This study, undertaken at the Children's Aid Society of Vancouver,
B. C., was an attempt to isolate and identify certain social and
environmental factors which precipitate agency care of children. Such a
study should be of value to any Child Welfare Agency concerned with
strengthening the family and maintaining the child, whenever possible,
in his own home.
The rationale for the study was based on three major assumptions:
1. that service to families and children in need of protection
has been hampered by lack of foster home
resources.
2. That in providing substitute care for children Child
Welfare agencies have emphasized the psychological
dynamics of the family situation, attributing the
need for agency care to the personal pathology of
one or more members, and have paid insufficient
attention to the possibility that social and environmental
conditions may have contributed to the
need for foster home placement.
3. That whenever feasible the child should remain in
his own home.
In fomaulating these assumptions we were influenced by the
findings of other researchers. Alfred Kadushin in his article "Introduction
of New Orientations in Child Welfare Research" (The Known and
Unknown in Child Welfare Research, Miriam Morris & Barbara Walters eds.,
Child Welfare League of America, N. Y., 1965) pleads for greater
understanding of the social situation of families, since it is his opinion
that adverse environmental conditions play a significant role in the
placement of children. Similarly Jenkins and Sauber (Paths to Child
Placement, Community Council of Greater New York, N. Y. City Department of Welfare, 1966) emphasize the importance of social conditions, particularly
income, housing and health on a family's ability to remain
together and function effectively. From both these research findings it
was apparent that the provision of community resources such as homemaker
service and day care centres could reduce the number of children requiring
placement away from their own home by supporting and supplementing the
family during periods of situational stress.
With this in mind our study was to be concerned with identifying
the social and environmental factors which played a role in developing
conditions requiring agency care of children. In addition we were also
concerned with the process that went on prior to agency contact, specifically how families coped with their adverse situations before accepting
or requesting agency intervention. Such information would serve as a
basis for developing community resources to increase the family's ability
to withstand pressure and stress.
We hypothesized that the findings of other researchers as
mentioned above were as valid in Vancouver as elsewhere and should therefore
be of equal concern to Child Welfare Agencies here.
Our original design was to develop a schedule to provide data
for testing the significance of certain social and environmental factors
that we had identified by consulting the literature and agency personnel.
The variables to be tested were:
1. Household composition
2. Housing
3. Neighbourhood
4. Health
5. Income
6. Employment
7. Education
In order to discover the problem solving activities of the families in
relation to these variables, coping questions were inserted into the
schedule. These questions were designed to elicit information about
the client's perception of the problem, his initial response and its
effect, and the people and/or organizations he involved in his coping
attempts.
A draft schedule was devised to be administered over a one month
period during the intake process to all persons requesting or referred
for service with the exception of transients. The schedule was to be.
readministered six months later and a comparison made to determine the
differences, if any, between the social and environmental situations
of those families whose children were placed and those families who
remained together.
Unfortunately at this time the agency was unable to participate
in such a project and the administration of the schedule was abandoned.
We were not free to take on this task ourselves and it had been our
intention from the beginning to introduce a research element into the
agency as part of professional practice by the involvement of personnel
in this effort. We still believe that the agency would find the schedule
useful and have included it in Appendix I with the recommendation that
it be considered for inclusion in any future project in this area.
As an alternative, agency personnel suggested that we examine
existing Intake data to see if the information we sought might not be already available in the files. Thirty-six files were examined and
thirteen workers consulted. We found that information regarding the
variables was either inconsistently recorded or absent entirely. Where
information regarding the coping patterns of these families was recorded
it tended to be limited to the source of referral without any further
elaboration.
Our findings indicated that a review of agency records was
not adequate for research purposes since the variables sought were not
systematically recorded during the intake process.
Time ran out on us following an examination of the files and
we were unable to consult again with staff or to discuss alternative
ways of obtaining the information. We did, however, make a number of
recommendations based on our experience which may serve as a guide for
continuing research in this area:
1. That an exploratory study be conducted using an interview
schedule which includes the variables suggested
above. Our draft schedule is available in the body of
this report.
2. That the schedule be administered through the Intake
Department with a follow-up study several months
later. The use of an independent researcher seems
to be warranted since agency personnel are not
available to take on this added task due to time
pressures of their own.
3. That the intake face sheet be revised to include in formation
pertaining to the social and environmental
situations of clients as an aid in identifying
recurring patterns of stress that may necessitate
substitute care of children. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / [additional authors Joan Konon, Shirley Langstaff, Pam Manson,
Donna Moroz, Miriam Schachner, Thomas Williams] / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41707 |
| Date | January 1967 |
| Creators | Dodd, Paul W. |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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