Font Sarah A, Maguire-Jack Kathryn
University of Texas at Austin, Population Research Center, 1 University Station A2702, Austin, TX 78704, USA.
Ohio State University, 1947 College Road, 325B Stillman Hall, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Child Abuse Negl. 2015 Nov;49:50-62. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.10.011. Epub 2015 Oct 20.
Decision-making in the child protection system is influenced by multiple factors; agency and geographic contexts, caseworker attributes, and families' unique circumstances all likely play a role. In this study, we use the second cohort of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being to explore how these factors are associated with two key case decisions-substantiation and removal to out-of-home care. Analyses are conducted using weighted hierarchical linear models. We find that substantiation is strongly influenced by agency factors, particularly constraints on service accessibility. Substantiation is less likely when agencies can provide services to unsubstantiated cases and when collaboration with other social institutions is high. This supports the concept that substantiation may be a gateway to services in some communities. Agency factors contributed less to the probability of removal among substantiated cases, though time resources and constraints on decision-making had some influence. For both substantiation and removal risks, county, caseworker, and child characteristics were less influential than agency characteristics and family risk factors.
儿童保护系统中的决策受到多种因素影响；机构和地理环境、个案工作者的特质以及家庭的独特情况都可能发挥作用。在本研究中，我们利用全国儿童与青少年福祉调查的第二批队列数据，来探究这些因素如何与两项关键的个案决策——证据确凿判定及安置到家庭外照料机构——相关联。分析采用加权分层线性模型进行。我们发现，证据确凿判定受到机构因素的强烈影响，尤其是服务可及性方面的限制。当机构能够为未被判定证据确凿的案件提供服务以及与其他社会机构的合作度较高时，做出证据确凿判定的可能性较小。这支持了这样一种观点，即在某些社区，证据确凿判定可能是获得服务的一个途径。在已判定证据确凿的案件中，机构因素对安置可能性的影响较小，不过时间资源和决策限制有一定影响。对于证据确凿判定风险和安置风险而言，县、个案工作者及儿童的特征不如机构特征和家庭风险因素的影响大。
