Brown, J.D., Rodger, S. (2009). Children with disabilities: Problems faced by foster parents. Children and Youth Services Review, 31(1), 40-46.
Children with disabilities are over-represented on child welfare caseloads. When placed in out-of-home care, they are less likely to reunify with their birth parents and more likely to experience disruptions in placement and a longer time in care.
Most children involved with child welfare placed outside their family home are cared for by foster parents. Little research has explored the perspectives and experiences of foster parents caring for children with disabilities.
From a randomized list of 954 licensed foster parents residing in a central Canadian city, forty-four were interviewed after being screened to ensure they had fostered a child with a disability in the past year. Each foster parent was asked to describe problems they encountered fostering a child with a disability. Eighty-five unique responses were grouped by interviewees into categories that were then subjected to two statistical analyses.
The seven resulting concepts were consistent with problems elsewhere reported by foster parents, such as dealing with a child's behavioural challenges or securing and maintaining professional services; however, four unique concerns were highlighted for consideration and further study. Foster parents described variable costs associated with fostering a child with a disability not adequately covered by standardized funding formulas. They noted the importance of community, including social networks and physical neighbourhood factors, and of the caring network supporting children with disabilities. Finally, foster parents who themselves had disabilities expressed particular concerns requiring additional research and support.
Dill, K. & Bogo, M. (2009). Moving beyond the administrative: Supervisors' perspectives on clinical supervision in child welfare. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 3(1), 87-105.
Reforms to child welfare services in Ontario have resulted in role changes for supervisors whose duties currently include administrative case management, monitoring child and family outcomes, and providing education, clinical skills, and support to front-line staff. The potential for supervisors to transform child welfare policy and practice has been well-documented; however, how supervisors understand their role and the factors that affect their ability to perform their duties are less understood.
In this exploratory study, eight focus groups involving fifty-one supervisors from diverse settings across Ontario were asked to describe and define their role, their understanding of clinical supervision, and to detail those factors that supported or constrained their ability to practice effectively in a changing policy and practice context.
Analysis of focus group transcripts yielded themes related to: the interwoven elements of strength-based clinical supervision; the interplay between the organizational context and supervisory practice; issues of power and authority in the child welfare context; and the commitment to the safety of children as primary for supervisors.
Results suggest the need to better understand the relationship between organizational culture and supervisory practice and for additional research regarding the training, education and retention of supervisors.
Limitations of the study include a self-selected sample, the exclusion due to resource limitations of front-line staff and senior managers, and the few participants from northern, Aboriginal or remote agencies.
Wolfe, D.A., Crooks, C. C., Chiodo, D., & Jaffe, P. (2009). Child maltreatment, bullying, gender-based Harassment, and adolescent dating violence: Making the connections. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33(1), 21-24.
Children who are victims of maltreatment, including those exposed to domestic violence, often have difficulty regulating emotions and behaviours and forming healthy relationships. Maltreated children learn to relate cautiously to others, sensitive to signs of anger or disapproval. Youth with histories of maltreatment are at greater risk for relationship-based difficulties in adolescence and involvement in domestic violence in adulthood. Maltreated youth often have internalized models of relationships structured according to "victims and victimizers" and can re-create this pattern of relating, along with associated issues of power, control, and gendered role expectations, in their peer and dating relationships.
This article discusses previous and ongoing research conducted by the authors linking childhood maltreatment to bullying, gender-based harassment, and adolescent dating violence. Noting that, while important, early relationships are not deterministic, the authors explore how abusive patterns of relating may be shaped, prevented, and ameliorated.
A longitudinal study explored the role of child maltreatment in shaping gender-based harassment. Adolescents who reported being victims of sexual harassment were more likely 2.5 years later to report having experienced sexual harassment, peer and dating violence, and to have perpetrated violent delinquency.
Two longitudinal studies investigated the connection between child maltreatment and relationship outcomes, in particular the association between previous maltreatment and current involvement in a violent dating relationship. Past maltreatment experiences were shown to influence relationships and well-being in patterns different for girls and boys. Girls were more likely to report symptoms of emotional distress (e.g., anger, anxiety, and depression) and boys almost three times more likely to report clinical levels of depression and post-traumatic stress. Followed a year later, the extent of violence against a dating partner for both girls and boys could be predicted on the basis of trauma symptoms self-reported the previous year.