child's standardized math test score, the total effects after several quarters are sizable. We allow mothers' decisions to have varying effects on attainment by children's observed innate ability and by the intensity of welfare use and employment. A child who has the mean level of observed innate ability with a mother who simultaneously worked and used welfare in all 20 quarters after childbirth experiences an 8.25 standardized‐point increase in standardized scores. The positive impact is more pronounced for the more disadvantaged children, who tend to be born to mothers with low Armed Forces Qualification Test scores, or have lower birth weights. We also examine the effects using timing of employment and welfare use, as well as children's maturity and gender. (JEL I3, J13, J22)     

An evaluation of the effects of an integrated services program for multi-service use families on child welfare and educational outcomes of children

The purpose of the study was to evaluate a program that provides integrative case management for families dependent on at least two government services (e.g., child welfare, disability, chemical dependency, vocational rehabilitation). In the current study, we focused on effects of services on children's educational and child welfare outcomes two years after program exit. Children enrolled in the program were compared to a community comparison sample through propensity score matching. None of the group differences was significant. However, outcomes related to child maltreatment (number of child maltreatment reports accepted by Child Protective Services and out-of-home placements) improved dramatically within two years after exit. Outcomes in the education area were less uniformly positive. On the one hand, children's attendance was high and school mobility was low. In addition, there was a significant reduction in the number of children receiving special education services two years after exit. Nevertheless, a third of the children were still receiving special education services two years after exit, and their academic performance on standardized reading and math tests was quite poor. Thus, the intensive case management model was related to successful outcomes in an area directly targeted by the program (child maltreatment), but the gains did not generalize to another domain that was not an explicit focus of the program (academic achievement).     

Caseworkers' perspective on risk factors in the family environment influencing mothers' difficulties in meeting children's needs

ObjectivesThis study examines, from the caseworkers' point of view, which needs of children are the most difficult for parents in neglectful contexts to respond to and which risk factors make this response more difficult.MethodA sample of 55 parents being followed by child protection services for neglect or high risk of neglect accepted to participate in the study. Their caseworker filled out a grid regarding the response provided to the children's needs and the risk factors in the family environment.ResultsThe results indicate that the children's age is related to the difficulties of responding to their needs. The caseworkers are particularly concerned about guidance and boundaries provided to preschool-age children, but less so about that provided to school-age children. When the children's age is controlled for, parents' mental health problems explains a significant proportion of the variance in parents' response to their children's need for stimulation, emotional warmth, and guidance and boundaries. Caseworkers' worries about drug and alcohol misuse also explain a significant proportion of their concerns about the mothers' ability to ensure their child's safety.ConclusionCaseworkers are more worried about the parental response offered to preschool children than to school-age ones. However, a constant and coherent response to growing children is still important for their developmental trajectories. Moreover, mental health and substance abuse explain caseworkers' concerns about mothers' engagement toward their child. These data raise questions about which type of services to offer, because intervening in families where parents deal with personal issues while addressing child neglect is complex.     

Messages to Social Work Education: What Makes Social Workers Continue and Cope in Child Welfare?

This article examines the positive elements which make social workers continue their career with a focus on statutory child welfare. Such analysis is needed, as existing research tends to highlight stress, exhaustion and career break-up issues. The empirical data consist of focus groups of 28 social workers and a questionnaire addressed to 56 professionals in child welfare in two Finnish urban municipalities. The focus groups were targeted at novice, expert and veteran social workers. The analysis presents organisational, person-related and client-work-related positive elements from the point of view of social workers. The results highlight that social work in child welfare may be experienced as being rewarding and professionally challenging. The positive elements vary among novice, expert and veteran social workers, with the latter especially viewing their work as independent expert work with major opportunities to make a change in children's lives. Commitment to care of children is one of the key motivating factors. The study suggests that social work education should recognise that the subjective motivation to do social work may change during one's career and that social work may be simultaneously both stressful and rewarding. Students should learn how to balance these aspects of their work.     

Child welfare clients and school satisfaction

Despite long-standing knowledge about child welfare clients' poor educational outcomes, we know less about these vulnerable young people's situation in school. This article addresses school satisfaction among upper secondary students who have been in contact with the child welfare services. These child welfare clients' school satisfaction is compared with their peers' satisfaction. The results from a survey indicated that the majority of child welfare clients were satisfied with school but that they were less satisfied with school than were their peers. The results showed that the association between school satisfaction and positive school experiences explains a large part of this difference. Among students who reported they were doing well in school, had supportive teachers and friends at school, the difference in school satisfaction between child welfare clients and others was small. Among students who did not report similar positive experiences in school, difference in school satisfaction between child welfare clients and their peers was more substantial. These results show that school can be a good place for child welfare clients, but that facilitating support from teachers, increasing opportunities for making friends at school, and working to develop the child welfare clients' academic performances are important as efforts to improve school satisfaction.