When Home Is Still Unsafe: From Family Reunification to Foster Care Reentry

Reuniting children with their families is the preferred outcome of foster care, yet many children reunited with their families reenter foster care. This study examined how parental substance abuse and mental health problems, and the time allotted for reunification, are associated with reentry risk. We used a complete cohort of children who entered the Texas foster care system in fiscal years 2008 and 2009 to identify the risk of foster care reentry within 5 years of reunification using selection‐adjusted multilevel survival analysis. Approximately 16% of reunified children reentered care within 5 years. Substance abuse and mental health problems predicted higher rates of reentry. Reunification after 12 months was associated with increased reentry risk overall, but not among children commonly exempted from federal permanency timelines. Permanency guidelines that restrict the length of time to achieve reunification may have the unintended consequence of pushing reunification before maltreatment risks have been resolved.     

Child sexual abuse prevention: does it work?

Child sexual abuse prevention programs designed to teach children ways to recognize, resist, and report sexual abuse have proliferated in the past five years. The authors evaluate one such program to find out what children know before instruction, if they learn how to prevent sexual abuse, and how they and their parents and professionals who work with children react to such a program.     

The abuse of children in out of home care

SUMMARY: One of the major paradoxes in child protective services in the United States is that children removed from their homes on protective orders and placed in foster and group care face continued abuse. These children are reported at two to three times the rates of children living with their families. Investigations are performed by the very system that marks placements. In the US, some recommend resolving these problems by withdrawing from the active protection of children in care. Others hold that because children are in the care and custody of the state, and demand a higher standard of care, specialised prevention, identification. reporting and investigation initiatives are necessary to ensure their safety. This has important implications for other countries, especially the United Kingdom with its recent spate of inquiries into abuse in residential care.     

Training Mental Health Professionals in Child Sexual Abuse: Curricular Guidelines

This study explored whether counseling practices with women survivors of child sexual abuse reflect the belief that women do not sexually abuse children. Canadian therapists (n?=?164) who work with women survivors of child sexual abuse were surveyed about their beliefs about what constitutes child sexual abuse, who commits child sexual abuse, and their practices regarding inquiries about abusive behavior. A majority self-reported that they ask women and think it is important to ask but most believe that clients will not spontaneously self-disclose inappropriate sexual thoughts or behaviors. How broadly or narrowly therapists defined child sexual abuse was not related to self-reported therapeutic discussion. Therapists demonstrated differential gender beliefs about child sexual abuse perpetration, but this did not relate to self-reported counseling practices. Implications for therapist education are discussed.     

Safeguarding disabled children in residential settings: what we know and what we don't know

Research in America, Canada, Australia and Britain has revealed that disabled children are particularly vulnerable to abuse. Their likelihood of attending residential institutions, their dependency on others for personal care and the lack of opportunities for them to alert others to maltreatment or comprehend the nature of abusive acts all increase levels of risk. Over the last decade, there has been increasing public and professional concern about the abuse of children in residential establishments, resulting in a number of inquiries. However, the abuse of disabled children in residential settings has received little attention. Despite residential schools, care homes and respite care being widely used by disabled children, there is a paucity of knowledge regarding the standards of child protection in these establishments. This article explores the research literature revealing the vulnerability of disabled children to abuse when living away from home, what measures can be taken to help protect them and the limitations of available data as a basis for planning child protection measures. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When a scratch becomes 'a scary story': the social construction of micro panics in center-based child care

This study analyzes the everyday world of center‐based child care and the climate of suspicion that permeates that world. Based on four and a half years of participant observation field research and thirty focused interviews with men and women child care workers, the author examines the existence of ‘micro panics’ which occur in child care centers when deviant labels are attached to caregiving acts or activities. Drawing from traditional Moral Panic Theory, this paper demonstrates how the context of suspicion surrounding center based child care and the ‘micro panics’ that sustain it are generated historically, structurally, and interactionally. These phenomena, in other words, are in part, a historical artifact from the 1980s moral panics concerning day care abuse, an interactional product of the gendering of child care as ‘women's work’, and a phenomenological byproduct of the positioning of paid child care in the everyday lives of workers, children, and parents.     

