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Theoretical Models Related to Child Welfare Systems and Individual Child Welfare Worker Practices
Anita P. Barbee, Ph.D. & Michael R. Cunningham, Ph.D.
Developing an Integrative Theoretical Child Welfare Practice Framework in California
California counties have been working on developing a statewide practice model for the past several years. Four counties were funded by a large federal Children’s Bureau grant
to develop and evaluate the CAPP model. Other counties have developed certain aspects of practice models or adopted pieces of practice that might serve as building blocks to
practice models in the future. Still other counties are interested in adopting the Solution Based Casework (SBC) practice model.
In order to move the conversation along, the Child and Family Policy Institute of California asked Anita Barbee and Chris Tappan to speak about their experience with practice
models. Dr. Barbee is in the Kent School of Social Work with Dr. Dana Christensen. Dr. Christensen co-developed the SBC practice model with Kentucky child welfare staff in the
mid-1990s and installed it from 1996 to 1999 through changes in training, policy, and the SACWIS system. While a cadre of supervisors had been trained early in the SBC model
and helped to teach it to their staff members (Martin, Barbee, Antle & Sar, 2002), not all supervisors and staff were up to speed. In order to fill that organizational gap in
installing the practice model, Dr. Barbee received a Children’s Bureau grant from 2000-2003 to train child welfare supervisors and their teams in SBC. Dr. Antle was a doctoral
student at the time and she incorporated a set of studies into the grant to test the effectiveness of not only training supervisors and their staff (teams) in the SBC model, but also
in reinforcing the SBC training through case consultation (Antle, Barbee & van Zyl, 2008, Antle, Christensen, Barbee, & Martin, 2008, Antle, Sullivan, Barbee & Christensen, 2009).
In addition, Dr. Antle measured staff adherence to the SBC practices and linked both training reinforcement and adherence to SBC in casework (through case reviews) to
outcomes of child safety, permanency and well-being (Antle, Barbee, Sullivan & Christensen, 2010, van Zyl, Antle & Barbee, 2009). Drs. Christensen, Barbee and Antle helped
Kentucky create a comprehensive continuous quality improvement tool that included 33 key SBC behaviors. Then, the Child Welfare Training Assessment team at the University
of Louisville, led by Dr. Barbee, received the contract to put the CQI tool on-line. Dr. Antle trained the child welfare CQI staff in how to use the tool with fidelity when conducting
case reviews and how to enter the data so that she could download it quarterly to conduct further analyses relevant to training. This contract lasted from 2003 to 2008. Since
that time, the team has analyzed over 4500 child welfare cases to determine the efficacy of SBC on child welfare outcomes (Antle, Christensen, van Zyl & Barbee, 2012; van Zyl,
Barbee, Antle, Boamah, & Christensen,in press). Dr. Barbee also has worked with other states who have adopted alternative models (e.g. Indiana, Oklahoma, MA) and seen
firsthand the impact of those on the system. Finally, she has been conducting cross site evaluations of Children’s Bureau National Resource Centers (NRCs) and Implementation
Centers (ICs) over the past nine years and examined evidence of capacity building and systems change through the adoption of practice models in many states.
In the late 2000s, Washington state adopted SBC as their practice model. This effort was studied by Mark Courtney through Casey funding. A number of lessons were learned
about installing practice models into large state systems. An implementation system, Getting to Outcomes (GTO), was adopted for subsequent installations in New Hampshire,
New York City, Kansas and Australia (Barbee, et al, 2011, Simon, Sterrett, Antle & Christensen, 2013). Chris Tappan was the head of the Capacity Building Division in New
Hampshire’s child and family office, which had recently merged child welfare and juvenile justice. She helped to identify SBC as a viable cornerstone to NH’s practice model and
added Restorative Justice and Parallel Process principles to the umbrella as well. Dr. Barbee worked through both the NRCOI and NCIC to help NH align training with the new
practice model. She helped NH develop an SBC fidelity case review tool that will eventually be incorporated into the general CQI tool to conduct all case reviews. That tool has
been tested and refined across four rounds of case reviews. The latest review showed that adherence to SBC was at 68%, which is the amount of adherence needed to reach
outcomes of safety, permanency and well-being in the Kentucky CQI study (Antle, et al, 2012). Dr. Barbee is seeking funding to speed up the review of cases, in order to test the
effectiveness of SBC in NH. Chris Tappan has since gone on to work for ICF and is now Director of the Children’s Bureau Information Gateway.
In their talk to California county child welfare directors and related staff in July 2013, Barbee and Tappan briefly reviewed what constitutes a child welfare casework practice
model, the importance of having a casework practice model to guide work in the field, lessons learned from Kentucky and NH in developing a practice model and evidence that a
practice model can move the dial on outcome achievement. A practice model for casework management in child welfare should be theoretically and values based, as well as
capable of being fully integrated into and supported by a child welfare system. The model should clearly articulate and operationalize specific casework skills and practices that
child welfare workers must perform through all stages and aspects of child welfare casework in order to optimize the safety, permanency and well-being of childr33en who enter,
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move through and exit the child welfare system (Barbee, et al, 2011, p. 623). Dr. Barbee further explained not only why theory was an essential component of a practice model,
but how theory brings value to the practice model enterprise. She reminded the audience that: (1) a theory or framework is an organized set of explanatory principles that are
susceptible to hypothesis testing, that (2) a good theory leads to research to test the theory (or debunk the theory), which results in an evidence base to support the theory, and
that (3) bad theory has either been disproven or is ideologically driven and cannot be tested. She also cited work by Wandersman (2009) that noted that beyond theory, practice
models should include a fully articulated set of actions and skills that can be observed for presence and strength, system supports and evaluation results, including data
benchmarks to monitor the efficacy of the model.
