Understanding Factors Associated with Barefoot Social Workers' Decision-Making in Assessing and Reporting Child Physical Abuse in China

Background/Purpose: China has just implemented a new child protection model with barefoot social workers in rural villages and urban communities. These barefoot social workers are mandated to report child maltreatment. However, assessing and reporting child physical abuse is challenging for countries with a high tolerance of corporal punishment and a newly established mandatory reporting system. Guided by the decision-making ecology, we seek to understand factors associated with Chinese barefoot social workers’ decision-making in assessing and reporting child physical abuse.

Methods: Cross-sectional data were collected from barefoot social workers (N = 1,489) via the Bureau of Civil Affairs in Southern China in July 2020. The survey included two vignettes with less severe and more severe child physical abuse cases. Dependent variables were barefoot social workers’ assessments of and intention to report child physical abuse. Independent variables included individual factors (e.g., demographics, beliefs in childrearing, attitudes regarding punishment), case factors (e.g., case severity and impacts on the child and the family), organizational factors (e.g., onboard training), and external factors (e.g., subjective norms). Descriptive, bivariate, and binary logistic regression analyses were conducted.

Results: For a less severe physical abuse case, case severity (OR = 2.78, p < .001), receiving a social worker license (OR = 1.64, p = .03), and having a reporting history (OR = 23.55, p = .03) were associated with higher odds of assessments, whereas being younger (OR = 0.97, p = .04) was associated with lower odds. For a more severe physical abuse case, case severity (OR = 3.64, p < .001) and child welfare training (OR = 2.27, p = .03) were associated with higher odds of assessments. Across two cases, case severity (Case 1: OR = 1.44, p < .001; Case 2: OR = 1.34, p < .001), assessment of whether it is abuse (Case 1: OR = 11.48, p < .001; Case 2: OR = 15.98, p < .001), impacts of reporting on the family (Case 1: OR = 1.21, p < .001; Case 2: OR = 1.25, p < .001), and perceived behavior control (Case 1: OR = 1.06, p = .01; Case 2: OR = 1.10, p = 0.01) were associated with higher odds of reporting. Impacts of reporting on the child (OR = 1.27, p < .001) were associated with higher odds of reporting the less severe case, and attitudes regarding punishment of offenders or victims of child abuse (OR = 1.09, p = .01) and subjective norms of reporting (OR = 1.09, p = .01) were associated with higher odds of reporting the more severe case.

Conclusions/Implications: This study identified factors associated with barefoot social workers’ decision-making in assessing and reporting child physical abuse. Results of this study indicate the importance of providing training to barefoot social workers on recognizing, detecting, and reporting child physical abuse. It is also important to encourage them to receive continued social work training and obtain a social work license, which may increase their confidence in decision-making. Furthermore, increasing the effectiveness of mandatory reporting is needed.