What’s Fair in Child Welfare? Parent Knowledge, Attitudes, and Experiences

Abstract

Parents play a critical role in the progression and outcomes of juvenile dependency (child welfare court) cases. Yet, very little is known about these parents’ knowledge, attitudes, and experiences. We examined legal understanding and attitudes among 201 parents involved in ongoing dependency cases in California and Florida via semi-structured, in-person interviews. We expected parents’ understanding to be low and attitudes to be negative, particularly among parents of color and low SES parents. We expected greater dependency understanding to be related to more positive justice attitudes, and procedural and distributive justice attitudes to be indistinguishable in this population. Findings partially confirmed expectations. Parents’ understanding of the system was low, especially among parents of color and less educated parents. Parents felt less than satisfied about the fairness of procedures and decisions. However, procedural and distributive justice attitudes were distinguishable. Finally, and unexpectedly, parents’ knowledge and attitudes were negatively related. The consistently low levels of knowledge across CA and FL suggest the critical need to increase parental knowledge. It is also important to promote fair court procedures and decision-making to improve parents’ attitudes about procedural and distributive justice, which were found to be distinct and important factors among parents navigating juvenile dependency cases.

Justice for Families

“…Parents' understanding of the role of child welfare professionals, purpose of key hearings, and general processes was slightly above a limited understanding ( M = 1.21). In both cases, on average, parents did not come near demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of the system (Cleveland & Quas, 2020a).…”

“…The US study also illuminated demographic differences in parents' child welfare court understanding. With education and income accounted for, racial minority parents (African American and Latinx) demonstrated significantly less understanding of the system and the decisions made in their cases than White parents (Cleveland & Quas, 2020a). One African-American mother stated, “ Some of them look at you, you ' re Black, live in public housing, a poor African American.…”

“…Parents in California were interviewed at social service agencies following visitations with their children. All parents received a $25 gift card to a local grocery store for their participation (Cleveland & Quas, 2020a).…”

“…Discrepancies were discussed and resolved by consensus. The remaining interviews were evenly divided for coding (Cleveland & Quas, 2020a).…”

Asserting the right to care – Birth parents’ arguments in newborn care orders

“…Both the nature of the proceedings and the relationship between parents and their legal counsel are essential to grasp parents' engagement in court, and the context for written judgments and decisions. Research from American, British, Irish and Australian child welfare contexts illustrates that parents often disengage from the legal process, and the mentioned experiences of fear, confusion and being overwhelmed at the agency level also characterize engagement with the legal process (Cleveland & Quas, 2020;Lens, 2017;Masson, 2012;O'Mahony et al, 2016;Sankaran, 2010;Sankaran & Lander, 2007;Thomson et al, 2017).…”