Protecting visible minority children: Family-caseworker dynamics and protective authority intervention strategies

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Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 57(4), 356–364.

Child protection intervention is already complex, and it is further complicated when it concerns families from cultural diversity. Information on the cases of 48 visible minority children receiving protective services underwent qualitative content analysis. The caseworkers’ interviews brought to light 2 issues central to the relationship between parents and caseworkers: their degree of collaboration and the cultural distance between their respective concepts of parental and spousal roles. Based on these issues, 4 types of family caseworker dynamics were identified, as well as suitable strategies for dealing with each of them. This study underscores the fact that visible minority families receiving child protective services are a far from homogeneous group and that there are a number of effective methods that can be used with them.

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Canadian CW research
Journal article