In Social Work and Child Welfare, we are trying to understand what leads to the problem of child maltreatment, the processes involved in child maltreatment that are
predictable and how to practice in such a way as to prevent the problem or process from starting or intervene once the problem has arisen. In reviewing theories for this
document, Dr. Barbee enlisted the assistance of Dr. Michael Cunningham, a social and personality psychologist with a strong family psychology background. They determined
that the theoretical base of a child welfare practice model needs to be grounded in evidence and that there are four key pieces to an integrative theoretical framework in child
welfare: Problem, Process, Practice and Prevention.
Thus, in creating an integrative theoretical framework, the theories chosen must be evidence based and help staff understand: (1) what causes the problem (child
maltreatment), including the types of internal vs. external causal attributions staff will make about the causes of child maltreatment; (2) what process goes on in the person and
situation to make the problem worse, including past and ongoing oppression and trauma1 (3) how to engage in optimal practice including the proper orientation to take
towards clients and the way to successfully intervene and provide effective treatment, and (4) how to create efficient and compassionate systems that effectively sustain
ongoing treatment and prevent future problems. Therefore, The integrative theoretical framework of California, or any county or state, needs to be evidence based and trauma
informed and pull from theories that address Problem, Process, Practice and Prevention (Evidence Based P Quad or EBPQ).
Dr. Barbee also noted in July that the philosophical and theoretical approaches to child welfare were historically based on religion, the judicial system, the medical model or
some combination of these. In general, all of these approaches have a negative, blaming stance towards clients, attributing the cause of child maltreatment either to internal,
controllable causes such as sin or character flaws or other negative causes such as illness or some other type of dysfunction. The overall approach to clients is problem focused.
The approach is to let experts (judges, lawyers, physicians, psychologists, social workers) determine what is wrong with the client and then impose some sort of intervention on
them through the client’s participation in many services. Child welfare workers monitor if clients comply with all of these service requests and make decisions about whether to
keep families together or return children to families based on attendance at service sessions and compliance with service requests. An alternate approach is to focus on changes
in parental and family unit support, knowledge and behavior, leading to outcomes such as the enhanced safety of children, permanency and well-being.
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One factor that has to be taken into consideration when understanding what leads to child maltreatment is the role of past traumatic events and current PTSD on a parent’s
ability to think and feel. Such trauma may make them more vulnerable to hypervigilence and aggression or that make them numb and neglectfully unable to care for their
children periodically.
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A practice model will only be successful in a healthy organizational and community context and must address key aspects of context as part of any comprehensive casework
practice model. The primary level of conceptualization described in this document is focused on the front line child welfare worker as he or she takes intake calls, conducts
investigations, makes decisions about child safety, conducts family finding, family team meetings and utilizes other tools for involving families in assessment, case planning,
placement and renewal, manages cases in the court system, engages community partners in ensuring that family members are working on behaviors relevant to keeping
children safe, working with resource families, etc.
A practice model addresses how workers think and feel about families that we have encountered our system and how those thoughts and feelings impact behaviors enacted
during engagement, assessment, planning, partnering, decision making, placing, monitoring, celebrating and closing. Most practice models do not address the thoughts, feelings
and behaviors of workers. However, unless the practice model is targeted at this level, workers will be lost and may inadvertently engage in disrespectful, disempowering or
discriminatory actions that damage families. Having a set of values and principles and a set of tools and interventions that seem compatible with these values and principles is
only the first step. We must insure that workers engage with families from a strong theoretical base that helps guide their thinking, feelings and behaviors which include, but are
not exclusively driven by, the various practice tools.
Thus, this document breaks down those dominate approaches to child welfare (e.g. judicial and medical) first by showing what theoretical orientation each one takes and some
implications of each one. Then, the document explores major theoretical approaches to humans beginning in the 20th Century and still applicable today to child welfare work.
These all come out of Developmental and Clinical Psychology, Sociology, and Family and Relationship Studies- thus are an alternative to the Religious, Judicial and Medical
orientations that have dominated the field to date.
The first set of major theoretical approaches (e.g. Phenomenology, Symbolic Interactionism, Social Constructivism and Humanism) and their major proponents and therapies
that were derived from these theories (e.g. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Person-Centered Therapy, Strengths Based Approach, Solution Based Therapy, Human Validation and
Motivational Interviewing) help set the orientation towards clients and work with clients in the child welfare system. Any child welfare casework practice model must choose at
least one theory from this cluster to set the tone for all interactions with clients.
The second set of major theoretical approaches (e.g. Attachment Theory, Family Life Cycle Theory and Biologically based Theories) focuses on the developmental nature of
children and families. One or both of these developmental approaches is recommended for helping to determine attributional schemas. The third set of major theoretical
approaches (e.g. Behaviorism’s Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning and Social Learning Theories, Cognitive theories, Exchange Theory, as well as Systems Theory) and
the therapies that are derived from these theories (e.g., CBT, TF-CBT, Relapse Prevention Model, CB Family Therapy, Behavioral Interventions, Structural Family Therapy,
Multigenerational Family Therapy, Strategic Family Therapy) help set an understanding of the process leading to maltreatment. They also specify what needs to change in order
for maltreatment to end and safety to be ensured. These theories are tied to assessment and treatment.
In addition to an analysis of the theories focused on direct practice with clients is a summary of major organizational theories with an emphasis on three that have been found to
facilitate excellent practice and adherence to practice models in successful child welfare systems.
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Table 1:
Overarching theories
Attribution for cause of problem
Conservative religious
Retributive justice
Distributive justice
Internal, stable, controllable
Internal, stable, controllable
External, unstable, uncontrollable
Medical
External, stable, uncontrollable
Evolutionary theory with a focus on the
Environmental Stress/Traumatic Event
Effect on the human brain resulting in
fight, flight, coping and other outcomes,
mediated by protective and risk factors
(risk and resiliency).
