Family support in practice: voices from the field

This paper revisits core family support messages for social work practice in working with children and families, linking to findings from high-profile child protection cases in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Drawing on a comparative study where these identified practice messages were explored through the lens of testimony of family support workers in the UK and Ireland, these core messages are examined. Operating with hard-to-engage children and parents, we hear how families and family support worker colleagues now view the core functions of child and family work across both jurisdictions (Ireland and England). The authors argue that by naming a more detailed set of practices that are deemed as most useful by families, based on the benefits and challenges of intensive family support work, key messages arise that have major resonance for social work and multiagency practice into the future. A basic message from this study is that valuable lessons on engagement and intervention with families can be drawn for professionals by examining the practice elements of this group of paraprofessionals in the child and family arena. This paper adds to debates on the role of support and intervention in social work and family support work.     

Enabling social support and resilience: outcomes of Family Group Conferencing in public mental health care

Family Group Conferencing (FGC) is a decision-making model where clients with their social network formulate their own plan. There is little experience with FGC in mental health care. We studied the outcomes of 41 conferences in a public mental health setting in the north of the Netherlands. We interviewed 312 respondents out of a total of 473 conference participants. In 33 cases, it was possible to obtain scores from 245 respondents on scales ranging from 0 to 10 about the situation prior and after the conference on three outcome measures, namely the quality of: (1) social support, (2) resilience and (3) living conditions. In the 33 cases, t-tests and multilevel analyses indicate on all of the three outcomes measures significant positive changes after the conferences. On average, the scores on the quality of social support (5.04–6.73), resilience (4.09–6.32) and the living conditions (3.73–6.64) had been increased since the conferences were organised. The results are modest but remarkable. That the impact of FGC is not more substantial can be explained. The clients referred to a conference in this particular study, mostly had a limited network and few recourses from whom little support could be expected.     

Domestic violence and child abuse: developing sensitive policies and guidance

Domestic violence is everywhere and nowhere. No statutory organization or health service has work with either perpetrators or survivors of domestic violence (usually women and children) as the primary focus of their service, yet all agencies will have very significant numbers among their clients/service users. It is therefore crucial that the policy framework is developed both within and between agencies to address the need, and scope, of intervention in this area and particularly the impact on children. Currently, significant steps have been taken by some agencies in the UK to address this previously neglected issue, though the developments are patchy. This paper draws on a UK‐wide research study which mapped the extent and range of service provision for families where there is domestic violence and also developed a framework of good practice indicators for provision in this area. This article examines one of the indicators of good practice arising from the research—that of policy development—within social service departments and within the multi‐agency arena. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Family policy and critical science research: Facilitating change

The principles of critical science for policy research are outlined and one research project is used as a case study. The study was intentionally designed to facilitate changes that would positively influence the economic well-being of children from divorced families. The project uses the critical science processes of public dialogue about child support guidelines for purposes of collaborative problem solving. The normative theories of procedural and distributive justice are used to guide the research reporting. The project contributes to changes in the practices of estimating the income needs of children, changes in estimating the relative monetary contributions of their parents, and proposed legislation and modifications in the state child support guidelines. She received her Ph.D. in family ecology from Michigan State University. Her research interests include the valuing issues of family life quality, family decision making, divorce,and the economic adjustments of families to economic stressors. She received her M.A. degree in Family Education from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include decision making and parenting. She received her Ph.D. degree in anthropology from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include social and cultural change and the integration of research findings into public policy decision making.     

Child poverty and family policies across eighteen wealthy Western democracies

While a good deal has been written about the potential value of family policies in reducing child poverty in Western countries, few cross-national quantitative studies have been carried out on this topic. This article uses ordinary least squares regression analysis on panel data from 18 Western democracies from 1987 to 2007 to test the significance of family policies and other welfare policies on child poverty rates. It extends existing research on the relationship between family policies and child poverty by utilizing a broader data-set in terms of time, countries, and child poverty measures. The main finding is that all three of the main family policies studied – child cash and tax benefits, paid parenting leaves, and public support for childcare – correlate significantly with lower child poverty rates. Somewhat surprisingly, disability and sickness insurance also correlates significantly with lower child poverty in nearly every model and test. These findings provide valuable insight for future research and policy-making in the area of child poverty.     

