Syed Zohaib Hassan et al. · 2023 · Scientific Reports · Open access
The impact of investigative interviews by police and Child Protective Services (CPS) on abused children can be profound, making effective training vital. Quality in these interviews often falls short and current training programs are insufficient in enabling adherence to best practice. We present a system for simulating an interactive environment with alleged abuse victims using a child avatar. The purpose of the system is to improve the quality of investigative interviewing by providing a realistic and engaging training experience for police and CPS personnel. We conducted a user study to assess the efficacy of four interactive platforms: VR, 2D desktop, audio, and text chat. CPS workers and child welfare students rated the quality of experience (QoE), realism, responsiveness, immersion, and flow. We also evaluated perceived learning impact, engagement in learning, self-efficacy, and alignment with best practice guidelines. Our findings indicate VR as superior in four out of five quality aspects, with 66% participants favoring it for immersive, realistic training. Quality of questions posed is crucial to these interviews. Distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate questions, we achieved 87% balanced accuracy in providing effective feedback using our question classification model. Furthermore, CPS professionals demonstrated superior interview quality compared to non-professionals, independent of the platform.
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Akhila Nekkanti et al. · 2020 · Frontiers in Psychiatry · Open access
BACKGROUND: Child maltreatment (CM) constitutes a serious public health problem in the United States with parents implicated in a majority of physical abuse and neglect cases. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an intensive intervention for CM families that uses innovative "bug-in-ear" coaching to improve parenting and child outcomes, and reduce CM recidivism; however, the mechanisms underlying its effects are little understood. The Coaching Alternative Parenting Strategies (CAPS) study aims to clarify the behavioral, neural, and physiological mechanisms of action in PCIT that support positive changes in parenting, improve parent and child self-regulation and social perceptions, and reduce CM in child welfare-involved families. METHODS: The CAPS study includes 204 child welfare-involved parent-child dyads recruited from Oregon Department of Human Services to participate in a randomized controlled trial of PCIT versus a services-as-usual control condition (clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02684903). Children ages 3-8 years at study entry and their parents complete a pre-treatment assessment prior to randomization and a post-treatment assessment 9-12 months post study entry. Dyads randomized to PCIT complete an additional, abbreviated assessment at mid-treatment. Each assessment includes individual and joint measures of parents' and children's cardiac physiology at rest, during experimental tasks, and in recovery; observational coding of parent-child interactions; and individual electroencephalogram (EEG) sessions including attentional and cognitive control tasks. In addition, parents and children complete an emotion regulation task and parents report on their own and their child's adverse childhood experiences and socio-cognitive processes, while children complete a cognitive screen and a behavioral measure of inhibitory control. Parents and children also provide anthropometric measures of allostatic load and 4-5 whole blood spots to assess inflammation and immune markers. CM recidivism is assessed for all study families at 6-month follow-up. Post-treatment and follow-up assessments are currently underway. DISCUSSION: Knowledge gained from this study will clarify PCIT effects on neurobehavioral target mechanisms of change in predicting CM risk reduction, positive, responsive parenting, and children's outcomes. This knowledge can help to guide efforts to tailor and adapt PCIT to vary in dosage and cost on the basis of individual differences in CM-risk factors.
Jude Howell et al. · 2021 · Development and Change · Open access
ABSTRACT In 2013 the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party adopted a nationwide policy to contract out welfare services to social organizations. This presented the Party/state with a conundrum: how best to foster service‐oriented social organizations whilst retaining control over politically sensitive groups. Using a Foucauldian framework of analysis, this article explores the rationalities and technologies of statecraft deployed to navigate this tension. It argues that contracting welfare services is a form of governmentality linked to economic efficiency, welfare provision and social stability, requiring subtle ways of governing society. In implementing this policy, the Party/state seeks to foster a service‐oriented civil society and stymie rights‐based and politically sensitive groups.
Lisa E. Kim & Kathryn Asbury · 2020 · British Journal of Educational Psychology · Open access
BACKGROUND: On 20 March 2020, in response to COVID-19, UK schools were closed to most pupils. Teachers were required to put remote teaching and learning in place with only two days' notice from the government. AIMS: The current study explores teachers' experiences of this abrupt change to their working practices, and during the 5-6 weeks that followed. SAMPLE: Twenty-four teachers from English state schools were interviewed, representing mainstream primary and secondary schools and a range of years of experience and seniority. METHODS: Participants were asked to tell stories of three key scenes during the first 5-6 weeks of lockdown: a low point, a high point, and a turning point. A reflexive thematic analysis of their narratives was conducted. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Six themes were identified: uncertainty, finding a way, worry for the vulnerable, importance of relationships, teacher identity, and reflections. Teachers' narratives suggest that, after an initial period of uncertainty they settled into the situation and found a way forward, supported by strong relationships. However, they remain extremely worried about the most vulnerable pupils and want more joined-up thinking from the government on how to support them effectively, along with clarity from policymakers to enable planning ahead. Teachers reflected on how to use their learning during this period to improve pupils' experiences of education post-COVID-19, and on how aspects of shared teacher identity have worked as stressors and coping mechanisms. These initial interviews form the baseline for a longitudinal interview study of teachers' experiences of COVID-19 in England.