Phenomenology,
Symbolic Interactionism,
Social Constructivism,
Humanism
Mix of external, stable,
uncontrollable and internal,
stable uncontrollable attributions
(interaction effect between
severity and persistence of
external stressors or traumatic
events on humans who are
processing in various ways partly
due to other variables)
Distal cause is external, stable
and uncontrollable, but proximal
cause is internal, unstable and
controllable.
Developmental
Internal, stable, uncontrollable
Behaviorism
External, unstable, controllable
Cognitive Theories
Systems Theories
Internal, stable, controllable
External, stable, uncontrollable
Conflict Theories
External, stable, controllable
Major Mini Theories that
Developed out of Major Theories
Rawls
Freud- Psychodynamic Theory, Jung,’s version of
Psychodynamic Theory
Trauma theory
Risk and Resilience model
Maslow Hierarchy of Needs
Rogers Person Centered Theory. Adler’s
Alderian Psychology
Bowlby Attachment Theory, Family Life Cycle
Theory
Watson’s Classical Conditioning
Skinner Operant Conditioning
OC+ Conflict + Exchange Theory
Bandura Social Learning Theory+
Cognitive + Systems + Conflict Theories
Ellis Cognitive Theory
Structural Functionalism
General Systems Theory+ Life Cycle
Dynamic Systems Theory
Interventions that are based on Theories
that could inform CW casework practice
12 step programs
Incarceration, TPR
Assignment to mandatory programs in place
of or during incarceration
Medications, psychodynamic therapy
TF-CBT
TST
Functional Family Therapy
Strengths Based, Solution Focused Approach
Signs of Safety
Human Validation
Motivational Interviewing
CBT, TF-CBT, TG-CBT
CB Family Therapy
Empowerment
CBT
Structural Family Therapy
Multigenerational Family Therapy
Strategic Family Therapy
Lead to Social Justice interventions such
creating fair laws, unions, social advocacy,
watchdog orgs
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Emphasis on Attribution
Before introducing prominent models that have influenced child welfare systems and individual child welfare worker practices during the 20th Century, it is useful to introduce
Attribution Theory, because different theoretical approaches relevant to Child Welfare differ in their attributions and resulting emotional reactions and decisional responses to
child maltreatment. Attribution theory (Heider, 1958, Kelley, 1973, Weiner, 2008) is a social psychological theory that describes how individuals and systems interpret the cause
of a problem behavior, such as child maltreatment. Such cognitive interpretations set the tone for interactions with clients, influence the processes that are put into place and
drive outcomes.
Attribution theory is concerned with the processes and schemas invoked by the perceiver in assigning causes to these events. Attributional processes are those processes that
govern a perceiver’s attention to, thoughts about, and apprehension of perceived events. The events are the actions of others, one’s own actions or other environmentally
produced events. Through such causal analyses, the perceiver makes inferences about the internal dispositions of other persons (or about him or herself), as well as makes
inferences about the stability of the environmental forces influencing behavior and outcomes.
When trying to decide why people behave as they do, people often start with one of two possible attributionsInternal Attribution- the cause of behavior is something inside the mind and personality of the actor, including his or her dispositions, attitudes, and character traits.
External Attribution- the cause of behavior is outside of the actor’s conscious mind and reside in the external social, physical or biological environment (someone else’s
influence, external obstacles, stress, hormones; once drugs or alcohol have been consumed, they can function as an external cause)
Weiner (2008) noted that people also make attributions as to controllability and stability of the cause:
Controllable attribution- the cause of the behavior is a choice and can be controlled by the actor (such as a desire or the pursuit of a goal)
Uncontrollable attribution- the cause of the behavior is not under the potential control of the actor (social forces, genes)
Stable- the cause is likely to persist unless there is a change, and even an intervention may be met with something that looks like resistance.
Unstable- the cause is temporary, variable or can be changed.
If observers attribute the cause of behavior to be internal, controllable and stable causes then that leads to unfavorable evaluations of the actor, negative emotions towards the
actor, and pessimism with respect to the prospect of change. Behavior towards this actor is likely to be blaming and punitive (e.g. Barbee, 1988). If observers attribute the cause
of behavior to be external, uncontrollable and unstable causes, then that leads to favorable or nonjudgmental evaluations of the actor, feelings of empathy and compassion,
and hope that things can improve. Behavior towards this actor is likely to include extending help and engaging the person in a change process (Barbee, 1988). Other mixes of
attributions result in different emotions, thoughts and aspirations.
Attribution errors are also common: Fundamental Attribution Error- people overestimate the dispositional (internal and controllable) causes of other people’s behavior without
getting all of the facts to see if there could be an external and/or uncontrollable explanation for the behavior. They may reject clues that an external attribution could account
for the behavior. This is partly due to the fact that situational variables are often invisible to the observer and the actor is salient. Western cultural traditions for assigning
responsibility contribute to this bias. A related tendency is the Actor-Observer Bias- whereas observers tend to attribute behavior and outcomes to internal causes in a subject,
they tend to attribute their own behavior and outcomes to external causes. Thus, when a client is half an hour later for an appointment, the social worker may attribute it to
internal causes such as the client being disorganized and disrespectful. Yet, when the worker is late, it may be attributed to external causes, such as construction on the highway
and traffic congestion. This also is linked to the Self-Serving Attribution Bias. If the client fails to make progress, it is because he or she is unmotivated and lazy whereas if the
client makes progress, it is because the worker is insightful and dedicated.
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Prominent Models that have Driven Child Welfare Systems and Individual Child Welfare Worker Practices during the 20 th Century
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
JUDICIAL OR CRIMINAL JUSTICE
APPROACHES
Retributive Approach
Supporters of a Retributive
Approach believe that people
behave rationally. They perform
antisocial actions when they
calculate that the benefits to
themselves outweigh the likely
costs (probability of detection and
punishment).
Aggression and law breaking are
intentional acts based on bad
choices.
