Needs Assessment of Child Welfare Professionals to Support Early Socio-Emotional Development After Child Abuse

• In Event: 21.018 - Trauma and Victimization in Childhood

Abstract

There is pervasive concern with insufficiently supporting emotional development, particularly following child abuse, foster care placement, and reunification with biological caregivers. Urban Child Welfare professionals (i.e., caseworkers and supervisors) in a Northeastern County of the United States working with biological and/or foster families (n = 54; 68% response) completed an expert-reviewed survey on satisfaction with and roadblocks to supporting the role of foster parents, biological parents, and caseworkers in emotional development. Eleven Child Welfare professionals also participated in focus groups. Results and implications are discussed, including the need for family-centered interventions, systems level policy changes, and collaborative information-sharing on promoting socioemotional development and early learning outcomes.

Authors

• Nicole Megan Edwards, Rowan University

• Carlomagno Panlilio, The Pennsylvania State University