پاسخ حرفه ای رفاه کودکان به مواجهه با خشونت خانگی در میان کودکان

Child welfare professionals are expected to promptly assess the current safety and future risks of children reported to them. Developing more accurate assessment methods has been a growing concern in child welfare. The presence of domestic violence and children's exposure to it are factors that have been included in many current risk assessment models used by child welfare professionals. An online survey of 152 child welfare professionals was conducted in twenty counties in one midwestern state. Professionals reported on the importance of (a) types of violence in a child's home and (b) the child's level of involvement in that violence; they also responded to how two hypothetical scenarios of child exposure to and involvement in violence would affect their decision making. The results provide insight into how child welfare professionals assess child exposure and involvement in domestic violence as a perceived risk and guidance on the training needs of these professionals.

Child welfare agencies are expected to promptly assess the current safety and future risks of children reported to them. Developing more accurate assessment methods has been a growing concern among child welfare agencies. This has led to the development of several highly structured and widely used assessment tools but also concerns about the depth of assessment regarding specific issues in families and how assessment information is applied.

Child welfare workers have a nearly impossible job requiring expertise in half a dozen human service fields (child development, chemical health, public health, social work and others) simultaneously. At minimum, professionals from across these disciplines must collaborate and build practice guidance for the intersections of human service systems. This survey of child welfare professionals and the use of the CEDV instrument provides insight into how practice guidance for the assessment of youth exposed to domestic violence can be developed for the child welfare field. Subsequent protocols can also be developed based upon information learned through this study.