IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v6y2016i1p2158244015624951.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effects of Violence and Aggression From Parents on Child Protection Workers’ Personal, Family, and Professional Lives

Author

Listed:
  • Brian Littlechild
  • Susan Hunt
  • Chris Goddard
  • Judy Cooper
  • Barry Raynes
  • James Wild

Abstract

This article presents findings from a survey of the experiences of child protection workers in England when working with parents who exhibit aggression and violence. This work explores the effects on workers in their professional lives, and on themselves and their families in their private lives. The article examines workers’ thoughts and experiences about the effects of parental hostility on workers’ ability to protect children. The article also details workers’ experiences of the nature and effectiveness of training and support in this area. These findings are then examined in the light of the results of an analysis of the literature, including the findings from serious case review (SCR) reports in England (official inquiries into the causes of child deaths where the children are known to social and health services). The majority of the 590 respondents in the survey were social workers ( n = 402; 68%), reflecting the fact that case management of child protection cases in the United Kingdom is the responsibility of social workers working in statutory agencies. This article addresses, from a consideration of the secondary analysis and the original research findings from the survey, how individual workers, managers, and agencies can best understand and then respond effectively to aggressive parental behaviors.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian Littlechild & Susan Hunt & Chris Goddard & Judy Cooper & Barry Raynes & James Wild, 2016. "The Effects of Violence and Aggression From Parents on Child Protection Workers’ Personal, Family, and Professional Lives," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(1), pages 21582440156, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:6:y:2016:i:1:p:2158244015624951
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244015624951
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244015624951
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244015624951?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Newhill, Christina E. & Wexler, Sandra, 1997. "Client violence toward children and youth services social workers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 195-212.
    2. Regehr, Cheryl & Hemsworth, David & Leslie, Bruce & Howe, Phillip & Chau, Shirley, 2004. "Predictors of post-traumatic distress in child welfare workers: a linear structural equation model," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 331-346, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lamothe, Josianne & Geoffrion, Steve & Couvrette, Amélie & Guay, Stéphane, 2021. "Supervisor support and emotional labor in the context of client aggression," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    2. Wise, Karlissa & Carter, LaToya & Bamba, Leslie Alyssa & Barr, Rachel, 2024. "How Do Child Protective Service (CPS) Policies Keep Employees Safe: ACaseworker’s Perspective," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    3. Boonzaaier, Emma & Truter, Elmien & Fouché, Ansie, 2021. "Occupational risk factors in child protection social work: A scoping review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    4. Jimmy Stephen Munobwa & Peter Öberg & Fereshteh Ahmadi, 2023. "Helping or Controlling? Choice of Coping Methods When Dealing with Violent Clients in Statutory Social Work," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-15, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mavridis, Caroline & Harkness, Sara & Super, Charles M. & Liu, Jia Li, 2019. "Family workers, stress, and the limits of self-care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 236-246.
    2. Boonzaaier, Emma & Truter, Elmien & Fouché, Ansie, 2021. "Occupational risk factors in child protection social work: A scoping review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    3. Eirini-Christina Saloniki & Agnes Turnpenny & Grace Collins & Catherine Marchand & Ann-Marie Towers & Shereen Hussein, 2022. "Abuse and Wellbeing of Long-Term Care Workers in the COVID-19 Era: Evidence from the UK," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-19, August.
    4. Griffiths, Austin & Royse, David & Walker, Robert, 2018. "Stress among child protective service workers: Self-reported health consequences," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 46-53.
    5. Strolin-Goltzman, Jessica & Kollar, Sharon & Shea, Karen & Walcott, Cindy & Ward, Sarah, 2016. "Building a landscape of resilience after workplace violence in public child welfare," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 250-256.
    6. Biggart, Laura & Ward, Emma & Cook, Laura & Schofield, Gillian, 2017. "The team as a secure base: Promoting resilience and competence in child and family social work," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 119-130.
    7. Michael J. Camasso & Radha Jagannathan, 2013. "Decision Making in Child Protective Services: A Risky Business?," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(9), pages 1636-1649, September.
    8. Hazen, Katherine P. & Carlson, Matthew W. & Hatton-Bowers, Holly & Fessinger, Melanie B. & Cole-Mossman, Jennie & Bahm, Jamie & Hauptman, Kelli & Brank, Eve M. & Gilkerson, Linda, 2020. "Evaluating the Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) approach: Vicarious Trauma, professional Burnout, and reflective practice," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    9. Festinger, Trudy & Baker, Amy, 2010. "Prevalence of recalled childhood emotional abuse among child welfare staff and related well-being factors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 520-526, April.
    10. Kim, Hansung, 2011. "Job conditions, unmet expectations, and burnout in public child welfare workers: How different from other social workers?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 358-367, February.
    11. King, Erin A., 2021. "Child welfare workers’ experiences of client-perpetrated violence: Implications for worker mental health," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    12. Wise, Karlissa & Carter, LaToya & Bamba, Leslie Alyssa & Barr, Rachel, 2024. "How Do Child Protective Service (CPS) Policies Keep Employees Safe: ACaseworker’s Perspective," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    13. Miller, J.Jay & Lee, Jacquelyn & Benner, Kalea & Shalash, Nada & Barnhart, Sheila & Grise-Owens, Erlene, 2018. "Self-compassion among child welfare workers: An exploratory study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 205-211.
    14. Lee, Joohee & Forster, Michael & Rehner, Tim, 2011. "The retention of public child welfare workers: The roles of professional organizational culture and coping strategies," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 102-109, January.
    15. Oh, Seung-Hwan & Lee, Minhong, 2009. "Examining the psychometric properties of the Maslach Burnout Inventory with a sample of child protective service workers in Korea," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 206-210, February.
    16. Cheryl Regehr & Guy Enosh & Emily Bosk, 2021. "An Ecological Model for High-Risk Professional Decision-Making in Mental Health: International Perspectives," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-11, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:6:y:2016:i:1:p:2158244015624951. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.