Attribution for Causes of Problems
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Problem
Stance on Problem Prevention
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
Supporters of a Retributive
Approach make internal,
controllable and stable attributions
for the behavior of others. That
leads them to be angry, judgmental,
blaming and punitive towards those
who break the law or harm others
The criminal believes his or her
behavior is acceptable.
Prevention occurs through proper
socialization of children and youth
to make good choices and abide by
the law. This is conveyed by good
parenting, schools, religious
organizations and other CBOs.
Detect the crime, gather evidence
to prove the person not only
committed the crime, but intended
to commit the crime, convict the
person of the crime, and punish the
person for the crime.
Prevention occurs through the
threat of severe punishment (e.g.
fines, arrest, incarceration, loss of
rights) for breaking the law or
hurting other people.
In child welfare, the ultimate
punishment is removal of children
from the parent(s) and termination
of parental rights.
Thus, the proper attribution for
behavior is internal and controllable
and often stable- bad person or
criminal.
People have a strong internal locus
of control and can choose to do, or
not do any behavior.
These repeated choices impact a
person’s character and once
established is difficult to change
(stable)
Distributive Approach
Some courts, judges, attorneys,
corrections administrators, and
police have a more complex view of
crime and believe that all the time
or at least in some circumstances
people behave in criminal ways due
to genetics, biological processes
outside the person’s control, or
environmental pressures.
Childhood trauma (e.g. physical or
sexual abuse, abandonment,
neglect, witnessing domestic
violence, neighborhood crime,
being a victim of crime,
experiencing war, parental divorce,
parental mental illness or addiction,
Supporters of a Distributive
Approach make a different type of
attribution- that is external and
uncontrollable for at least some
situations. Problems may be less
stable. This leads to empathy, and a
hope for change.
The criminal believes that he or she
will not get caught or that if caught
can get out of trouble through
manipulation.
Criminal often blames his or her
behavior on external circumstances
and does not readily take
responsibility for his or her behavior
or the bad outcomes of his or her
behavior. (e.g. Everyone in jail says
they are innocent).
Continued trauma, staying in a
deprived environment, having no
hope and being connected to a
dysfunctional network of family and
friends keep people trapped in bad
circumstances and patterns of
behavior.
Fear of punishment keeps most
people in line.
In the case of child death, there is a
recommendation of incarceration
and loss of other rights.
Operant Conditioning Theory and
Social Learning Theory inform;
observing others being punished
and avoiding same fate by not
imitating the same bad behavior.
Theory of Change- Behaviorism via
operant conditioning (reward good
behavior, punish bad behavior).
Prevent child maltreatment,
domestic violence, neighborhood
crime, divorce.
Use of Exchange Theory- maximize
reward and minimize costs
Treat mental illness, addiction and
give strong skills.
Surround vulnerable people with
cognitive impairments with social
supports.
Improve schools, create jobs with a
living wage and make accessible to
those in low income areas, ensure
affordable housing and do not
concentrate poverty. Lift as many
people out of poverty as
possible/improve neighborhoods.
Focus on rehabilitation and
therapeutic interventions even in
prison to overcome trauma history,
domestic violence, cognitive
impairments, mental illness, and
addiction.
Give educational opportunities for
GED, trade schools or college. Give
job skills training. Ensure housing in
neighborhoods that are safe.
Change society, unfair laws that
discriminate against women, racial,
ethnic and sexual minorities,
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natural disasters, etc.) can lead to
or exacerbate cognitive impairment,
mental illness and addiction.
All four of these make people
vulnerable to becoming violent
themselves. This, coupled with
deprived environments (no good
schools, jobs, housing,
impoverishment), and access only
to criminals (gangs, etc) make many
urban youth/adults vulnerable to
criminal behavior
Restorative Justice Approach
A relational approach to the
problem that crime creates- victims
who are angry, scared and feel their
needs are not fully met in normal
judicial process- may lead them to
stay in victim role and turn to crime
themselves. Ensures that victims
are restored to a positive state.
Perpetrators who are disconnected
from victim, crime, consequences
are cut off from society, experience
rejection. Make attribution that
they are indeed bad people and
stay on that path without
redemption and relationship repair.
This approach gives possibility of
restoring relationships and can
change perpetrators’ internal
working model about him or
herself.
MEDICAL MODEL
Problem behaviors are caused by
disorders, including mental illness.
Disorders are due to bad genetics,
bad parenting, and other causes.
Environmental toxins, bad nutrition
or other or traumatic events can
contribute to disorders. Ingestion of
bad chemicals like drugs or too
much alcohol (due to addiction) or
exposure to violence can contribute
Fight against prejudice and
discrimination towards the poor,
racial and ethnic minorities, sexual
minorities, etc.
improve neighborhoods, schools,
and the workplace. Support
families, ensure affordable child
care, transportation, housing,
healthcare, mental health care.
Built on Conflict Theories and calls
for a fight for economic and social
justice. Job of Advocates (SW,
Lawyers and volunteers)
In some ways, this is a blend of the
first two Judicial Approaches but
adds relational and restorative
intervention.
Victims can turn to crime when
trauma is never recognized,
acknowledged, apologized for,
ameliorated in some way.
Both internal and external,
controllable and uncontrollable
attributions can be made.
This process takes care of that
problem.
There is accountability for bad
behavior and may be an
understanding that why people
behave the way they do is complex,
but intervention is different and
focused on relationships.
People who abide by this approach
make external uncontrollable and
stable attributions for the behavior
of others.
This can lead to empathy rather
than blame, but also to pity, which
minimizes the subject’s
responsibility.
The emphasis on pathology also can
make the client passive.
Healing prevents repetition of bad
behavior by perpetrators and
engagement of bad behavior by
victims. Breaks a cycle of abuse and
crime.
Perpetrators can believe they are
bad people and continue on the
path without apology and
forgiveness and repair of
relationships.
Disrupts dysfunctional interactional
patterns.
