Risk and protective factors among child protection social workers: a quantitative study

ABSTRACT

Social work literature includes many publications on risks, dangers and protective factors of children and families who are involved with child protection services. Less is known about risk and protective factors of social workers who work in the complex child protection system to address others’ suffering, wishes, needs and hopes. Starting from a brief literature review, this article presents the findings of quantitative research conducted in the Italian child welfare context. Positive and negative factors that support and affect child protection practices emerged from a survey that was conducted through the collaboration of 300 child protection social workers. Their opinions show issues that shouldn’t be neglected. Child protection social workers identified the mission to help families as a non-protective action for themselves. Protective factors among social workers concerned the intrinsic value of the profession and peer-to-peer support and mutual actions within the team. Main risk factors concerned the high workload and the sense of perceived danger for their own life. The findings of this study could inform social work managers, educators and practitioners with the intent to support child protection social workers so that they can manage professional troubles more effectively and avoid the paradoxical risk of forgetting their own wellbeing.

SOMMARIO

La letteratura internazionale di Social work offre diversi contributi sui fattori di rischio e di protezione dei bambini e delle famiglie che sono coinvolte nei Servizi per la tutela minorile. Meno è stato scritto a proposito di quelli che sono i fattori di rischio e di protezione per gli assistenti sociali che lavorano in questo ambito complesso per accogliere e sostenere bisogni, sofferenze, desideri e speranze altrui. Partendo da una breve rassegna della letteratura internazionale sul tema, questo articolo presenta i risultati di una ricerca quantitativa condotta nel contesto italiano dei Servizi per la tutela minorile. Attraverso un questionario somministrato a 300 assistenti sociali che lavorano in questo campo, è stato possibile ricostruire quelli che sono i fattori positivi e negativi che incidono sulla pratica operativa. Tra i fattori protettivi che sostengono il loro lavoro, i partecipanti alla ricerca hanno individuato il valore intrinseco della professione e le azioni mutuali e di supporto tra colleghi all’interno del gruppo di lavoro. I principali fattori di rischio riguardano invece l’elevato carico di lavoro e il percepito senso di pericolo per la propria vita. Le opinioni raccolte mettono in luce questioni importanti che non possono essere ignorate da coloro che si occupano di formazione, gestione e organizzazione dei Servizi. Si auspica che i risultati di questo studio possano ispirare dirigenti, coordinatori e formatori nell’individuare forme di sostegno per gli assistenti sociali, evitando il rischio paradossale che essi, nell’intento di aiutare bambini, ragazzi e famiglie in difficoltà, trascurino il proprio benessere e la propria persona.

KEYWORDS:

• Child protection social workers
• risk and protective factors
• professional wellbeing
• quantitative research

PAROLE CHIAVE:

• Assistenti sociali
• fattori di rischio e di protezione
• benessere professionale
• ricerca quantitativa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Elena Cabiati is a social work researcher with fieldwork experience in child protection services. She teaches Methodology of social work and Intercultural social work in bachelor's degree and master's degree programs.

Maria Luisa Raineri is an experienced researcher in social work. She teaches Methodology of social work and Social work models for the promotion of human rights and social justice in bachelor's degree and master's degree programs. Her research interest are Child protection, Anti-oppressive social work, and Gerontological social work.

Fabio Folgheraiter is a Full professor in social work. He teaches Methodology of social work and he is head of the bachelor's degree and master's degree programs at the Catholic University in Milan. He is leader of Relational social work research group.

Notes

1 In this article the author refers to child protection social workers subject to child protection plans and at direct risk of abuse or neglect.

2 Lombardy is one of the twenty administrative regions of Italy, in the northwest of the country. I achieve this information through the preliminary step of the research: a list of child welfare services in the region was developed. To the manager of each service, an informational letter about the project was sent. Through the letter managers were invited to collaborate in the project and asking for the number of social workers engaged in the organisation.

3 Information about employment contracts were not collected through the survey. Nevertheless, the national law don’t permit to work more than 40 h per week.