No / This publication Fathers Matter is the culmination of a two year project which has looked at the largely neglected area of fathers involved with social care agencies because of child welfare needs or concerns. The publication includes a series of research reports, including new analyses of fathers¿ experiences, an international literature review and the results of a survey of local authorities. The publication considers the implications of this research and sets out clear recommendations for Children¿s Services Departments, health services and national government.

The purpose of this study was to develop and test the Experience of Supervision Scale, which measures the experience of supervisory behaviors from the perspective of child welfare workers. Child welfare supervision is gaining increased attention as states struggle to improve performance measures of their child welfare systems. However, the lack of a standardized instrument which measures supervision through an analysis of supervisory behaviors from the supervisee’s perspective has hindered efforts in these areas. The Experience of Supervision Scale is based on Kadushin’s three function casework supervision model of supervision (administrative, educational, and supportive) which was chosen as the theoretical framework due to this model’s emphasis on public agency clinical case work practice. Scale items were generated through focus groups of child welfare workers and supervisors. Items were reviewed by an expert panel and the scale was then administered to a statewide sample of 165 child welfare workers. The refined Experience of Supervision Scale consists of 32 items. In this study, it demonstrated high internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha of .962. Factor analysis yielded a three factor solution consistent with the casework model of supervision’s structure, while also suggesting slight modifications to the model. The three factors derived included: Performance Support, Emotional support/Availability, and Administrative activities. The results of this study suggest that the Experience of Supervision Scale has appropriate psychometric properties for use in complex research in which casework supervision is a variable.

"This study was designed to seek out and explore the range of problems as reflected in parents whose circumstances lead to the care of their children apart from the family. The children represented in the study were admitted to a children's institution which provided for their physical and supervisory care. Major attention throughout the study was focused on the parental problems as reflected in the impairment in ability of the parents for continued care of their children. The study does not endeavor to isolate or define the specific causalities of parental impairment. It does propose to show categorically the types of problems existing with the break-down of parental care of the children"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August 1959." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work." / Advisor: Douglas Brown, Professor Directing Study. / Includes bibliographical references.

"The purpose of this study was to explore the parental participation of each parent in the Human Development Clinic during the treatment of the child's problem to determine the extent to which 66 parent-child treatment cases differed when dichotomized by outcome of service (improved, unimproved) according to clinic judgment at closing. The improved and unimproved treatment cases were compared in regard to 18 selected family and clinic items. Service to these cases was discontinued between September, 1957, and September, 1960, a period of 37 months"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "June, 1961." / "Submitted to the Graduate School of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work." / Advisor: Dixie B. Jones, Professor Directing Study. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-54).

Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior with the addition of Perceived Moral Obligation was used to investigate the behavioral intentions of 65 caseworkers of the Children's Services Division (CSD) to cooperate with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) on cases involving abused or neglected children. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that the subjective norms and perceived moral obligation constructs were significant predictors of the three behavioral intention categories and of all three categories combined. The two constructs, however, seem to have a considerable amount of overlap, suggesting that they may be measuring what is broadly called "social pressure to perform/not to perform 11 the target behavior. Perceived Behavioral Control was not significant in any categories and the attitude measure was marginally predictive. Possible reasons for the nonsignificant contributions of the two constructs include low inter-item correlations, questionnaire format, missing data concentrated in the two constructs, and finally, the notion that the caseworkers' attitudes and perceptions of control were of little consequence in their decisions to cooperate with CASAs. Of the three behavioral intention categories, all models performed best for the second category, 11voluntarily sharing pertinent Information about the cases with CASAs." The attitude construct performed best for this category, especially in the first and second models. Unlike the other two, this asked about the caseworkers' 11voluntary" cooperation. This finding seems to confinn the argument that Ajzen's models work better for a behavior for which one perceives greater volitional control. Prior, direct working experience with CASAs turned out to be an essential part of the attitude construct. The tested models performed better with the 54 caseworkers who had had direct working experience with CASAs in the last .. 24 months. This finding seems to indicate that the data from the 11 "no-experience" workers should not be combined with that of the 54 workers. Future studies of the theory of planned behavior with this sample are discussed.