Social Network can be codependent and facilitate by not
addressing the disorder, not
adhering to treatments of disorder,
or make disorder worse with bad
interactional patterns like violence.
People with disorders have
cognitive deficits (low functioning,
out of touch with reality).
People with disorders have
Get gene testing to detect nature of
disorder so there is knowledge
about a person’s capabilities.
Early detection and treatment
prevents problems from getting out
of control.
Change environment to prevent
behavior
Change path of perpetrator and
victim through mediated meeting.
The focus is on ensuring that
perpetrators make restitution for
their crime- apologizing directly to
the victim, paying the victim back
what was taken or value of what
was taken or lost in the commission
of a crime.
This allows the victim to be
compensated and also for the
relationship to be repaired. The
victim can then forgive the
perpetrator for their bad behavior.
The perpetrator makes the situation
right, takes ownership of the bad
behavior, apologizes, asks for
forgiveness, is granted forgiveness
(often), can begin anew to change
behavior moving forward.
Problem focused approach.
Treat the client based on diagnosis
of disorder through medications,
therapy, services.
Most social support is given by
professionals. Some interventions
with whole families to help manage
the disorder of the individual for
adherence to treatment (e.g. take
meds, go to therapy, attend all
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to disorders or make them worse
and behavior worse.
emotional deficits (low emotional
regulation, swings in mood,
difficulty managing emotions)
There is some skepticism about
whether a person can overcome
biology or early childhood problems
to change or improve.
Theoretical bases: Psychodynamic,
Neurocognitive and
Pharmacological theories
CONSERVATIVE RELIGIOUS MODEL
Problems are caused by sinful
nature and being disconnected
from God and His people.
Problem made worse by
interdependence with other evil
people and bad influences.
Christians are at the same time
angry, judgmental and punitive
about bad behavior but also
empathetic because people are by
nature capable of evil and staying
on a good path is always a struggle
even for the most devout Christians
with lots of support from the
Church.
There is hope for redemption but if
people do not choose to be saved
or are saved and do not rely on God
or the Church enough then they are
often condemned by Christians.
services, learn new ways to interact
so as not to reinforce bad behaviors
or make person erupt).
People with disorders often act in
strange ways or ways that harm self
or others.
Mix of internal and external,
controllable and uncontrollable
attributions.
On the one hand, humans are
born sinners- which is internal and
out of personal control, In addition,
Satan and evil people who are
under Satan’s control encourage
others to engage in bad behaviorswhich are strong external pressures
and thus somewhat uncontrollable.
But, the way out is salvationGod- an external being- who
redeems the person and helps the
person resist temptation and
behave as good as possible. It is a
free choice- and thus something
that is internal and controllable that
makes a person to accept salvation
and decide to take Jesus into their
heart. Conversely, an internal and
controllable attribution is made for
sinful behavior. Not choosing to be
a Christian or continuing to willfully
sin and not seek the support of God
or His people to be good means
that it is the person is at fault for
behaving badly.
If not saved, will continue on bad
path because of sinful nature
(stable) and bad influences.
If saved and not in the Church
community to keep you
accountable or praying daily to God
to help you be good, will be selfdeceptive and will drift off into bad
behavior. Relapse is seen as a worse
sin because the person knows
better and will be judged more
harshly by members of the Church
and God.
Fear of Hell (punishment), current
and eternal separation from God,
loved ones and anything that is
good.
Ensuring the person is saved.
Separate children and adults from
“the world” (e.g. home schooling,
only friends with those at Church
except when trying to convert
someone to the faith).
Ensuring the person is in a strong
Church community to be held
accountable for behavior.
Maybe exorcise demons if those are
possessing the person.
Ensuring the person is in touch with
God on a daily basis to be good.
If addicted- go to a 12 step program
which is spiritually based and use
Higher Power (in Christian’s case is
God) and support of other addicts
through sponsorship and frequent
meetings to stay sober.
Because people will not always be
good, they continually need
redemption and support from
others who are saved to help them
stay on the good path.
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Theories from Psychological, Developmental and Family/Relationship Disciplines
that have Relevance to Child Welfare Casework Practice and that Could Inform a Child Welfare Casework Practice Model
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Attribution for Causes of
Problems
PHENOMONOLOGY, SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONISM, SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTIONISM
Phenomenology- a subarea of
Philosophy that focuses on the
relationship between consciousness
and social life, including the nature of
being in the world, and the creation
of meaning.
Most problems are caused by
social structures and social
definitions that become
internalized and influence
behavior. Thus, distal cause is
external, stable and
uncontrollable, but proximal cause
is internal, stable and controllable.
(Can see ties to Conflict Theories
here).
Symbolic Interactionism is an area of
Sociology. It suggest that the locus of
experience is the self, and the self
develops through social interaction
(Goffman, 1959). Out of these social
interactions come the importance of
roles. Role entrance, role exit, role
conflict, role ambiguity, role strain.
Symbolic Interactionism informs
family life development theory to
help understand why parenting in
complex, family structures is difficult
and sometimes overwhelming
without tools, information and social
support).
Social Constructionism- reality is cocreated among individuals. It
assumes that understanding,
significance, and meaning are
developed not separately within the
individual, but in coordination with
other human beings. Because they
are social constructions, all values,
rules and laws are arbitrary.
Causes of values and actions are
external, but those external
structures are internalized, so that
people have the illusion that they
make choices.
Social definitions create problems
that would not exist in the absence
of those definitions.
Unemployment is a problem
because people do not freely share
monetary and social resources.
Pre-marital pregnancy is a problem
because social norms in Western
cultures demand marriage.
Drug addiction is a problem
because some groups are forced to
endure high levels of stress while
cheap forms of recreation have
been criminalized.
Child maltreatment is caused by
not being treated as a valuable
person, disaffection from the
larger culture, adoption of
negative social roles and lack of
social support.
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Problem
The desire of some individuals in
society to feel superior requires
that other individuals be made to
feel inferior, ostracized or
incarcerated.
