Friday, 14 January 2005 - 8:00 AM

This presentation is part of: Child Welfare Practice

Exploring the Distribution of Power in Child Welfare Practice: Who holds the power to create change?

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to gain an explicit awareness of power within the context of child welfare so that practice models might better meet the needs of at-risk children and families. Currently, the distribution of power is perceived as the worker having the ability to create change through his or her use of referent, expert, reward, coercive or legitimate power (French & Raven, 1962) or that the worker shares power utilizing models of empowerment, strength-based and feminist theory (Brinker-Jenkins & Hooyman, 1986; Gutierrez, 1991; Cowger, 1994; Saleebey, 1997). The research questions addressed in this study were: (1) How is “power” perceived by parents and child welfare practitioners in the working relationship? (2) How do parents and child welfare practitioners perceive their relationship affecting goal planning and decision-making?

Methods: Twenty-five participants were recruited for this study, thirteen parents receiving mandated prevention services for child abuse and neglect, and twelve child welfare practitioners providing mandated prevention services. Interviews occurred on two or three separate occasions totaling fifty-one interviews. The interviews were semi-structured utilizing open-ended questions that focused on the child welfare practitioner - parent relationship and their perceptions of the decision-making and goal planning process in child welfare practice. Themes and patterns were identified using naturalistic and grounded theory procedures.

Results: The findings of this study indicate that familial change is dependent on a number of factors: the working relationship, the availability of resources, and the ability to negotiate a complex welfare system. The findings also indicate that child welfare practitioners and parents believe that change occurs when they are able to create and sustain a partnership that involves a mutual sharing of power and decision-making. However, child welfare practitioners acknowledge that when parents are not compliant with court mandates they find themselves becoming more “directive”. Parents clearly state that they do not want to be forced to comply and recognize the importance of having “choices”.

Implications: Researchers have begun to explore the distribution of power in the context of the helping professions and have found that client/consumer input is essential for the development of effective social work practice (Boehm & Staples, 2002; Cohen, 1998; Diorio, 1992). Findings from this study contribute to the existing research by identifying significant factors in the distribution of power. As child welfare practitioners move towards a partnership model of sharing power with families it is important that practice models respond to the needs of at-risk families. Future research is needed to determine if these factors are associated with child safety, well-being, and long-term familial stability.

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