Young people's views on safety and preventing abuse and harm in residential care: “It's got to be better than home”

Young people who live in residential care are at greater risk of experiencing sexual abuse and other forms of abuse than those living in other out of home care placements. To better understand how young people perceive and experience safety in residential care, and the things that they most need to be and feel safe, a qualitative study was conducted with 27 Australian children and young people for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. This paper describes young people's perspectives on what makes residential care safe: supportive relationships, stability and predictability, fair rules, and having some control over their environment. Young people said that safety could be improved with: better appreciation of the risks in residential care; better matching, staffing and oversight; and better-designed responses that involve young people themselves. The findings provide critical insights from young people themselves and argue that adults and institutions need to appreciate their views of safety so as to adequately respond.     

Abuse and disabled children: hidden needs…?

In order to look at current practices in recording the abuse of disabled children, a questionnaire was sent out to the 121 Chairs of the Area Child Protection Committees in the United Kingdom. Of the 73 responders, over 50% claimed to identify the disability of an abused child but only 10% could given an actual figure. The lack of statistical evidence made it impossible to calculate anything except an approximation of the rate of abuse of disabled children. Schedules completed over a period of 1 year in two Social Services Departments for all disabled children who were conferenced for abuse showed that they were less likely to be put on the child protection register than a comparison group of non‐disabled children. Semi‐structured interviews with eight of the key workers for the disabled children revealed that they were concerned that there was a tendency ‘not to see’ the abuse of disabled children and they did not feel there was sufficient training regarding the interface between abuse and disabilities. Taking into account the responses to the study, a number of national and local recommendations were made. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Abused children and foster care—the need for specialist resources

Estimates vary on how many abused and neglected children are admitted to care and how many children in care are there because of abuse and neglect. Nevertheless, it is important to examine their special needs and the problems they present to carers. Although research findings are difficult to interpret, there is enough evidence to show that abused and neglected children in care have special needs in three particular areas: education, health and social behaviour. The evidence is available from research into children in care and research into child maltreatment. Children in care run the risk of disrupted educational careers; abused and neglected children have additional problems in school. Many children in care have a patchy and neglected medical history; abused and neglected children are seriously at risk of further ill-health. Abused and neglected children have been shown to have behaviour problems that jeopardize their relationships with peers and adults; they run the risk of placement breakdown. Foster care of abused and neglected children is a specialist and demanding task, requiring knowledge of, and sensitivity to special needs. Because many abused and neglected children return to their parents, foster carers also need to include the natural family in their task. High expectations of these foster carers, however, should not lead to exploitation but rather an enhancing of fostering assessment, preparation, support and training.     

Parenting groups for parents whose children are in care

Excluding very severe child abuse cases, biological parents are usually encouraged to maintain contact with their children in care. Parent‐child contact is often considered important because it can maintain the child's psychological identity and well‐being. It can also maintain parent‐child attachment and in some cases facilitate reunification. Improving parenting skills is viewed as an important method by which contact between children and their biological parents can be enhanced. However, mainstream parenting groups are often unsuitable for parents whose children are in care for a number of reasons. There is stigma involved with having children in care, such parents have very complex lives and there are reduced opportunities to practise skills learnt with their children. Groups designed specifically for parents whose children are in care appear to be a promising approach to improving the quality of contact between these parents and their children. This paper will review group‐based approaches to working with biological parents whose pre‐school‐aged children have been placed in care. The paper will also report the findings of a research project designed to identify key facilitators and barriers to parental involvement in a group‐based programme which includes contact between parents and their children who have been placed in care. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘You Feel It in Your Body’: How Australian Children and Young People Think about and Experience Feeling and Being Safe

In 2012, the Australian Government announced the establishment of a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The aim of the Royal Commission is to understand how and why sexual abuse occurred within Australian institutions and to provide guidance as to how future abuse might be prevented. The Royal Commission commissioned a mixed methods study to explore what children need to be safe and to feel safe, to explore how they determine their level of safety, and their observations about how institutions act to prevent and respond to safety issues. This article reports on the findings from the first phase of the study that involved focus groups carried out with children aged 4–17 years from different types of institutions. The discussion focused particularly on how children conceptualise safety and how they make judgments about their levels of safety. Children and young people's conceptualisation of safety had multiple dimensions, which include the idea that being safe and feeling safe are two distinct, interrelated but sometimes non‐concurrent experiences; that safety is identified and experienced as a set of feelings; trusting relationships are the foundation of safety; familiarity helps children feel safe; and safe environments are those that are ordered and orderly.     

