Child protection workers’ understanding of the meaning and value of self-reflection in Estonia

ABSTRACT

This article describes an exploratory qualitative study in Estonia that focuses on how child protection workers (N = 93) perceive and understand the meaning and value of self-reflection. Participants discussed self-reflection in the context of self-analysis, motivation to improve professional performance, negative self-appraisal, and feedback from peers and clients. The findings highlight the workers’ emphasis on self-perceived weaknesses, reflecting Estonian cultural norms which eschew self-praise and focus on deficits rather than strengths and possibilities. Self-reflection was mainly associated with a cognitive process, namely learning from the experience. This study underscores the need to guide and encourage child protection workers to adopt and apply systematic and possibly less critical self-reflection so that they can strengthen their decision-making process to promote the well-being of children and their families in the child welfare system.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-reflection
• child protection worker
• self-understanding
• supervision

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karmen Toros

Karmen Toros is Professor of Social Work at Tallinn University. She is actively involved in social work education and the training of child protection workers. Her research focuses on child welfare and protection, the child-centred approach and the strengths perspective in child protection practice, and she is particularly interested in the assessment of child well-being. She has been conducting research on the assessment practices of child protection workers in Estonia with the aim of laying the foundation for the creation of a comprehensive assessment system and effective assessment practices.

Michael C. LaSala

Michael C. LaSala is Associate Professor at the School of Social Work at Rutgers University. Dr LaSala has a long history of working with children and families in child welfare and mental health settings and his current research and clinical interests are the family relationships of gay youth. His book entitled: Coming out, coming home: Helping families adjust to a gay or lesbian child (Columbia University Press) describes the findings and practice implications of a qualitative study of 65 gay and lesbian youths and their families, and other examples of his work can be found in various journal articles, along with his blog for Psychology Today (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/gay-and-lesbian-well-being).