Objectives: Concerns have been raised that child welfare systems may inappropriately target poor families for intrusive interventions. The term “neglect” has been critiqued as a class-based label applied disproportionately to poor families. The objectives of the study are: to identify the nature and frequency of clinical and poverty-related concerns in child neglect investigations and to assess the service referral response to these needs; to examine the contribution of poverty-related need to case decision-making; and to explore whether substantiated cases of neglect can be divided into subtypes based on different constellations of clinical and poverty-related needs. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of data collected through the 2008 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS‑2008), a nationally representative dataset. A selected subsample of neglect investigations from the CIS‑2008 (N = 4,489) is examined through descriptive analyses, logistic regression, and two-step cluster analysis in order to explore each research objective. Results: Children and caregivers investigated for neglect presented with a range of clinical and poverty-related difficulties. Contrary to some previous research, the existence of poverty-related needs did not influence case dispositions after controlling for other relevant risk factors. However, some variables that should be, in theory, extraneous to case decision-making emerged as significant in the multivariate models, most notably Aboriginal status, with Aboriginal children having increased odds of substantiation, ongoing service provision and placement. Cluster analyses revealed that cases of neglect could be partitioned into three clusters, with no cluster emerging characterized by poverty alone. Conclusions: The majority of children investigated for neglect live in families experiencing poverty-related needs, and with caregivers struggling with clinical difficulties. While poverty-related need on its own does not explain the high proportion of poor families reported to the child welfare system, nor does it account for significant variance in case decision making, cluster analysis suggests that there exists a subgroup of “neglected” children living in families perhaps best characterized by the broader notion of social disadvantage. These families may be better served through an orientation of family support/family welfare rather than through the current residual child protection paradigm.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 375-382).

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a child's rights of speech are taken into account in child welfare investigations. A child's speech or words are not always taken seriously or as important as it should be in the child’s context. This problem has been a major topic of concern both at the national and the international level. Children want their speech of rights to be respected. It is their fundamental right that every human must guarantee to protect these rights to make a better world for future generations. Therefore in order to deeply examine the research topic, the authors used different theoretical approaches like power theory, communication theory and freedom of action. Furthermore the authors gathered more information using semi structure interviews with social workers who work with child welfare investigations. From the interview discussions, the researchers looked for recurrent themes and came with some findings that children are able to express their opinions in child welfare investigations. Children’s visibility and participation in child welfare investigations have improved since BBIC (the child’s needs at the center) has been involved in child welfare investigations. Children´s words or opinions were also ignored. More so, the actual level of how a child´s contribution directly influenced the decision making process was very unclear. The study further shows that social workers are using various communication methods and techniques to adress children's wishes and opinions to provide the best acceptable services. A well-established feedback session is made available in order to gather the children’s opinions and improve on the services.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Increasingly; child welfare authorities have become involved with families where domestic violence is an issue. This has been the result of improved understanding of the impact of witnessing domestic violence on children. However, child welfare has been criticized for the oppressive nature of the interventions with families where domestic violence has occurred. Critics have argued that an absence of understanding about domestic violence by social workers in child welfare has resulted in oppressive practice towards women and children. This study explored the perceptions of social workers in British Columbia's Ministry for Children and Family Development - South Fraser Region about the barriers to best practice in cases of domestic violence. An extensive literature review revealed eight barriers to best practice that contradict current best practice guidelines for cases of domestic violence. The findings of this study revealed that social workers identified that similar barriers to best practice exist in the South Fraser Region, thereby confirming the concerns in the literature. The use of factor analysis revealed that social workers are attempting to work with non-offending parents in amore supportive manner, but there continue to be systemic problems associated with child welfare services that impede workers ability to practice in a non-oppressive manner. Recommendations for improvement of service provision are outlined and discussed.