The aim of this study was to explore knowledge use and learning among social workers in everyday child investigation work. Research was undertaken in two Swedish children’s services departments. The study applied an ethnographic approach. Methods for data collection included interviews, participant observations, reflective dialogues and a documentary analysis of case files. The social workers’ knowledge sources were classified into research-based, practice-based and ordinary knowledge. The findings show that the social workers preferred practice-based knowledge, which was primarily conveyed from colleagues and previous experience, and rarely consulted knowledge from sources found outside the practice setting. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the integration of knowledge was made possible through the social workers' engagement in both a verbal and a more cognitive (tacit) reasoning activity, processes that fostered learning at work. The social workers’ learning was predominantly adaptive as they learned to handle tasks in a fairly routinized way on the basis of rules or procedures. The findings lend support to the notion that the use of different knowledge forms could potentially trigger learning in everyday social work.
This study explores whether the social services weigh in health aspects, and what these may be, when investigating reported childrens life situation. Information about physical and psychological health aspects for 259 children in 272 investigations was included. Overall, information about childrens health was limited. Problematic emotions were the most commonly reported health aspect in the investigations, whereas suicidal thoughts, self-harm behaviour and gastrointestinal and renal diseases were mentioned least of all. A cluster analysis revealed that the low level of health information group included the largest sample of data and consisted of investigations with minimal information about childrens health. The three other cluster groups, Neurological diseases and psychosomatic symptoms, Emotional health and Physical and psychological health and destructive behaviour, consisted of investigations conducted mostly according to the model called Childrens Needs In Focus (BBIC, in Swedish, Barns Behov i Centrum). Although these investigations also produced limited information, they provided more than those assessed as having a low level of information about health aspects. The conclusion is that it is necessary to increase information about health aspects in investigations if social welfare systems are to be able to fulfil their ambition of supporting vulnerable childrens need of health care.
This study explored how asylum-seeking minors report information when formally interviewed. Twenty-six Russian-speaking minors (M= 16.0 years of age) were individually interviewed by officials assisted by one of eighteen interpreters. A quantitative analysis examined the translated questions asked by the officials, the minors’ responses to them, and the accuracy with which the minors’ responses were rendered. The asylum-seeking minors distinguished themselves as active participants. They appeared eager to disclose relevant information despite being asked many potentially contaminating questions. Most of the children’s responses were accurately rendered but mistranslations can affect the fact–finding process substantially. Both the minors and the officials involved in the asylum-seeking process need to recognise that both the questions asked and the responses given may be influenced by the third parties involved, i.e. the interpreters.
Through adoption, the state actively contributes to creating families. It therefore also assumes the role of guarantor of the child’s best interests in the adoption process, which entails assessing the suitability of presumptive adoptive parents. In the present article, we use the concluding sections of assessment reports on applicants for intercountry adoption in Sweden to answer the following question: What must be said about an individual or a couple in order for her/them to be seen as a suitable adoptive parent? We thus assume that report conclusions serve to display parent suitability to their audiences. The assessment aligns with Swedish national adoption guidelines, and the study shows how the assessment handbook comes to serve as a catalogue of arguments that not only define good parenthood, but also outline a way of life that is suitable for parenthood. The analysis illustrates how valid arguments for granting consent to adopt refer to three layers of suitability. They include not only the applicants’ insights into and knowledge about adoption in particular and children in general, but also their conventional and orderly life, i.e. a life free from distractions that could hinder a wholehearted focus on children and family life.
Grandparents whose grandchildren are exposed to domestic violence are faced with some unique challenges in their grandparenting, which have thus far been little discussed in research. This paper discusses the narratives of 10 Swedish grandparents whose grandchildren have been exposed to violence towards their mother. The aim was to explore grandparents’ narrations of their responses in the face of violence, and their understanding of the role they play in their gran- dchildren’s social networks. Two significant responses are discussed: ‘being there’ and ‘acknowledging the independence and self- determination of the adult children’. Grandparents experienced these responses as contradictory and felt powerless when it came to their possibilities to protect their grandchildren. The paper suggests that grandparents could be a resource for domestic violence services, and social work practice needs to assess the roles of grandparents of children exposed to domestic violence. Social workers should con- sider the challenges these grandparents are facing and what support they may need in order to support their grandchildren.
This paper investigates the identity constructions of youths who are objects of special interventions in the area of child welfare. The aim of the paper was to explore the various dimensions of resistance to institutional identities among youths in special schools and fostercare institutions. Interviews were conducted with adolescents aged between 12 and 15, identified as having social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The analysis generates knowledge about society’s interventions as well as how adolescents respond to offered institutionalidentities by adopting different kinds of discursive resistance.The paper highlights the different types of discursive resistance that adolescents use to present themselves as accountable individuals anddiscusses the importance of considering resistance as a positive force rather than as something that must be defeated.
Although many children across cultures are victims of physical abuse, few treatment models target these children and their parents. In Sweden, Combined Parent–Child Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for families at risk for child physical abuse has been successfully used according to pretreatment and posttreatment studies. However, few studies have explored how physically abused children experience treatment. This study includes 20 physically abused children aged 9–17 who completed Combined Parent–Child Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Children had a positive overall impression of the treatment and highlighted addressing the abuse, as well as processing their experiences as particularly essential. Children described a positive transformation in their family life as a result of treatment, including violence cessation and bonding among family members. Children experienced the intervention as inclusive and child‐friendly. The implications of the promising findings are discussed.
Youth in out-of-home care have elevated risks for adverse events and detrimental circumstances possibly affecting their development. Responses from 311 students in out-of-home care (OHC) were compared with peers living in birth parent care (BPC) and in single birth parent care (sBPC) in a regional school survey, directed to students in compulsory school eighth year and upper secondary school second year. Results indicate OHC students to experience less satisfaction with friends, leisure time, and families. They state less trust in support from friends and families but a more similar level to teachers, counsellors or nurses. OHC students also express being more exposed to abusive experiences online and perceive less sense of security at home and in school. We conclude that welfare institutions need to recognize the components in building trust and safety for students in OHC and that school and other professional institutions have an important role in serve resilience and promote well-being for children in OHC.
Various models of specialized foster care have been developed, but research on them is limited. This longitudinal, exploratory study analysed data on adaptive functioning, emotional and social problems and self-concept in a specialized foster care service in Sweden. The focus of the study was on the development of the children and young people in placement. The Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System (ABAS-II) was used to measure adaptive functioning, and the Beck Youth Inventories of Emotional and Social Impairment (BYI) was used to measure self-rated emotional and social problems and self-concept. Self-ratings showed significant improvements in disruptive behaviour, anger, anxiety and depression. Adaptive functioning as rated by foster parents improved but not enough to catch up with the non-clinical norm group. The average adaptive functioning among the participants at baseline was considerably below the Swedish norm group. Similar to the results of a previous study of the same treatment model, children and young people rated improvement while their foster parents did not do so to the same extent. Possible explanations for this are discussed in the paper. The study is limited by the lack of a control group and by data attrition.