A review of the relationship between poverty and child abuse and neglect: Insights from scoping reviews,systematic reviews and meta-analyses

An up-to-date and accurate picture of the evidence on the impact of poverty is a necessary element of the debate about the future direction of children's social care services internationally. The purpose of this paper is to update evidence about the relationship between poverty and child abuse and neglect (CAN) published since a previous report in 2016 (Bywaters et al., 2016). A systematic search was conducted, identifying seven reviews. Poverty was found to be consistently and strongly associated with maltreatment, be that in terms of familial or community-level poverty, or in terms of economic security. Findings demonstrated that both the type and the quantity of economic insecurities impacted child maltreatment. Certain economic insecurities – income losses, cumulative material hardship and housing hardship – reliably predicted future child maltreatment. Likewise, as families experienced more material hardship, the risk for maltreatment intensified. In some studies, the relationship between poverty and maltreatment differed by abuse type. Future reviews need to investigate individual papers and their findings across different CAN measures, definitions, samples, abuse types and conceptualisations of poverty to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current research base and the directions which need to be taken to further understand and prevent CAN.     

Changes in the association between social housing tenure and child outcomes across cohorts: comparing the millennium and British cohort studies

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, social housing in the UK has increasingly become the preserve of the poorest in society. This paper is the first to investigate how the child outcome penalties associated with social housing tenure have changed over time across UK cohorts. I compare the differences in the cognitive, mental health, and physical health outcomes of children in social housing with children in non-social housing and evaluate whether these tenure differences have changed between the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS) and the 2000 Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). I find that in both cohorts, children in social housing exhibit worse outcomes across all three dimensions (cognitive, mental health, and physical health) than children in non-social housing. For cognitive and physical health outcomes, however, the tenure difference has narrowed between the two cohorts, while for mental health outcomes, the tenure difference has widened. These results suggest that children have experienced a relative worsening in their mental health outcomes across cohorts, but also a relative improvement in both their cognitive and physical health outcomes. The findings suggest that policies aimed at reducing tenure inequalities in child outcomes should focus on mental health development in the early years.     

Informing family policies: The uses of social research

Like the topic of family policy itself, research informing family policies is difficult to characterize. This article discusses how ideology and values influence research agendas and then describes three types of studies informing family policies: research defining social issues, evaluation research, and research about the policy-making process. Two case studies illustrate how social research informs family policy: in promoting gender equality in Scandinavia and in reforming child support in the United States. Values of individualism and the sanctity of the family have traditionally focused policy makers' and, hence, researchers' attention on individuals, not families, as the units of analysis. But dramatic shifts in family structure and functioning along with renewed public concern about family disintegration are placing families high on the policy agenda. Both “basic” and “applied” family scholars can contribute to a research agenda examining the factors promoting strong, effective families. She conducts research on gender and the life course, as well as on aging, families, and social policy. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests in stratification, social policy, gender, and the life course include sex segregation in occupations, fertility, and work decisions and family policy.     

Elusive public support for us child care policy

Most U.S. parents are in the paid labor force (US Department of Labor Statistics. (2014). Women in the labor force: A databook. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/cps/women-in-the-labor-force-a-databook-2014.pdf). Using a purposive non-probability sample (N?=?415) of primarily upper-middle class, married White Democratic women, this study explores support for government regulation, funding, and provision of child care and the factors and context that may shape their beliefs. Although some respondents held reservations about government involvement, over 80% indicated that government should play a role in regulating care for children in all age categories (0–3, 4–5, and 6–12). Eighty-nine percent supported some form of government financial support for child care, and 58% and 61% saw a role for provision of child care for children age 0–5 and 6–12, respectively. Both regression analyses and qualitative responses indicated that support for a government role in child care was influenced by parents’ own difficulties finding affordable and sufficiently comprehensive care, and the number of children they had. We provide recommendations for how best to target these groups of parents to support child care advocacy campaigns, tapping into their own struggles as a source of empathy for others as well as an impetus to shift toward a more universal notion of government support for child care.     

