scholarly journals Adverse Childhood Experiences: Beyond Signs of Safety; Reimagining the Organisation and Practice of Social Work with Children and Families

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (8) ◽  
pp. 2042-2058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Spratt ◽  
John Devaney ◽  
John Frederick
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Professional Groups ◽  
Systemic Analysis ◽  
Safety Programme ◽  
Signs Of Safety ◽  
Adverse Childhood

Abstract While an adverse childhood experience (ACE)-informed approach to child protection and welfare has become influential in USA, it has had markedly less influence in UK, this despite growth in adoption of ACE research as a basis for understanding population needs and aligning service delivery amongst policymakers and other professional groups. In this article, we note the development of ACE research and draw out implications for social work with children and families. We argue that current organisational and practice preoccupations, drawing on the example of the Signs of Safety programme, together with antipathy to ACEs in some quarters of the social work academy, have the effect of reifying a short-term and occluded view of the developing child’s needs so as to obstruct the systemic analysis and changes necessary to ensure that the child welfare system is redesigned to meet such needs. This suggests that post-Kempe era child welfare services are no longer conceptually or systemically adequate to protect children beyond immediate safety outcomes and consequently we need to reimagine their future.

scholarly journals RESILIENCE IN CHILD WELFARE: A SOCIAL WORK PERSPECTIVE

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dermot J. Hurley ◽  
Lisa Martin ◽  
Rhonda Hallberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Child Protection Workers

This study explores the concept of resilience as it is applied in child welfare practice from the perspective of front line child protection workers (CPWs). Specifically it examines how CPWs understand the concept of resilience and how they see themselves nurturing resilience in children and families. The paper also explores how working with resilient clients helps foster resilience in CPWs through a process of vicarious or shared resilience. This study is part of a larger three-site study conducted in Canada, Ireland, and Argentina examining the concept of resilience within specific socio-cultural contexts of child protection practice.

scholarly journals VIOLENT CRIMES AND ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES IN YOUNG OFFENDERS AT BLITAR JUVENILE DETENTION CENTRE

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 388-401
Author(s):  
Jessica Shirleen Wilona ◽  
Yusti Probowati Rahayu ◽  
Ayuni Ayuni
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Adverse Childhood Experiences ◽  
Parametric Method ◽  
Juvenile Detention ◽  
Violent Behaviour ◽  
Violent Crimes ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Detention Center ◽  
Examination Result ◽  
Adverse Childhood

Violent crimes yield to fear and unsafe feelings have been also done by children. The General Strain theory explained that violence was occurred due to the criminal coping of individuals, who experienced the situation of pressures that yield into anger which might be developed into violent behaviour. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) is a form of pressure within the family that might contribute to criminal coping. This research was aimed at investigating the differences of ACE on violent crimes and non-violent crimes. Participants of this study were 58 out of 213 boy offenders aged 12-18 years old in the Juvenile Detention Center in Blitar. These participants were chosen by the accidental sampling method based on the type of cases, in which 28 boys were on violent crimes (robbery, child protection, murder, and beating), while 30 boys were on non-violent crimes (theft and drug abuses). The measurement used was the ACE scale, applied with some modifications. The reliability coefficient of the ACE scale was .843. Data were analysed using a non-parametric method, which was the Mann-Whitney U. The examination of mean rank and the effect size of this study showed that ACE was higher on violent crimes, even though this result was not supported by the hypothesis examination result, which was not significant (U = 3.47, p = .129). It could be concluded that ACE on the violent crimes group tended to be higher compared to the non-violent crimes group.

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Mental Health, and Risk Behaviors Among Men in the Solomon Islands

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 582-591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paraniala Silas C. Lui ◽  
Michael P. Dunne ◽  
Philip Baker ◽  
Verzilyn Isom
Keyword(s):  
Risk Behaviors ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Adverse Childhood Experiences ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Risk Behaviors ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Adult Health ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Adverse Childhood

Compared with many parts of the world, there has been little research in Pacific Island nations into the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on adult health. This is a significant gap for local evidence-based child protection. We describe findings from a survey of 400 men aged 18 to 70 years recruited from randomly sampled households in Honiara city, Solomon Islands. Most men reported multiple adversities during childhood (80.7% 3 or more; 46% 5 or more), such as exposure to community and domestic violence, bullying, physical maltreatment, and sexual abuse. Men with multiple ACEs had significantly lower well-being and more psychological distress, recent stressful life events, and health risk behaviors. This study reports the first observation that betel quid chewing increased as a function of multiple ACEs. In comparison with recent East Asian studies, the Solomon Islands data suggest that the collective geographic category of “Asia-Pacific” masks significant intraregional differences in childhood adversities.

Ethical decision-making in internet research – Investigating protest groups against Child Welfare Services on Facebook

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-317
Author(s):  
Edda Stang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
Child Welfare Services ◽  
Welfare Services ◽  
Insight Into

At a time when both extensive international and national protest and criticisms are directed toward the Norwegian Child Welfare Services, it is of great interest to researchers to gain insight into the viewpoints presented in protest groups on social media. The paper aims to give insight into the ethical judgement involved in research on digital communities where it is difficult to decide whether certain material is public or not. In addition, the paper reflects on the social consequences of understanding some participants as vulnerable versus understanding them as citizens, in a social work/child protection context on social media. A considerable amount of literature focuses on ethical questions in Internet research. There is also literature on the ethical considerations connected to resistance and protest groups on social media. There is, however, less existing research about the ethical decision-making within the field of social work, child protection and client protests on the Internet. This paper analyses certain experiences from a qualitative research project regarding Facebook groups protesting Child Welfare Services in Norway. The paper concludes that in some social media research contexts, as the one presented here, taking extra care to anonymize participants in publications is sufficient to secure privacy, and covert collection of data is possible without jeopardizing ethical guidelines. Further, by developing practical ethical judgement, we can – in some social work contexts – avoid putting people into categories like “vulnerable” and instead approach the participants in public Facebook groups as citizens with socio-political opinions.

scholarly journals All the ACEs: A Chaotic Concept for Family Policy and Decision-Making?

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue White ◽  
Rosalind Edwards ◽  
Val Gillies ◽  
David Wastell
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Adverse Childhood Experiences ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Parental Control ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Definitive Evidence ◽  
Adverse Childhood ◽  
Parenting Behaviours

This article will consider Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) as a chaotic concept that prioritises risk and obscures the material and social conditions of the lives of its objects. It will show how the various definitions of ACEs offer no cohesive body of definitive evidence and measurement, and lead to a great deal of over-claiming. It discusses how ACEs have found their time and place, locating a variety of social ills within the child’s home, family and parenting behaviours. It argues that because ACEs are confined to intra-familial circumstances, and largely to narrow parent-child relations, issues outside of parental control are not addressed. It concludes that ACEs form a poor body of evidence for family policy and decision-making about child protection and that different and less stigmatising solutions are hiding in plain sight.

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