Shakuntala Banaji · 2008 · Journal of Youth Studies · Open access
In much academic and policy literature about civic engagement, regardless of their political or social circumstances, youth across the globe are enjoined to engage in all the activities thought good for them in order to qualify for the moral label ‘good citizens’. Voting, watching the news, party activism, sending emails to government websites, attending meetings in the town hall, volunteering, or addressing envelopes for civic organisations are examples of the kinds of activities most often highlighted. In this discourse, distrust and dissatisfaction, however legitimate, as well as group anger, cynicism and unsanctioned protest, are seen as being in conflict with proper ‘civic pathways’. The ‘political’ is primarily configured as pertaining to elections and government, and civic is the implicitly pro-social and conformist field within which future citizens are educated for political engagement. By the same token, when it is not straightforwardly about a ‘passport’ which represents a set of rights and duties, citizenship appears to become a kind of etiquette, whereby ‘members’ communicate with their ‘elected representatives’ and regardless of the outcome of their interest and action, continue to be motivated and interested in the actions of ‘their’ government. But how do such academic and policy conceptualisations of ‘the good citizen’ and ‘civic action’ map onto the real lives of young people? Based on a case study of responses to young people's activism following the start of the 2003 war in Iraq, as well as on the initial findings of the European project about young people, civic participation and the internet, Civicweb, running from 2006 to 2009, this paper engages speculatively with questions such as the following. What kinds of political actions are in fact being encouraged by those who complain that youth are in deficit when it comes to the political and civic realm and, in contrast, what are young people doing in this realm? Is all ‘civic action’ necessarily benign and desirable, or is it merely constructed in this normative manner rhetorically, in order to emphasise an ideal or pro-social version of democratic citizenship? And, more controversially, could apathy, a refusal to vote, civil disobedience, and/or mass resistance to government policies be more democratic alternatives than state-sanctioned or authoritarian ‘civic’ action?
Paul Spicker · 1989 · Open Access Institutional Repository at Robert Gordon University (Robert Gordon University) · Open access
Author's note, 2013 \nPrinciples of social welfare was my second book. First published 1988 by Routledge, ISBN 0-415-00630-9 and 0-415-00631-7. The rights to publish have reverted to me,and I am making it freely available on the internet. \nThe book was submitted for publication in 1986, and published in 1988. I think it \nreads well for its age. Theory does not date rapidly; most of the arguments are still worth \nconsidering. (I still sometimes refer students to Benn and Peters, Social principles and the \ndemocratic state, published in 1959.) While there is much else to be said on the subjects \ncovered, I think they can still be useful as an introduction to normative theory in social \npolicy. However, there are references here that will seem dated. When it was published, \nRussia was still the Soviet Union, Germany was divided, and in Britain the Thatcher \ngovernment was in power. The agenda of social policy has changed, too. \nI have not attempted to update the argument or the material. In my later work, I \nhave returned to several of the themes examined here, and in almost every case I have \ncome to think about the issues differently. Freedom, equality and altruism are discussed in \ndifferent terms in Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (Policy Press, 2006). (The differences are \nconsiderable: for example, there are 5000 words on freedom here, and 25,000 in the later \nbook.) I reviewed welfare, individualism and collectivism and the role of the state in \nReclaming individualism (Policy Press, 2013). I offered a different view of social norms and \nthe state in The welfare state: a general theory (Sage, 2000). Ideologies and power are \ndiscussed in M Mullard, P Spicker, Social Policy in a changing society, Routledge 1998. \nRights and democracy have been discussed in different articles. Possibly more important, I \ncame through my contact with European ideas to appreciate a range of arguments for \nsolidarity, diversity and difference. It should be clear, then, that there is very little left in \nthis book that I would still argue in the same way. \nThe book presented here is much the same as the 1988 edition, with two main \ndifferences. The first is that this version is somewhat closer to the manuscript that I \noriginally submitted. The second change is that one of the chapters seemed to me to be too dated to be \nuseful. In the discussion of inequality, I made the mistake of focusing too strongly on \ncontemporary information on Britain, which is no longer appropriate. I have left it out, and \naltered the later chapter numbers. \nBearing in mind the nature of Internet circulation, I also made some other small \nalterations in cases where the terminology used in the 1980s is not now considered \nappropriate. Foreword (from the 1988 edition) \nThis book is about social policy and administration, which is a field of study mainly \nconcerned with 'social welfare' and the 'social services'. Social policy is not a self-contained \nacademic discipline. The book attempts to draw material together and to offer insights into \na set of problems from a variety of perspectives. The source material has been taken from \npolitics, sociology, philosophy and economics, as well as from the literature on social policy \nin its own right; there are occasional references to work from history, psychology, \nanthropology or law. But it is not possible to deal with each topic in depth in a way that \nwould satisfy the demands of each discipline, and usually it is not even desirable. In its \noriginal form, the material may