Women's Spirituality: A Proposed Practice Model

SUMMARY

The values and spirituality of clients are an important area for social workers, counselors, and other mental, health professionals to consider in their work. This article addresses the need for professionals to be sensitive to this aspect of growth and development for all clients. Noting that until recently, religious writings have tended to reflect a male-centered bias and patriarchal values, issues related to women's spirituality are identified, implications for therapeutic interventions are discussed, and a model for understanding and facilitating women's spirituality is proposed.     

Long-term changes in parenting and child behavior after the Home-Start family support program

Background

The intervention Home-Start is a wide spread program in a number of countries, among which the Netherlands. In Home-Start, trained volunteers visit families with young children in need of support once or twice a week to help them to deal with problems in family life and parenting. Little is known, however, about the effects of Home-Start. This study describes short-term and long term changes in families that participated in Home-Start.

Methods

Three groups of families with young children (at the start mean age 1 1/2 years) were followed over a period of four years. One of the groups of families participated in the Home-Start family support program in the first 6.6 months of this period. The two other groups were (1) a randomly selected community sample and (2) a group of families with elevated parenting stress and a need for support. Data were collected at the beginning of the study, (after median 1.4 months), directly after the intervention (median 6.6 months) and at two follow-up occasions (respectively, median 12.5 and 49.2 months after the first measurement). At the last measurement, data were available for 33, 45 and 34 families respectively.

Results

Multilevel analysis showed more positive changes in parental wellbeing, competence and behavior (more consistent behavior and less rejection) during the intervention period in the Home-Start group than in the two other groups. At the three year follow up, the Home-Start group showed, compared to the other groups, more improvements in parenting (more responsiveness), but also diminished child externalizing and internalizing behavior problems (less oppositional defiant behavior, affective problems and anxiety problems).

Conclusions

Home-Start seems a promising family support intervention that deserves to be studied more extensively.     

Parental mental health as a child protection issue: data from the NSPCC national child protection helpline

Analysis of a sample of 2084 child abuse referrals to the NSPCC Child Protection Helpline showed that in 10% a parent or carer was reported as having a mental health problem. Mothers were the parent affected in the majority of these cases. The mental health sample differed from the other referrals in an increased concern about emotional abuse and less about sexual abuse; greater levels of violence and discord between parents; and more agency involvement. Issues of potential labelling and therapeutic needs are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implementing a strengths perspective in child welfare and protection: a challenge not to be taken lightly

Although it can be observed that the popularity of a strengths perspective in social work is increasing, social work researchers have articulated the necessity to gain empirical knowledge about actual social work practice that claims a strengths perspective. We explore the findings of recent research into a strengths-oriented pilot project in the field of child welfare and protection in Flanders (the Flemish speaking part of Belgium), in which we examined whether the strengths-oriented discourse in social work actually took place in the relationship between social workers and families in practice. The research reveals an ambiguous picture of the ways in which the strengths perspective can be implemented in practice, because social workers walk a tightrope between responsibilizing and governing families. We argue that the implementation process needs a conceptual and theoretical foundation that goes beyond mere eclecticism. We also argue that this demands a broadening of the focus of strengths-oriented social work from a relational to a political level, as this strengths-oriented social work practice remains situated within the broader social, economic, and political context.     

Emerging Trends: Holistic,Comprehensive Family Support Programs

ABSTRACT

The results of a qualitative study funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation indicate that a promising path to improving the lives of disadvantaged families is through more holistic, comprehensive approaches to family support. These approaches combine traditional family support activities with the development of human and economic capital. The effectiveness of comprehensive programs is based on the premise that adult and child well-being are interconnected with the physical, economic, and social aspects of their lives. Recommendations are provided for improving existing family support programs through the implementation of holistic strategies.     

