1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The goal of this study was to verify, from the caseworkers point of view, how various dimensions of child neglect are related to certain documented risk factors, namely parents mental health problem, drug and alcohol misuse, economic difficulties of the family, and low social support to the parents, according to the age of the child.» (p. 368)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«In total, 55 families followed by social services for a corroborated situation of child neglect or risk of neglect participated in the study. […] The children’s ages ranged from 18 to 193 months (or one and a half to sixteen years). Their parents lived in the Outaouais region, Québec, Canada […].» (p. 368) A grid were filled out by 33 caseworkers assigned to these families.

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«The results of this study first indicate that, according to the caseworkers assessments, the children’s age seems to influence the mothers responses to their children’s needs in child protection cases. In fact, an examination of the risk factors associated with the various dimensions revealed that caseworkers are more worried about the guidance and boundaries offered to preschool children than to school-age ones. […] Among the risk factors, mental health can explain a significant proportion of variance of many child neglect dimensions, namely stimulation, emotional warmth, and guidance and boundaries. Substance abuse was the other risk factor that appeared to be associated with increased worries among caseworkers about the mothers’ capacity to ensure their child’s safety.» (p. 369) Moreover, the «results reveal that the caseworkers are concerned by the economic situation of only 21.8% of the sample, for which they consider the income inadequate for the family. However, they also reported that the vast majority of the mothers (74.6%) had a family income of under $30,000, which is below the low-income measure for a family with one child […]. Finally, lack of social support was a concern for 32.7% of the mothers.» (p. 369)