To protect themselves against their
social opponents, marginalized
individuals band together and may
reinforce behavior that reduces the
chance of success as defined by the
larger culture.
Stance on Problem Prevention
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
Individuals need to be informed
about the values of different groups
so that they can negotiate
effectively with them, including
presenting a self that the other will
respect.
Individuals are shown that they
have adopted a negative role (such
as victim, single mother, addict,
outlaw, loser) which is unsatisfying.
Individuals are taught skills to adjust
to external power structures,
including the educational system,
the church, the police, the courts,
the social work structure, the
welfare system, and the
occupational system.
Individuals are warned about the
costs of adopting negative social
roles.
They are shown alternate roles that
they can adopt, which will may
allow greater self-satisfaction.
Symbolic Experiential Family
Therapy- came out of Existential,
Humanistic and
Pheonomenological Theories
(Whitaker, 1988)
Interventionist deals with the
dialectic of individuation and
belonging. People need to be free
to individuate so that they can
belong without becoming
enmeshed.
There is also a dialectic between
our personhood and the roles we
enact as part of our job and
families. Healthy families express
the contradictions in these
dialectics.
The value is in helping parents take
on healthy individual roles and find
way to belong and helping children
not be enmeshed with parents.
10
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Attribution for Causes of
Problems
HUMANISTIC THEORY
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
External, stable and uncontrollable
causes in society prevent people
from meeting their needs.
Maslow was one of the first in
psychology to focus on what now is
known as positive psychology and
the strengths-based approach.
He saw humans as basically good and
striving towards self-actualization
and growth. He thought humans did
not reach this state due to sickness in
society.
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Problem
Being stuck in a deficit oriented
rather than a strengths oriented
position with regards to people and
their issues.
Parents who cannot meet
physiological needs and who
themselves do not have safety
needs met have difficulty meeting
the physiological and safety needs
of children.
Stance on Problem Prevention
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
Support families so that lower
needs can be met and family
members can then focus on
meeting their own and their
children’s belonging and love needs,
esteem needs and selfactualization.
This theory actually drives the
outcomes of the child welfare
system
Society needs to see the entire
family as the unit that needs all of
these needs met rather than just
children- otherwise interventions
are likely to punish poor families
and place children in alternative
settings.
A focus on deficits rather than on
being or strengths is a problem.
He set a hierarchy of needs- lower
needs must be met before higher
needs can be pursued and met.
1. Physiological Needs for hunger,
sex, thirst (if they are not met, they
dominate the person).
2. Safety Needs (security, stability,
dependency, protection, freedom
from fear, need for structure)
3. Belongingness and Love Needs
(family, friends, affectionate
relations)
4. Esteem Needs (self-esteem and
esteem from others, strength,
achievement, mastery, competence,
confidence, independence, respect,
status, dominance, attention,
dignity)
5. Need for self-actualization (to
become everything one is capable of
being)
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Safety- making sure children are
free of abuse and neglect. In other
words making sure their
physiological needs for nutrition are
met as well as their safety needs for
security, stability in housing,
protection from harm, freedom
from fear, need for structure and
dependency on caring adults is met.
Permanency- making sure they
have a family to grow up in where
there is love and belonging. In
other words- meeting their
belonging and love needs.
Well-Being- making sure children in
OOHC have medical needs,
psychological needs and
educational needs met. This relates
to meeting esteem needs to have
achievement, mastery,
competence, confidence so that
they can be independent and get
the respect of others (through
educational and mental health) as
well as to help them become selfactualized.
Attribution for Causes of
Problems
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Stance on Problem Prevention
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
11
HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY/
Person-Centered Theory (Rogers,
1961).
Important to be centered on the
person, have unconditional positive
regard (respect) for the person,
empathy for the person and interact
with the person in a genuine way.
Believed the person is the best
expert about him or herself.
Problems arise from conditional
positive regard from significant
others that makes people second
guess themselves.
So Rogers blamed problems of
individuals on distal external,
stable and uncontrollable causesnamely those with whom the
person is in relationship. But the
proximal cause of behavior is low
self-esteem, which is internal,
unstable & controllable
Problem
Being around people who give
conditional positive regard causes
and maintains low self-esteem. A
materialistic culture seeks to create
artificial deficiencies in order to sell
things to alleviate nonexistent
problems.
Find someone (like a therapist) to
give unconditional positive regard
so subject can process the bad
information about the self and
straighten thinking and feelings and
know oneself.
Out of this theoretical orientation
and the larger perspective of social
constructionism and Maslow’s work
comes strengths based practice.
Problems arise from conditional
positive regard that allows people to
have self-esteem only if they meet
ideal self-standards. That makes
people second guess themselves.
Motivational Interviewing is based
on Rogerian person-centered
theory/therapy.
Fully functioning people are open to
experience, and trust their intuitions
and their real selves.
Also Satir’s Human Validation
Process Model under Systemic
Theories has roots in Humanistic
psychology and person-centered
therapy.
People with problems such as child
maltreatment do not have the kind
of respect they need to build selfesteem and confidence in parenting.
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Rogers set the stage for values of
self-determination of clients,
respecting clients, seeing clients as
experts in their own worlds (self,
family) and joining with them with
full positive regard and respect,
empathy and genuineness so that
they can understand themselves
better and become their best
selves.
Attribution for Causes of
Problems
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Stance on Problem Prevention
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
12
Strengths- Based Approach (Saleeby,
2009) is not a theory but comes out
Social Constructionism, Humanistic
Psychology and Rogerian person
centered theory/therapy.
Does not focus on causes of
problems but strengths and
solutions that people and families
have to meet challenges.
Problem
Focus on the negative, focus on
pathology, victimhood, sickness and
negative narratives. Judicial and
Medical models are the problem.
Change the narrative of people’s
lives. Help people find meaning in
their circumstances.