Child abuse,child protection and disabled children: a review of recent research

This paper reports the results of a scoping study that reviewed research about child abuse, child protection and disabled children published in academic journals between 1996 and 2009. The review was conducted using a five stage method for scoping studies. Several studies have revealed a strong association between disability and child maltreatment, indicating that disabled children are significantly more likely to experience abuse than their non‐disabled peers. Those with particular impairments are at increased risk. There is evidence that the interaction of age, gender and/or socio‐cultural factors with impairment results in different patterns of abuse to those found among non‐disabled children although the reasons for this require further examination. It appears that therapeutic services and criminal justice systems often fail to take account of disabled children's needs and heightened vulnerability. In Britain, little is known about what happens to disabled children who have been abused and how well safeguarding services address their needs. Very few studies have sought disabled children's own accounts of abuse or safeguarding. Considerable development is required, at both policy and practice level, to ensure that disabled children's right to protection is upheld. The paper concludes by identifying a number of aspects of the topic requiring further investigation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The interface between the child welfare and criminal justice systems in England

The development of government guidance can seem a mysterious process to those outside government. This paper, which draws on the author's experience, is intended to give some insight into how guidance in two areas—child witnesses and children involved in prostitution—was developed within the existing legal framework. Since that time, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 has come into force in England and Wales and the Children Bill is currently before Parliament. The paper begins by setting out the key legislation, regulations and guidance that underpinned the child welfare and criminal justice systems as they related to child protection at the time the guidance was being developed. It then describes how the different guidance documents relate to each other and the implications for practice. The development of speci?c guidance is drawn upon to illustrate some of the tensions that had to be resolved during the drafting and the processes by which they were ?nalized for approval by the Government. A key area requiring careful consideration was the differences between the family and criminal justice systems. In the former, the welfare of the child is paramount when making decisions and in the latter, the court has a duty to ensure the defendant has a fair trial. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Case Management with Families Receiving Public Assistance: Results from an Empirical Evaluation

ABSTRACT

This article describes the results from a family-based case management demonstration program which served families in North Carolina during the period of 1990 to 1993. The model for the program was based on the family investment initiative strategy developed by the George Washington University Center for Policy Studies. Entitled the Family Investment Initiative, the goal of the program was to assist families receiving AFDC to reach economic self-sufficiency. Results indicate that this family-based case management approach has promise for helping AFDC-dependent families achieve economic self-sufficiency. Implications of the results for social work case management practice with families are discussed.     

Youth prostitution: a literature review

This article reviews the academic literature on young people involved in prostitution. The prevalence and aetiology of youth prostitution and its links with drug use and criminal careers are explored. It argues that whatever the power of personal experiences which incline a person towards prostitution, prostitution can still only be possible in specific cultural conditions. The phenomenon of prostitution has the sexual double standard, poverty and an unequal labour market as prerequisites. We should not expect prostitution to either disappear or occur with equal frequency in men and women while these aspects of inequality continue. This article reviews debates on the particular challenges for service delivery and working together with this vulnerable group. In a civilized society, we should organize that the burden of inequalities which underlie prostitution should not be carried by children. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Family support: A review of the literature on families of adolescents with disabilities

ABSTRACT

For all youth, adolescence is a time of great change, marked by multiple transitions. For those with disabilities, these transitions can be especially challenging for the youth and their families. Although families of adolescents with disabilities often require support, it is unclear what types of assistance are most helpful. To understand the responsibilities of and, correspondingly, supports needed for parents and siblings, the authors conducted a comprehensive literature review. Specifically, the authors examined the literature to identify the supports that families provide to their adolescent relatives with disabilities, the impacts of caring for an adolescent relative with a disability, and the assistance that families receive. The authors conclude by discussing implications for future research about family support.