ASSESSING THE NEEDS OF TRAUMATIZED CHILDREN TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES

This paper is about the development of an outcomes‐based treatment approach in work with traumatized children and of an assessment model to measure progress. In particular, it shows how a spider diagram is used to give a powerful, visual representation of a child's progress. The work described has been carried out by SACCS — an independent UK organization providing treatment based in residential and family settings for children who are severely traumatized by abuse and neglect. This trauma has had a massive impact on their development socially, physically, emotionally, academically and spiritually. The children have complex needs which are extremely difficult to work with. However, the potential for recovery from their injuries remains. I will use a single case study of a child to illustrate the process of assessment and measurement of recovery. The treatment approach used is broadly psychodynamic. The concept of an outcomes‐based approach and the measurement tool described also has widespread relevance in social care.     

Experiences of Biological Parents and Their Older Children in Out-of-Home Care for the First Time

This article will examine the parenting characteristics and challenges that faced a cohort of families participating in an exploratory qualitative research study. This study sought to describe the experiences and characteristics of parents whose children were placed in the child welfare system in early-to-late adolescence (ages 12–18), thus gaining an understanding of the parenting challenges faced as they were able to maintain their children in their homes for a significant portion of their lives. The families of older youths entering care for the first time described how alcohol and drug abuse impacted their relationships with children, significant others, jobs, and their mental health status. A significant issue that emerged in several of the cases were older children who initiated a report to child welfare themselves.     

Doing research with children and young people who do not use speech for communication

Despite emphasis in policy on participation of disabled children,¹ we still know relatively little about how to obtain the views of disabled children with significant communication impairment and their views are often overlooked in planning and service provision. This article describes how the views of children who do not use speech were accessed in research aiming to identify disabled children and young people's priorities regarding outcomes of social care and support services. The main challenge was to develop a method that was reliable, non‐threatening, enjoyable and relevant to individual children, as well as enabling children to think beyond their everyday life and express what they aspire to.     

Brief Report: Attitudes About Responding to Survey Questions Concerning Childhood Sexual Abuse by Hispanic Female College Students

In no studies have research participants been asked how they feel about answering questions concerning childhood sexual abuse. We have performed searches from two different search engines again and have found nothing published which specifically addresses this question in the way we have. A questionnaire about childhood sexual abuse was administered to a sample of Mexican-American female college students. Over 32% reported positive histories of childhood sexual abuse before age 18. These subjects were more uncomfortable (37%) than those who did not experience childhood sexual abuse when answering questions about childhood sexual abuse (12%; p < 0.00001), but they were not more uncomfortable in answering questions about alcohol or drug use. Women who were sexually abused in childhood also readily disclosed childhood sexual abuse histories despite revealing discomfort about being asked questions concerning childhood sexual abuse. Our findings support concerns by researchers that childhood sexual abuse is neglected because researchers have an unwarranted perception about how fragile sexually abused subjects are as subjects.     

The prevalence and nature of abuse and neglect in children under four: a national survey

This paper reports the results from a Danish national survey of child abuse and neglect. Data were obtained by a written questionnaire sent to all home health visitors. All newborn Danish children receive visits by a home health visitor several times during their first year of life. For children in need of special care for social reasons the visits may continue until school age (at 6 or 7 years). The questionnaire included four checklists of signs of abuse and neglect. The home health visitors were asked to record what they had actually observed visiting the children in their homes. Eighty‐three per cent (covering about 80% of all newborns) answered the questionnaire. The objective was to establish a scientific based framework that could be used to guide preventive efforts. Ten per cent of all children under 1 year of age may be characterized as children in need of special care for social reasons, the most frequent single reason being reliance on social assistance, alcohol abuse or violence against the mother. A minimum of 4% of infants are subjected to broadly defined abuse or neglect from one or more of the four categories: physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse and emotional neglect, physical and emotional neglect being the most frequent and physical maltreatment the most rare. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attachment and Risk of Future Harm: A Case of Non‐Accidental Brain Injury

