Feeling the pressure to take sides: A survey of child protection workers' experiences about responding to allegations of child maltreatment within the context of child custody disputes

Saini, Michael; Black, Tara; Godbout, Élisabeth; Deljavan, Sevil

doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.11.044

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Assessing concerns and assisting children of high-conflict families are known to be particularly difficult for caseworkers in child protection services (CPS) across Western countries (Jevne & Ulvik, 2012;Saini et al, 2012;Saini et al, 2019). These difficulties are related to CPS professionals' struggle to understand the nature of conflict, uncertainties about exposure to conflict's connection to children's emotional harm and failures to protect offspring caught up in their parents' conflicts (Saini et al, 2019). In addition, factors such as values, resources and competencies appear to influence decisions on whether official notifications are dropped during intake procedures (Rød et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should we take their children? Caseworkers’ negotiations of ‘good enough’ care for children living with high-conflict parents

Sudland

Neumann

2020

European Journal of Social Work

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should we take their children? Caseworkers’ negotiations of ‘good enough’ care for children living with high-conflict parents

Sudland

Neumann

2020

European Journal of Social Work

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“…Containment is a process in which a trustworthy person accepts and processes a person's feelings and returns them in a digestible way that helps them to face, understand, and manage uncertainty and effectively respond in practice (Ruch, ). As both Ruch and Ferguson argue, emotionally attuned support can help social workers reflect on negative emotions and transform them into a resource of practice, thereby avoiding unethical social work, as well as emotional exhaustion and burnout (Lundberg & Moloney, ; Saini et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many social workers within child protection services (CPS) find their work with children living in families with a high level of conflict between separated parents difficult, exhausting, and frustrating (Jevne & Ulvik, ; Saini et al, , ). High conflict between parents who have moved apart is characterized by a high degree of anger, hostility, and distrust and by ongoing difficulty between the parents in communicating about the care of their children (Cashmore & Parkinson, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These are challenges for social workers in many countries. For example, Saini et al (, ) found that Canadian social workers requested a clearer mandate for the CPS and training to become more skilled in conflict resolution. However, few studies have focussed on how social workers themselves talk about experience and reason about the issue of high conflict levels between parents and how they intervene to help them and their children.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Challenges and dilemmas working with high‐conflict families in child protection casework

Sudland

2019

Child & Family Social Work

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Social workers within child protection services report that families marked by high levels of conflict between separated parents are among the most challenging cases to handle. Few studies however have focussed on how social workers themselves experience and meet with parents involved in hostile martial interactions. This article reports on a qualitative study involving 31 social workers and provides an analysis of their experiences and dilemmas in working with such families. Findings demonstrate that social workers struggle to find ways to help high‐conflict families and often find themselves at an impasse. Parents involved in such conflict are highly resistant to change, and social workers struggle to engage with them over concerns about their children. Furthermore, findings suggest that social workers lack organizationally allotted time to assist the parents. I conclude by discussing ways in which emotional support, empowering interventions, and strength‐based approaches enable social workers to manage relationships with high‐conflict families. More research on this topic is needed to support and promote better practices for social workers to be more effective in assisting high‐conflict families.

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“…Accurate identification of child abuse is crucial to protect children, and provide children and families with appropriate justice services, and treatment in lives free from abuse and violence (Mallory, La Rooy, Lamb, & Katz, ). While child protection services are increasingly encountering high conflict parental separation cases, there remains little information on how agencies manage these cases or what should be best practices for child protection workers with families involved in high conflict disputes (Houston & Bala, ; Saini, Black, Godbout, & Deljavan, ).…”

Section: The Challenge Of Allegations Within Child Protection Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gatekeeping by Allegations: An Examination of Verified, Unfounded, and Fabricated Allegations of Child Maltreatment Within the Context of Resist and Refusal Dynamics

Saini¹,

Laajasalo²,

Platt³

2020

Family Court Review

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Allegations of child maltreatment and neglect, including child sexual abuse, in the context of child custody disputes pose particular challenges for child protection services, family law professionals and the courts to identify children at risk of harm, as well as children impacted and exposed to other risk factors. Accurately identifying child maltreatment requires assessing the background, the history and the context of the allegations in order to differentiate confirmed, unfounded, and fabricated allegations. The paper provides a review of the history and current understanding of allegations within the context of child custody disputes by considering the connections of fabricated allegations to the theory of alienation and the role of gatekeeping. The paper then examines the social science literature regarding allegations within child protection investigations (the prevalence, types of maltreatment, reporter of allegations, and case outcomes) and explores the factors that have contributed to the challenges faced by child protection services to investigate and make determinations regarding allegations within the context of child custody disputes. We argue for early assessment protocols for child protection services to screen child custody cases, to differentiate allegations of alienation from other types of harm, to enhance role clarity in these volatile situations, to refrain from "taking sides" and to work collaboratively with the family law community. Lastly, we offer legal implications to improve collaboration between child protection services and the family law field to better respond to these complex cases. Key Points for the Family Court Community:Allegations of child abuse in the context of child custody disputes pose significant challenges in determining the validity of maltreatment allegations.Fabricated allegations of child sexual are a particular concern within the context of high conflict child custody disputes.Fabricated allegations have been considered to be a weapon used by a separating parent, to effectively end the child's relationship with the other parent.The rates of malicious allegations are nowhere near the reported rates originally presented with the theory of alienation by Gardner and others in the last century.There is no reported research that specifically addresses allegations of child abuse within the context of allegations of alienation Allegations of physical or sexual abuse of a child arise in only a relatively small portion of cases where there are issues of child resistance and/or rejection.

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Feeling the pressure to take sides: A survey of child protection workers' experiences about responding to allegations of child maltreatment within the context of child custody disputes

Cited by 16 publications

References 13 publications

Should we take their children? Caseworkers’ negotiations of ‘good enough’ care for children living with high-conflict parents

Should we take their children? Caseworkers’ negotiations of ‘good enough’ care for children living with high-conflict parents

Challenges and dilemmas working with high‐conflict families in child protection casework

Gatekeeping by Allegations: An Examination of Verified, Unfounded, and Fabricated Allegations of Child Maltreatment Within the Context of Resist and Refusal Dynamics

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