Emphasizes a participatory helping
relationship in which the client is
given support to define his or her
reality and goals.
The strengths perspective and
strengths model of case
management (Saleebey, 2009)
emphasizes discovery and expansion
of clients’ and communities’
strengths, capacities and resources;
recognition of challenges and
oppression without defining people
merely as victims, sick, pathological
or problematic.
Helpful dialogue is a symbolic
interaction that reveals the client’s
life meaning, especially the talents
and resources that have
encouraged resilience.
This may involve deconstructing
negative and confining labels and
social expectations that deny or
obscure people’s strengths.
Form a collaborative helping
relationship; focus on solutions and
creative possibilities; encouraging
clients to narrate and reconstruct
their life stories (narrative therapy);
and deconstructing taken for granted
assumptions about the nature of
people and societies.
The helper’s every action helps
shape the client’s understanding of
self and world for better or worse…
great care must be taken in the
helping relationship.
People give meaning to their
experiences and lives. People have
the capacity to shape their own lives
and are seen as creative, adaptive
and with the ability to be selftransforming.
Work with the client to build on
strengths and change the narrative
of their lives so that they cannot be
stuck in the old story and thinking
anymore (really a form of cognitive
therapy- with an emphasis on story
rather than discrete thoughts that
cause problems for people).
The helping situation is client
centered and involves growth or the
alleviation of problems that are the
result of beliefs and interpretations
that restrain a person from achieving
his or her full potential.
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Determine the current beliefs and
interpretations (stories) that
restrain a person from achieving his
or her full potential.
Assess strengths that can be built
on to solve any issues. The
intervention is the change in the
story. Narrative Therapy.
Attribution for Causes of
Problems
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Stance on Problem Prevention
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
13
Solution Focused Therapy (Insoo
Kim Berg, 1996) Is a model that came
out of Phenomenology, Social
Constructionism and Humanistic
Theory as well as behaviorism
Self-defeating thinking and
behavior patterns are the cause of
many problems. That is an
internal, controllable and unstable
attribution.
It is a strengths-based, behavioral
and goal directed model that was
originally developed at the Brief
Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee
by de Shazer (1985).
Problem
Being too focused on the past and
bad aspects of the past rather than
the future prevents positive change
and gets families bogged down in
the negative patterns rather than
the exceptions to those negative
patterns that show capability and
give hope and something tangible
to build on.
Focus on the positive in people
creates optimism and hope and
helps people avoid negative spirals.
Use a wide variety of methods to
help clients achieve change
(Franklin and Biever, 1996).
The emphasis is on process and
future behaviors that will help clients
accomplish their goals.
Strategies include tracking solution
behaviors, reinforcing the times
when the problem is absent and
complimenting and attending to
small differences in behavioral
change, starting from the client’s
cognitive frame and working with
their meanings to construct
solutions to accomplish their goals,
focusing on the future instead of
the present or the past and using
presuppositional language to help
clients restructure meanings about
themselves and their problems.
Focus is to help clients construct a
set of behavioral tasks that lead to a
rapid solution.
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Addresses how clients talk about
their problems and interact with
others around the problem. Seeks
to shift conversations, meanings
and relationship patterns into a
state of solution so that all people
involved believe and act as if the
problem is solved.
Attribution for Causes of
Problems
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Stance on Problem Prevention
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
14
Motivational Interviewing (Miller &
Rollnick, 2002). Is a therapeutic
technique that came out of
Humanistic and Person Centered
Theory
Lack of faith or hope or the
possibility of change are the cause
of many problems. That is an
internal, controllable and unstable
attribution.
Client-centered, yet directive,
method for enhancing intrinsic
motivation to change by exploring
and resolving ambivalence.
If subjects think they cannot
change or do not know how to
change they will try to NOT think
about it and will seem passive,
avoidant or defensive and angry.
Person using MI expresses empathy,
develops discrepancy, reduces
resistance and supports client selfesteem.
Problem
If push or argue will lead to
reactance, which looks like
resistance.
Not applicable
Resistance to change is lack of
readiness, willingness or ability.
Sometimes the change interferes
with another value or goal and so
even though they know it is
important and know how to change
they do not.
Assess ability to change and assess
willingness to change- whether or
not they see change as important.
To see importance they need to
think about their ideal or goal and
the discrepancy between the ideal
and actual. To instigate change
need to develop discrepancy to
enhance the perception of
importance.
So while we think in child welfare
that parents are motivated to
change just by our presence- we
may be mistaken- not always true…
or may be overwhelming and lead
to these paradoxical behaviors.
Focus on facilitating motivation for
change.
Collaborate with client, honor the
client’s autonomy and self
direction. Evoke rather than install.
Engage in key MI skills first by
establishing and maintaining a
working alliance through OARS- use
of open ended questions,
affirmations, reflective listening and
summaries- manage the resistance
through cultivating importance for
change, pique confidence, elicit and
strengthen commitment to change
and collaborate on a plan for
change.
DEARS (Develop discrepancy,
express empathy, avoid arguments,
roll with resistance and support self
efficacy). Assess for ambivalence
and so reinforce change talk- and
avoid traps.
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Attribution for Causes of
Problems
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Stance on Problem Prevention
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
15
Problem
Child/Family Development Theories
Attachment Theory (Bowlby)
This is a fundamental theory of the
parent (or primary caregiver)-child
relationship that explicates the
nature and impact of child
maltreatment.
Children need consistent nurturance
and protection from caring,
responsive parents. That creates a
positive working model of the self,
and a positive working model of
other people and the social
environment.
A parent who provides inconsistent
care produces anxious attachment. A
parent who provides either
neglectful or over-stimulating care
produces avoidant attachment.
A parent who suffers from domestic
abuse, drug addiction, financial
stress, mental illness or mental
disability may not be able to provide
the consistent responsiveness that
the child needs in order to form a
secure attachment.
