Abstract
Of all of the tasks performed by child welfare workers, decision making is perhaps the most critical. Decisions made regarding the exact nature of family problems, whether problems identified can be resolved while children remain in their own homes, or whether to recommend out-of-home care should have profound consequences for the families served.
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Notes and References
“Child Welfare as a Field of Social Work Practice,” (Position paper of the Child Welfare League of America and the U.S. Children’s Bureau, New York, Child Welfare League of America, 1959), pp. 19–20;
Martin Wolins, “A Proposed Research Program for the Child Welfare League of America” (New York: Child Welfare League of America, 1959), pp. 13–14;
David Fanshel, “Research in Child Welfare: A Critical Analysis,” XLI, No. 10 (1962), pp. 484–507;
Kermit T. Wiltse, “Current Issues and New Directions in Foster Care,” in Child Welfare Strategies in the Coming Years (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare, DHEW Publication Number (OHDS) 78–30158, 1978), pp. 51–89;
Margaret Adcock, “Dilemmas in Planning Long-Term Care,” in New Developments in Foster Care and Adoption ed. John Triseliotis (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1980), Ch. 1;
June Thoburn, Captive Clients: Social Work with Families of Children Home on Trial (London: Rout-ledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1980), ch. 7.
Henry Maas and Richard Engler, Children in Need of Parents (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959).
Wolins, op cit;
Fanshel, op cit;
Edmund V. Mech, “Decision Analysis in Foster Care Practice,” in Foster Care in Question ed. Helen D. Stone (New York: Child Welfare League of America, 1970), pp. 26–51;
Donald Brieland, Kenneth Watson, Philip Hovda, David Fanshel, and John J. Carey, Differential Use of Manpower: A Team Model for Foster Care (New York: Child Welfare League of America, 1968), p. 8.
Sally E. Palmer, “The Decision to Separate Children From Their Natural Parents,” Social Work, Vol. 39 (1971), pp. 82–87;
Bernice Boehm, “An Assessment of Family Adequacy in Protective Cases,” Child Welfare, Vol. 41 (January 1962), pp. 10–16;
Bernice Boehm, “Protective Services for Neglected Children,” Social Work Practice: Proceedings of the National Conference on Social Welfare (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967), pp. 109–125;
Michael H. Phillips, Ann W. Shyne, Edmund A. Sherman, and Barbara L. Haring, Factors Associated with Placement Decisions in Child Welfare (New York: Child Welfare League of America, 1971);
Eugene B. Shinn, “Is Placement Necessary? An Experimental Study of Agreement Among Caseworkers in Making Foster Care Decisions” (diss., Columbia University, 1969); State of New York, Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979, Laws of 1979, Chapters 610 and 611 (May 31, 1979).
Thoborn, “Is Placement Necessary? An Experimental Study of Agreement Among Caseworkers in Making Foster Care Decisions” (diss., Columbia University, 1969); State of New York, Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979, Laws of 1979, Chapters 610 and 611 (May 31, 1979);
Margaret A. Lynch and Jacqueline Roberts, Consequences of Child Abuse (London: Academic Press, Inc., 1982).
Scott Briar, “Clinical Judgment in Foster Care Placement,” Child Welfare, Vol. 42 (1963), pp. 161–169.
Mary Ann Jones, Renee Neuman, and Ann W. Shyne, A Second Chance for Families: Evaluation of a Program to Reduce Foster Care (New York: Child Welfare League of America, 1976);
Arthur Emlen et al. Overcoming Barriers to Planning for Children in Foster Care (Portland, Oregon: Regional Research Institute for Human Services, Portland State University, 1977);
Theodore J. Stein, Eileen D. Gambrill and Kermit T. Wiltse, Children in Foster Homes: Achieving Continuity in Care (New York: Praeger Publishers, division of Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1978). See Thorpe (1974) and Aldgate (1978) cited in Thoburn, op cit., p. 7.
Joan Di Leonardi, “Decision Making in Protective Services,” Social Welfare, 59 (June, 1980), pp. 356–364;
F. M. Martin, Kathleen Murray, and Helen Millar, “The Role of ‘Children’s Hearings’ in Child Abuse and Neglect,” Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal, Vol. 6 No. 3 (1982), pp. 313–320.
John L. Craft, Stephen W. Epley, and Cheryl D. Clarkson, “Factors Influencing Legal Dispositions in Child Abuse Investigations,” Journal of Social Service Research, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Fall, 1980), pp. 31–46;
James R. Seaberg, “Disposition in Physical Child Abuse,” California Psychologist, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1978), pp. 3–11.
Boehm, op cit.
Shinn, op cit.
Phillips et al., op cit.
See Mech, op cit, p. 44.
Desmond K. Runyan et al., “Determinants of Foster Care Placement for the Maltreated Child,” Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1982), pp. 343–350.
William Ryan, and Laura B. Morris, Child Welfare Problems and Potentials (Boston, Mass.: Massachusetts Committee on Children and Youth, 1967).
Theodore J. Stein, “A Content Analysis of Social Caseworker and Client Interaction in Foster Care,” D.S.W. diss., Berkeley, California: School of Social Welfare, 1974.
Shirley Jenkins and Anita G. Schroeder, Intake: The Discriminant Function—A Report on the National Study on Social Services Intake for Children and Their Families. Prepared by Westat Inc, for the U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare (Rockville, Maryland: September 1979).
Ann W. Shyne, The Need for Foster Care (New York: Child Welfare League of America, 1969).
Shirley Jenkins, and Mignon Sauber, Paths to Child Placement: Family Situations Prior to Foster Care (New York: The Community Council of Greater New York, 1966).
