Toros Karmen, Falch-Eriksen Asgeir
Tallinn University, Estonia.
Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
Child Abuse Negl. 2025 Apr;162(Pt 1):106934. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106934. Epub 2024 Jul 5.
Although children's right to participate in decisions that influence their lives is widely recognized, it is rarely present in the assessment and decision-making processes in child protective services (CPS).
The aim of this systematic review was to examine children's views and experiences of participating in CPS cases of child abuse and neglect and to identify the gap in scientific knowledge.
The systematic review follows the PRISMA statement and includes 13 peer-reviewed articles published in several academic journals from 2016 to 2023 reporting primary research with abused and neglected children registered in CPS.
Thematic analysis identified five main themes: participation: assessment and decision-making, information and understanding, interaction and relationships, children vs parents, and experience of younger children. The findings show that although a few children reported instances of meaningful participation, overall, children's participation was often reduced to a tokenistic engagement, with limited influence on the decision-making processes. Children, especially younger children, receive insufficient information and struggle to understand the proceedings. Examples of prioritizing parents' views, needs, and rights rather than centering the children's perspectives are reported.
The findings highlight a need for significant changes in how child participation is conceptualized and operationalized within CPS. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed to foster children's participation in CPS to contribute to the effective care and protection of children experiencing child abuse and neglect.
尽管儿童参与影响其生活决策的权利已得到广泛认可，但在儿童保护服务（CPS）的评估和决策过程中却很少体现。
本系统综述的目的是考察儿童对参与虐待和忽视儿童的儿童保护服务案件的看法和经历，并找出科学知识方面的差距。
该系统综述遵循PRISMA声明，纳入了2016年至2023年期间在几本学术期刊上发表的13篇同行评议文章，这些文章报告了对在儿童保护服务机构登记的受虐待和被忽视儿童的初步研究。
主题分析确定了五个主要主题：参与：评估和决策、信息与理解、互动与关系、儿童与父母以及年幼儿童的经历。研究结果表明，尽管少数儿童报告了有意义的参与事例，但总体而言，儿童的参与往往沦为象征性的参与，对决策过程的影响有限。儿童，尤其是年幼儿童，获得的信息不足，难以理解相关程序。报告了一些优先考虑父母的观点、需求和权利而非以儿童视角为中心的例子。
研究结果凸显了在儿童保护服务中对儿童参与的概念化和实施方式进行重大变革的必要性。讨论了对实践、政策和研究的启示，以促进儿童参与儿童保护服务，为有效照顾和保护遭受虐待和忽视的儿童做出贡献。
