SAVE - Support and protection Against Violence, on Equal terms for all children : Ett forsknings- och utvecklingsprojekt om barnavårdsutredningarvid anmälan om misstänkt våldsutsatthet

SAVE är den hittills största longitudinella studie i Sverige om sociala barn- och ungdomsvårdens utredningar efter anmälan om misstänkt våldsutsatthet. Syftet med SAVE är att öka kunskapen om i vilken utsträckning olika typer av våldsproblematik framkommer i barnavårdsutredningar, hur risken för fortsatt våld bedöms, i vilken utsträckning insatser beslutas samt om flickor och pojkar oavsett ålder, ursprung och funktionsnedsättning beviljas insatser på lika villkor.Resultatet i denna delrapport baseras på barnavårdsutredningar om 851 barn som aktualiserats hos socialtjänsten efter anmälan om misstänkt våldsutsatthet. Datainsamlingen har pågått från maj 2019 – april 2020

SAVE - Support and protection Against Violence, on Equal terms for all children : Ett forsknings- och utvecklingsprojekt om barnavårdsutredningarvid anmälan om misstänkt våldsutsatthet

SAVE är den hittills största longitudinella studie i Sverige om sociala barn- och ungdomsvårdens utredningar efter anmälan om misstänkt våldsutsatthet. Syftet med SAVE är att öka kunskapen om i vilken utsträckning olika typer av våldsproblematik framkommer i barnavårdsutredningar, hur risken för fortsatt våld bedöms, i vilken utsträckning insatser beslutas samt om flickor och pojkar oavsett ålder, ursprung och funktionsnedsättning beviljas insatser på lika villkor.Resultatet i denna delrapport baseras på barnavårdsutredningar om 851 barn som aktualiserats hos socialtjänsten efter anmälan om misstänkt våldsutsatthet. Datainsamlingen har pågått från maj 2019 – april 2020

Gender disparities in child welfare services' assessments of referrals. Findings from Sweden

Background: Many children referred to the child welfare services are not screened in for further investigation. Factors related to intake decisions have been found on several levels. Many studies, however, lack information about the children's own experiences of child maltreatment and/or behavioral problems. Objective: To examine case factors relating to decision to investigate referrals to the child welfare services in Sweden. Participants and setting: Data are used from a prospective longitudinal multisource program (LoRDYA) in Sweden studying two cohorts of adolescent children in four municipalities (n = 1884). Methods: By linking annual self-rating data with registry data from the child welfare services, data are analyzed through latent-class analysis and Poisson regression. Results: Most children who are self-rated severely exposed to maltreatment and/or behavioral problems are never investigated by the child welfare services (74.2 %). Referrals concerning girls are more likely to be investigated than referrals concerning boys (crudeAME = 0.09 p = ***). For girls, prior referrals (adjAME = 0.16, p = ***), household poverty (adjAME = 0.09, p = *) and any form of self-rated severe exposure to maltreatment and/or behavioral problems (adjAME = 0.14, p = ***) increased the chance of a decision to investigate. For boys, prior referrals (adjAME = 0.24, p = ***) increased the chance of a decision to investigate, while achieved age (adjAME = −0.03, p = *), and being referred on suspicions of neglect and behavioral problems (adjAME = −0.15, p = **) decreased the chance of a decision to investigate. Conclusions: Child welfare services assess referrals on boys and girls differently, which may explain why boys have in crude numbers a decreased chance of decisions to investigate

Detection of children at risk of maltreatment : longitudinal understanding of teachers’ concern for children’s home situation in Sweden

Teachers in preschools and schools have a central role in detecting children at risk of maltreatment. The aim of this study was to provide a longitudinal understanding of teachers’ temporary and prolonged concerns for children's home situations (CCHS), from preschool (age 3–5 years) to year 1–3 of elementary school (age 8–10 years). Teacher- and parent reports from an ongoing prospective longitudinal study was used (baseline n = 2,113; 5-year follow-up n = 1,829). The study applied the bio-ecological systems framework by assessing how teachers’ CCHS were associated with person-, process-, and context-related factors. Both temporary and prolonged CCHS were primarily associated with teachers’ concern for different aspects of the children’s development, poor contact with parents and low parental SES, while school-related factors were less prominent. The longitudinal pattern indicates three risk levels and highlights the importance of the contact between teachers and parents in understanding when CCHS arises, ceases, or persists over time.

The Importance of Information Processing in Child Protection Cases-A Study of Social Workers' Integration of Other Professionals' Knowledge

The processes used by social workers to collect, interpret and use stakeholder information in child protection cases are an unexplored but essential part of the decision-making process. This study focuses on social workers' efforts to integrate the knowledge of other professionals. This article draws on a framework for managing knowledge across organisational boundaries and a process-oriented conceptualisation of knowledge integration. The analysis of ten interviews with social workers shows that the process of knowledge integration affects the basis of social workers' decision making. We argue that knowledge possessed by other professionals is often viewed as easily transferrable and correctly received, when in fact this knowledge is often complex and subjective and requires extra effort to obtain, understand and integrate into case-specific situations. This implies a need to recognise information processing as an influencing factor in decision making within child protection that pertains to both practice and research. Our study is based on ten in-depth interviews with child protection social workers. We focus on the significance of the process of collecting and interpreting information from other professionals (boundary work), information which contributes to the social workers' assessments and decision making. We found that despite the efforts made by the social workers to obtain and understand knowledge from other professionals, this knowledge transfer had limitations. These limitations can weaken the foundation upon which decisions in child protection services are made. We suggest that: (i) child protection services pay more attention to the boundary work; at the organisational level by facilitating collaboration between organisations and at the individual level by enhancing the social workers' interpersonal collaborations skills and (ii) child protection research should include boundary work as an influencing factor on the decision-making process