have been only obliquely relevant to social policy; the point \nthat is of interest is how it reflects on the issues in the study of social welfare. For that very \nreason, the book should be of some value to people who approach it from various \ndisciplines. It will not give them a comprehensive statement of the debate in their own \nsubject, but it should offer an insight into other areas of study which can be applied to their \nown particular interests, and a range of illustrations from the field of social welfare. \nThe book discusses social policy in conceptual terms; it is analytical rather than \nprescriptive. Many of the books which have been written on social policy from a theoretical \nperspective concentrate on issues of political ideology, packaging the ideas together in \nterms of 'left' and 'right', or recognisable 'isms'. (Examples of this approach can be found in \nGeorge and Wilding, 1977; Room, 1979; Taylor-Gooby and Dale, 1981; Mishra, 1981; Forder \net al., 1984; or Open University, 1985). There is a great deal in this approach which is \nworthwhile, but for reasons which I explain in the final chapter, the basic method is not \nadequate to understand the concepts and values applied to welfare. This book is different. \nIt focuses on principles as discrete elements in the formation of social policy. The concepts \nit deals with are interrelated in fact, both because ideas like norms and altruism, rights and \nfreedom, or democracy and the state inform and reinforce each other, and because the \npractical examples often raise many issues besides the ones immediately under discussion. \nHowever, to make things clearer, the ideas are presented as if they were fairly distinct from \neach other. At each stage, examples are given which are intended to demonstrate the \napplication of the arguments to problems in social policy. I hope the result will be an \nessential complement to the standard texts on the subject.
Helen Bouma et al. · 2019 · Child & Family Social Work · Open access
Abstract The quality of parents' experiences with the child protection system (CPS) is related to the outcomes of their family's process in the system. The importance of collaboration with parents in child protection is underpinned by human and children's rights conventions addressing the right for family life and parents being first responsible in fulfilling children's rights. We interviewed 20 parents about their experiences with the Dutch CPS. Our thematic analysis shows that a CPS serving the best interests of their children is most important to parents. To realize this, professionals should (1) “not let it happen but do something,” (2) “get a clear picture of the family's situation,” and (3) “take parents seriously.” Parents emphasize that a system providing sufficient “money, time, and knowledge” is needed to facilitate professionals. Their experiences seem to influence their trust in the system and their attitude towards it. This study shows new insights in parents' experiences, such as their advice to professionals to determine the truth and to be decisive. This deepened knowledge about parents' experiences is essential for evaluating and improving the CPS.
Gregory A. Aarons et al. · 2014 · Implementation Science · Open access
BACKGROUND: This study examines sustainment of an EBI implemented in 11 United States service systems across two states, and delivered in 87 counties. The aims are to 1) determine the impact of state and county policies and contracting on EBI provision and sustainment; 2) investigate the role of public, private, and academic relationships and collaboration in long-term EBI sustainment; 3) assess organizational and provider factors that affect EBI reach/penetration, fidelity, and organizational sustainment climate; and 4) integrate findings through a collaborative process involving the investigative team, consultants, and system and community-based organization (CBO) stakeholders in order to further develop and refine a conceptual model of sustainment to guide future research and provide a resource for service systems to prepare for sustainment as the ultimate goal of the implementation process. METHODS: A mixed-method prospective and retrospective design will be used. Semi-structured individual and group interviews will be used to collect information regarding influences on EBI sustainment including policies, attitudes, and practices; organizational factors and external policies affecting model implementation; involvement of or collaboration with other stakeholders; and outer- and inner-contextual supports that facilitate ongoing EBI sustainment. Document review (e.g., legislation, executive orders, regulations, monitoring data, annual reports, agendas and meeting minutes) will be used to examine the roles of state, county, and local policies in EBI sustainment. Quantitative measures will be collected via administrative data and web surveys to assess EBI reach/penetration, staff turnover, EBI model fidelity, organizational culture and climate, work attitudes, implementation leadership, sustainment climate, attitudes toward EBIs, program sustainment, and level of institutionalization. Hierarchical linear modeling will be used for quantitative analyses. Qualitative analyses will be tailored to each of the qualitative methods (e.g., document review, interviews). Qualitative and quantitative approaches will be integrated through an inclusive process that values stakeholder perspectives. DISCUSSION: The study of sustainment is critical to capitalizing on and benefiting from the time and fiscal investments in EBI implementation. Sustainment is also critical to realizing broad public health impact of EBI implementation. The present study takes a comprehensive mixed-method approach to understanding sustainment and refining a conceptual model of sustainment.
Alexander S. Preker & April L. Harding · 2003 · Health, nutrition, and population series · Open access
The final version of this volume has benefited from our interaction with many individuals. We would like to express our thanks to all for giving so generously of their time. In particular, we thank