Engaging Families in Child Welfare Work: Identifying a Research Paradigm

Engaging families involved in child welfare systems remains a challenging task and one that is not well understood. While the concept of family engagement has always implicitly been a part of child protective services work, empirical studies explicitly identifying dynamics that contribute to or detract from engagement are rare. Moreover, while the need to engage clients is not unique to child welfare, we know little about effective strategies identified in other service systems that might contribute to engagement. Further complicating the issue is the lack of a common definition and understanding of what constitutes engagement; there is little consensus in child welfare literature, or perhaps across individuals, regarding what engagement means.

Thus, this roundtable will focus on identifying what we know about engagement and involve three short presentations that offer specific examples of rigorous quantitative and qualitative research on the subject to set the stage for a discussion. The discussion will be designed to foster a participatory debate focused on the development or refinement of ideas about how to define engagement, theories underlying it, ways of measuring it, and practices that may enhance it using examples from child welfare and from research and practice in related fields, such as juvenile justice and children’s behavioral health, among others.

A moderator/facilitator will introduce the roundtable topic including key themes and questions to contemplate throughout the presentations. Presenter number one will share the results of a cross-disciplinary assessment of strategies employed to engage children, youth, and families and identify key lessons and insights that pertain to child welfare work. Presenter number two will present the results of a series of related structural equation modeling analyses using data from a random control trial study that explored a proposed theory of engagement and examined factors affecting child welfare clients’ perspectives on their intervention experience and their likelihood of engaging in services. Finally, presenter number three will share results of three studies examining the impact of a casework practice model that heavily emphasizes family engagement on parental follow through on case plans and child outcomes of safety, permanency and well-being. Our overarching goal is to stimulate ideas that can inform the conceptualization, application, and interpretation of past and future studies examining engagement in order to reflect and be responsive to the needs and interests of child welfare administrators, trainers, and practitioners alike.