Negotiating client positions: parents with custodial disagreements talking about their experiences with child welfare workers

Abstract

Children living with prolonged parental custodial disagreements are in a vulnerable position and may be in need of child welfare assistance. However, the responsibilities of the child welfare service (CWS) in cases involving custodial disagreements are unclear. This article examines how parents with custodial disagreements narrate and make meaning of their encounters with child welfare caseworkers. These professional encounters occur in a legal grey zone between the family law system, dealing with issues of residence and contact, and the child welfare system, dealing with issues of possible child abuse or inadequate care. The article draws on interviews with 15 Norwegian parents, and uses clientization and positioning as analytic tools to analyse the parents’ accounts of how they are categorized by the professionals. More precisely, by introducing the concept of client position, the article shows how parents describe their negotiations with caseworkers regarding what constitute problems in the family and how these problems might be dealt with. The analysis identified three main client positions being available for parents in grey zone cases: the legitimately concerned parent, the parent in conflict, and the parent lacking ability to care. Implications for the child’s client position and prospect of child welfare involvement are discussed.

Keywords:

• Custodial disagreements
• high-conflict families
• child welfare
• child protection
• violence

Acknowledgements

The research is part of the project ‘Talk with Us. Professional Practice and Children’s Participation’, managed by Liv Mette Gulbrandsen. I would like to thank the participants for their time and commitments to this research. I would also thank Oddbjørg Skjær Ulvik, Agnes Andenæs, and Erica Burman for valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Notes

1. I use the term ‘child welfare’ (CW) to refer to a broad spectrum of child and family services aimed at prevention of or intervention to address child abuse and neglect. These services include child protection.

2. In Norwegian, often referred to as ‘barnelovssystemet’.

3. Based on qualitative interviews and field contact. Norway has no official statistics on the number of cases involving custodial disagreements. See also Stang (2014) for similar observations.

4. This group advocates for parents’ rights to be equally involved in their children’s life after divorce, and is mainly known as an advocacy group for fathers.

5. Recruited via her caseworker.

6. Weekend respite home (besøkshjem) is a supportive measure paid and supervised by the CWS, where the child spends time in a private home.

7. Recruited via the parental advocacy group.

8. Recruited via the parental advocacy group.

9. Recruited via the parental advocacy group.