scholarly journals Child Maltreatment and Public Health: Do Gaps in Response during the COVID-19 Pandemic Highlight Jurisdictional Complexities?

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (13) ◽  
pp. 6851
Author(s):  
Colleen M. Davison ◽  
Susan J. Thanabalasingam ◽  
Eva M. Purkey ◽  
Imaan Bayoumi
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Professional Journals ◽  
Increased Risk

Objective: Countermeasures introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic produced an environment that placed some children at increased risk of maltreatment at the same time as there were decreased opportunities for identifying and reporting abuse. Unfortunately, coordinated government responses to address child protection since the start of the pandemic have been limited in Canada. As an exploratory study to examine the potential academic evidence base and location of expertise that could have been used to inform COVID-19 pandemic response, we undertook a review of child maltreatment research across three prominent Canadian professional journals in social work, medicine and public health. Methods: We conducted a pre-pandemic, thirteen-year (2006–2019) archival analysis of all articles published in the Canadian Social Work Review (CSWR), the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) and the Canadian Journal of Public Health (CJPH) and identified the research articles that related directly to child maltreatment, child protection or the child welfare system in Canada. Results: Of 11,824 articles published across the three journals, 20 research papers relating to child maltreatment, child protection or the child welfare system were identified (CJPH = 7; CMAJ = 3; CSWR = 10). There was no obvious pattern in article topics by discipline. Discussion: Taking these three prominent professional journals as a portal into research in these disciplines, we highlight the potential low volume of academic child maltreatment research despite the importance of the topic and irrespective of discipline. We believe that urgent transdisciplinary collaboration and overall awareness raising for child protection is called for at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as beyond in Canada.

One Piece in the Child Welfare Puzzle: An Evaluation of Alabama Public Child Welfare Internships and Subsequent Employment

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-96
Author(s):  
Carolyn Seroka ◽  
Carole Zugazaga
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
White Child ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Level Of Satisfaction ◽  
State Child ◽  
Black Employees

Intervention with families and children when child maltreatment is suspected is one of the most critical practice areas of social work. This study examined the level of satisfaction for current child welfare stipend interns (n=106), the majority of whom were BSW students, and former stipend interns (n=59) after 1 year of employment within the Alabama state child welfare system. Overall, participants were satisfied with both internship and employment; however, job satisfaction for White child welfare employees was significantly higher than for Black employees. Sixty-two percent of the employees did not expect to remain employed with the agency over the next 5 years.

Who Is and Is Not Served by Child Protective Services Systems? Implications for a Prevention Infrastructure to Reduce Child Maltreatment

2020 ◽  
Vol 692 (1) ◽  
pp. 182-202
Author(s):  
Kristen S. Slack ◽  
Lawrence M. Berger
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Child Protective Services ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Child Safety ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
Child Maltreatment Prevention

The majority of alleged abuse or neglect reports to the U.S. child welfare system are either screened out prior to an investigation (i.e., at the “hotline” stage) or investigated only to be closed with no finding of immediate child safety concerns. Yet while many of these children and families are at risk of subsequent incidents of child maltreatment or child welfare system involvement, they are not systematically offered services or benefits intended to reduce this risk at the point that child protective services (CPS) ends its involvement. This article provides an overview of the “front end” of the child welfare system, commonly referred to as CPS, highlighting which families are served and which are not. We then argue for a systematic and coordinated child maltreatment prevention infrastructure that incorporates elements of “community response” programs that several U.S. states have implemented in recent years. Such programs are focused on families that have been reported to, and sometimes investigated by, CPS, but no ongoing CPS case is opened. We further argue that such programs need to pay particular attention to economic issues that these families face.

The Centrality of Child Maltreatment to Criminology

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Font ◽  
Reeve Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Crime And Delinquency ◽  
Comprehensive Measurement

Despite sufficient evidence to conclude that maltreatment exposure affects the risk of crime and delinquency, we conclude that the magnitude and specificity of effects of child maltreatment on crime and delinquency and the mechanisms through which those effects operate remain poorly identified. Key challenges include insufficient attention to the overlap of child maltreatment with various forms of family dysfunction and adversity and a lack of comprehensive measurement of the multiple, often comorbid, forms of child maltreatment. We then consider the potential impacts of the child welfare system on the maltreatment–crime link. Because the child welfare system typically provides voluntary, short-term services of unknown quality, it likely neither increases nor reduces risks of delinquency and crime for most children who are referred or investigated. For the comparatively small (although nominally large and important) subset of children experiencing foster care, impacts on delinquency and crime likely vary by the quality of environments within and after their time in care—issues that, to date, have received too little attention. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 5 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals Exploring dominant child protection discourses: new possibilities for practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nimo Samater
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Reflective Practice ◽  
Attachment Theory ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Child Protection Workers ◽  
Emerging Themes

This research study focuses on attachment theory as a dominant discourse in child protection and the experiences of child protection workers. The literature on attachment theory and its influence on Eurocentric/Western knowledge is reviewed. As well, the use of reflective practice in child protection practice is discussed. This study includes qualitative interviews with three child protection workers in Southern Ontario who discuss their practice. Four emerging themes were derived from the narratives of the participants: recognition of attachment theory as being the pinnacle of child protection practice, use of observation as a tool to assess attachment, use of reflective practice and lastly, the stigma of Children’s Aid Society and impacts on practice. The findings in this study suggest how practice is led by policies and standards of the child welfare system and is rarely challenged. The need for the child welfare system to validate parent/child beliefs, values and practices from various ethnicities is discussed.

Nelson, Kristine E.

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine Cahn ◽  
Nocona Pewewardy
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Family Preservation ◽  
State University ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Portland State University ◽  
School Of Social Work

Dr. Kristine E. Nelson (1943–2012) was a nationally recognized child welfare historian and scholar, as well as a social work educator and administrator. Her early work in child welfare and a deep commitment to social justice informed her scholarship, research, and leadership. Her research focused on family preservation and community-based child welfare practice, with a focus on families entering the child welfare system due to neglect or poverty-related challenges. She was a significant contributor to advancing new frameworks of child welfare practice and had a successful career as a social work educator and administrator, retiring as Dean of the Portland State University School of Social Work in 2011.

Kelso, John Joseph

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Moscovitch
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
First Child ◽  
Protection Legislation ◽  
Children's Aid Societies ◽  
Similar Legislation

John Joseph Kelso (March 31, 1864–September 30, 1935) was a young journalist when he became involved in child welfare in his adopted home of Toronto. He was instrumental in the passage of the first child protection legislation in Canada, and in spreading the need for voluntary children’s aid societies across Ontario and for similar legislation across Canada. He became superintendent of child welfare in 1893 and remained in that post for 40 years, shaping the development of the child welfare system in Ontario and Canada.

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