Responding to Basic and Complex Cases of Child Abuse: a Comparison Study of Recent and Current Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) Students with DSS Workers in the Field.

In an effort to improve the training of future child protection professionals, more than 70 universities and graduate schools in the United States have implemented Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) minors or graduate programs. In order to assess the efficacy of these programs, 46 current and recent graduates of a CAST minor and 43 child protection professionals currently employed by a Department of Social Services (DSS) were given two vignettes. The first vignette involved a clear case of sexual abuse and the second vignette involved a more complex case involving polyvictimization. The students were asked to identify various systems that needed to be involved, potential corroborating evidence, risk and protective factors, and types of victimization. In the case of sexual abuse, the current CAST students and CAST graduates performed at the same level as DSS caseworkers. On the more complex polyvictimization scenario, the current CAST students and CAST graduates performed significantly better than all levels of DSS caseworkers in identifying systems that respond to child maltreatment and in identifying psychological and emotional abuse. The results of this study suggests that undergraduate CAST minors may be an effective model for improving the knowledge and skills of future child protection professionals in responding to complex cases of maltreatment.