Decision making in cases of non‐accidental brain injury is complex. Courts often view ‘alternate care’ as a means of ensuring that children are protected from further physical abuse. It is important for treating and assessing clinicians to present the court with a broad systems perspective highlighting the multiple factors which combine to impact on the child's future safety, welfare and wellbeing. These include risk and protective factors in the family of origin, the family's openness to monitoring and treatment; the child's needs for long‐term attachment relationships, and the risks associated with alternate care. This article highlights the need to consider long‐term attachment needs as part of any risk‐of‐harm assessment for young children who have been maltreated. Attachment issues are considered in the case of Nellie, a 17‐month‐old toddler with a serious and unexplained non‐accidental brain injury.     

Abusing victims: detention of child sexual abuse victims in secure accommodation

Sexually abused children and adolescents, in limbo between revelation of abuse and trial of an alleged offender, or in emotional turmoil after such abuse, need special care and support. Evidence indicates that a number of such children are held in local authority secure centres, on various grounds: to protect them from further sexual assaults by an adult offender; because of their persistent absconding from non-secure residential centres; and because of their disturbed behaviour (including suicidal behaviours), which may have been caused by the assault. Victims of sexual abuse are held with juveniles on remand for serious crimes (including rape and murder), or (because they are too young for youth detention centres) with young adolescents who are held in detention following conviction for such crimes. Evidence is produced from case histories, and from a survey of 15 of the 27 secure detention centres for children and young people in England, that the mix of abused, disturbed and very aggressive children is highly problematic. In worst case scenarios, victims of child sexual abuse are sexually assaulted by juvenile rapists with whom they are housed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fathers' encounters with the Child Welfare Service

In this article, we examined fathers who were or had been in contact with the Child Welfare Services in Norway. All of the fathers included in this study had children with women who were unable to take care of them, either because of substance abuse or mental health problems. Hence, the fathers had the primary responsibility for the children. We looked at how these fathers experienced being met and assessed as caregivers by the Child Welfare Service, as well as how they experienced their own competency as caregivers. To explore these themes, seven fathers who were in contact with or had recently been in contact with the Child Welfare Service were interviewed. The discourses on fatherhood, inspired by Scourfield (2003), were used as a framework for the analysis, and interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the interviews. We found the fathers' experiences to be considered within the discourses on “fathers as a threat”, “fathers as irrelevant” and “fathers as better than mothers”. In addition, we shed light on topics such as the cultural lag, being single-handedly responsible for the children, and the fathers' views on what is important in their contact with the children.Our goal was to increase awareness about fathers who are in contact with the Child Welfare Service so that they are met in a way that helps to support them in their role as fathers for the benefit of their children.     

Mass-market magazine portrayals of working mothers and related issues, 1987 and 1997

In this research project a historian seeks to test whether a dichotomy in the historical analysis of working mothers also exists in recent mass-media portrayals of contemporary wage-earning mothers. The hypothesis is that only white, middle- and upper-class women who work outside the home are considered working mothers, with the emphasis placed on their role as mothers. When poor, minority, working women with children are discussed, they are considered primarily in their capacity as workers. Following from this dichotomy is a split in the assessment of day care for the children of working mothers. For the children of high socioeconomic status women, no day care facility can satisfactorily replace maternal care; for the children of low socioeconomic status women, any type of non-maternal care that enables a mother to keep functioning as a worker is considered superior to maternal care. This study is important because it clarifies some critical scholarly and popular assumptions about the importance of work, the nature of motherhood, and the needs of different classes of children. These assumptions in turn structure scholarly analysis, permeate public discourse, and ultimately shape work and child care policies that profoundly affect all of America's families. This work is intended as a brief analysis that can serve to highlight unconscious attitudes and to suggest how future studies and discussions might be restructured to avoid perpetuating a false separation of different classes of working mothers and their children.