Saturday, 15 January 2005 - 11:20 AM

This presentation is part of: Domestic Violence and Child Welfare

Relationships Among Child Welfare Service Use, Unmet Service Needs, and Child Maltreatment Outcomes: Considering the Client’s Perspective

PURPOSE: Ideally, child welfare services provide an opportunity for clients to experience positive and significant changes (Pecora et al, 2000). To date, however, little is known about the effects of child welfare services. Whereas a knowledge base is growing about the effects of child welfare services on service system outcomes, such as subsequent maltreatment reports, we know very little about the effects of child welfare services on caregiving quality, or other outcomes defined from the clients’ perspective. In addition, few studies have addressed the effect of unmet service needs on either subsequent reports or caregiving quality from the clients’ perspective. This study assesses the relationship among services received, unmet service needs, and child maltreatment outcomes from both service system and client perspectives.

METHOD: The study involves a secondary analysis of data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. The study focuses a sample of 1148 caregivers who had contact with a child welfare caseworker in Wave 3. Applying empowerment and partnership approaches that validate the client’s perspective and role, the study uses the change in client reports of caregiving quality as one dependent variable. Caseworkers’ reports of maltreatment reports constitute a second dependent variable. Service use variables include: the number of services received as reported by the caregiver; the number unmet service needs as reported by the caregiver; and satisfaction with services as reported by the caregiver.

FINDINGS: The number of unmet needs is positively associated with the likelihood of subsequent maltreatment reports (Odds ratio 1.10, p<.01). In addition, the number of unmet needs is negatively associated with change in caregiving quality (B = -1.5, S.E., = .68, p= .02). That is, unmet needs have negative effects from both the service system and caregiver perspectives. Number of services received was not associated with either subsequent maltreatment reports or change in caregiving quality.

IMPLICATIONS: The primary purpose of child welfare services is to ensure child safety. To achieve this, most efforts by the child welfare system have focused on the impact of services from the system’s perspective. Findings from this study suggest it is worthy to pay attention to clients’ perspectives and needs. This study underscores the important role of child welfare services by pointing to the negative effects of unmet service needs. In particular, the possible role of child welfare services in promoting positive changes in caregiving quality warrants further attention. Also, this study suggests a future direction. Perhaps the child welfare system can provide more effective services if services reflect clients’ perspective.

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