Thoburn, op cit.
Thoburn, Ibid., p. 131.
Dean Luce, Child Placement Decisions (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois, School of Social Work, 1975).
Alan R. Gruber, Children in Foster Care: Destitute, Neglected…. Betrayed (New York: Human Sciences Press, 1978).
Stein, A, Content Analysis, op cit.
Charles A. Rapp, “Effect of the Availability of Family Support Services on Decisions about Child Placement,” Social Work Research & Abstracts, Vol. 18, No. 1 [Spring 1982], pp. 21–27.
Craft et al., op cit, p. 35.
Craft et al., Ibid., p. 42.
di Leonardi, “Effect of the Availability of Family Support Services on Decisions about Child Placement,” Social Work Research & Abstracts, Vol. 18, No. 1 [Spring 1982], p. 42;
Helen Rosen, cited in Isabel Wolock, “Community Characteristics and Staff Judgments in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases,” Social Work Research and Abstracts, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Summer 1982), pp. 9–15.
Craft et al., op cit, p. 42.
Seaberg, op cit.
Isabel Wolock, “Community Characteristics and Staff Judgments in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases,” Social Work Research and Abstracts, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Summer 1982), pp. 9–15.
For a detailed review of this research see Stein, Gambrill, and Wiltse, op cit.
R. Walton, “The Best Interests of the Child,” British Journal of Social Work, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1976), pp. 307–313;
Asbjorn Kjonstad, “Child Abuse and Neglect: Viewed in Relation to 12 Fundamental Principles in a Western Social and Legal System,” Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal, Vol. 5, No. 4 (1981), pp. 421–429.
Parents have successfully challenged state laws regarding compulsory school attendance as well as required medical care. See Robert H. Mnookin, Child, Family and State—Problems and Materials on Children and the Law (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, 1978), pp. 43–57, 68–76.
Emlen et al., op cit;
Craft et al., p. 42;
June Thoburn, “Good Enough Care? A Study of Children Who Went Home ‘On Trial’,” Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1979), p. 77.
The best interest test could be construed to focus the decision maker’s attention on formulating short-term predictions based on current knowledge. However, in its current construction, attention is directed to making long-range predictions.
Arlene Skolnick, The Intimate Environment: Exploring Marriage and the Family, 2d ed. (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, 1978), p. 354;
Sheldon H. White et al., Federal Programs for Young Children; Review and Recommendations: Volume I: Goals and Standards of Public Programs for Children (Washington, D.C.: Superintendent of Documents, 1973), p. 130;
Joseph Goldstein, Anna Freud, and Albert J. Soinit, Beyond the Best Interests of the Child (New York: The Free Press, 1973), p. 6;
Kjonstad, op cit., p. 422.
Rosamund, Thorpe, “The Experiences of Children and Parents Living Apart: Implications and Guidelines for Practice,” in John Triseliotis, op cit., p. 85.
Rita Dukette, Structured Assessment: A Decision-making Guide for Child Welfare (Chicago, Illinois: U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare: Region V, April 1978);
Michael H. Phillips, Barbara L. Harin, and Ann W. Shyne, A Model for Intake Decisions in Child Welfare (New York: Child Welfare League of America, 1972).
Jenkins and Schroeder, op cit., p. 19.
The argument that the law must be broad to give judges sufficient discretion in making case-by-case decisions is not persuasive. See Stanford N. Katz, When Parents Fail: The Law’s Response to Family Breakdown (Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, 1971), p. 62–63. As Wald points out, judges “lack training relevant to making decisions regarding intervention and appropriate dispositions. Few juvenile court judges are trained in psychology or other behavioral sciences” (p. 8). He goes on to note that most of the social workers assigned to court are not sufficiently trained to provide guidance in making the decisions of concern.
See Michael S. Wald, “State Intervention on Behalf of Endangered Children—A Proposed Legal Response,” Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1982), pp. 3–46.
Saad Z. Nagi, Child Maltreatment in the United States: A Challenge to Social Institutions (New York: Columbia University Press, p. 15);
Jill E. Korbin (ed.), Child Abuse and Neglect: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1981).
Stein, Gambrill, and Wiltse, op cit., p. 17.
United States Senate, Committe on Finance, Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, 96th Congress, 2d Session (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, June 17, 1980).
Stein, “A Content Analysis,” 96th Congress, 2d Session (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, June 17, 1980);
Martin Wolins, Selecting Foster Parents (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963);
Naomi Golan, “How Caseworkers Decide: A Study of the Association of Selected Applicant Factors With Worker Decision in Admission Services,” Social Service Review, Vol. 43 (1969), pp. 289–296;
Donald Brieland, An Experimental Study in the Selection of Adoptive Parents at Intake (New York: Child Welfare League of America, 1959).
Robin M. Hogarth, Judgment and Choice: The Psychology of Decision (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1980, p. 4); It has been estimated that the number of categories of information that a person can process in immediate memory is no more than seven, plus or minus two.
See Irving L. Janis and Leon Mann, Decision Making: A Psychological Analysis of Conflict, Choice, and Commitment (New York: The Free Press, 1977), p. 22.
Hogarth, op cit., p. 31.
See Stein, Gambrill, and Wiltse, p. 20.
Phillips et al., Factors Associated with Placement Decisions, op cit.
Ibid., p. 84.
Wolins, op cit., pp. 72–73.
Golan, op cit., pp. 289–296.
Ibid., p. 11.
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Stein, T.J., Rzepnicki, T.L. (1984). Studies of Decision Making in Child Welfare and Sources of Information for Decision Making. In: Decision Making in Child Welfare Services. International Series in Social Welfare, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5648-3_2
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