Some very abusive situations can
lead to reactive attachment disorder
(RAD).
The cause of attachment is the
parent’s behavior, which is
external, controllable and
unstable.
Once an attachment style has
been formed, it functions as an
internal, stable and uncontrollable
cause of the child’s behavior.
A child’s attachment style can be a
self-fulfilling prophecy.
If we do not interact respectfully
with parents, demand that all
parties interact respectfully with
parents, do as much as possible to
engage families so as to keep
families together, and ensure the
best (not most expedient)
placements for children, then
children will find ways to disrupt
placements and may inadvertently
elicit abusive or neglectful
behaviors from foster/adoptive
parents and siblings. These
disruptions, rejections, and further
incidences of maltreatment retraumatize the child.
Parents must be taught how to
encourage attachment through
consistent responsiveness and
nurturance.
This can be facilitated by parenting
classes or home visitation programs
during pregnancy or early
childhood. It also is helpful to
identify barriers to effective
parental care, such as poverty,
transportation problems, addictions
or a weak or overstressed social
support network. It takes a village
to help a parent raise a secure child!
We must behaviorally
operationalize in daily practice the
laws and policies that demand:
Respect for parents and the role of
parents in the psychological,
emotional, cognitive and relational
domains of a child’s life.
Engagement of parents and other
family members in changing
behavioral patterns that led to child
maltreatment, so that the family
can be strengthened and remain
together.
While child maltreatment is not
good for child safety, when a child is
attached (and most children above
the age of 1 are attached to a caregiver even if the attachment is
anxious or avoidant), the harm
done to the child by removing the
child from the parent may be more
severe than leaving the child in a
less than perfect environment
(provided it is not lethally
dangerous).
We need to execute removal in a
certain way to minimize trauma to
the child. Prioritizing placement
with family if OOHC is required.
Includes activities like Family
Findings, Family Team Meetings,
Family Group Decision Making,
kinship care.
Placing children carefully with foster
and/or adoptive families
Continuation of ties (attachment)
between the parents and children
and siblings if a child is placed in out
of home care in the form of daily
16
phone calls, weekly or more visits,
placement physically near family,
creation of lifebooks, etc.
Develop and execute interventions
to support the development of
secure attachments between
children in OOHC and members of
the foster family or adoptive family.
Family Life Development Theory or
Family Life Cycle Theory (Carter &
McGoldrick, 1989, McGoldrick,
Carter & Garcia-Preto, 2011)
Developmental Approach but also
has ties to Symbolic Interactionism
Normalizing the difficulty of
parenting, understanding the key
tasks that often cause family trouble,
leads to empathy and gives tools to
share with the family. These tools
enhance knowledge of child
development, role of family changes,
areas to plan for, tools to manage
everyday life events and discipline.
They situate the maltreatment in
normal family life (sets up perfectly
for use of a solution focused theorythat some or most of the time the
family manages these family tasks
quite well- thus they can build on
those strengths and times when it
goes right).
Also as a part of this theory is the
notion that some of the current ways
The task of parenting is complex
and challenging and every family
struggles, especially with certain
aspects of family life (situates the
problem as external but
controllable and unstable. It is not
the family’s fault that they lack
knowledge and skills, but can be
learned. That is, such behaviors
can be controlled and changed
with education, help, skill building,
support and engagement of entire
family).
Families struggle with everyday life
events according to
developmental age and stage of
the child and family particularly
during transitions. External,
controllable, unstable causes
Most maltreatment is around
those milestones and transitions
as well as in the process of
disciplining children.
Another cause of maltreatment is
What reinforces the problem is not
having enough knowledge or skills.
and perhaps others reinforcing
maladaptive strategies for facing
these crucial challenges.
Gain knowledge and skills for
managing everyday life events and
engage the entire family in these so
that there is mutual support for the
new ways of meeting the
challenges.
To prevent more harm than good,
the parent-child bond, bonds
between siblings and bonds
between extended family members
and children must be privileged
unless severe circumstances
undermine our ability to keep
children with or in touch with family
members.
Gain knowledge and skills for
managing everyday life events and
engage the entire family in these so
that there is mutual support for the
new ways of meeting the
challenges.
Create a genogram to look for
family patterns and where these
strategies came from (can be useful
for nuclear as well as extended
family if they share in caregiving
currently or during an OOHC
placement)
Give parents tip sheets on these
challenges by age of child and stage
of family formation and
development.
Include in the assessment what
everyday life events is the family
struggling with and how that relates
to the maltreatment.
Including in the case plan family
level objectives for changing family
17
everyday life events are tackled have
roots in family history (were a
strategy was observed or taught, or
reinforced by grandparents, aunts,
uncles, cousins, siblings).
Also see Multigenerational Family
Therapy (Bowen)
a lack of knowledge and skill that
can be transmitted, taught and
practiced for successful navigation
of tricky parenting tasks.
routine, discipline, etc to manage
those everyday life events better so
that children are safe.
If therapy or in-home aide or
parenting class could help with the
gain in knowledge and acquisition
of skills to help manage these
problematic areas of parenting,
then it needs to be focused.
Internal but semi-controllable and
unstable. Client can be taught
knowledge and skills
Monthly visits check on progress in
using the skills learned by worker or
therapist, aide, class.
Celebrate progress and successes.
Environment-Bio-Psycho-Social
Evolutionary Theory
Evolutionary theory with a focus on
the Environmental Stress/Traumatic
Event Effect on the human brain
resulting in fight, flight, coping and
other outcomes, mediated by
protective and risk factors (risk and
resiliency).
When stress is acute or persist,
particularly if it is defined as
traumatic (e.g. the life of the person
or a person’s loved ones or friends is
threatened)- it affects the brain and
the hormonal system in a particular
and detrimental way. It can affect a
person’s ability to think, process
information and make sense or
meaning out of the situation and
thus subsequent ability to cope. It
can make emotions persist and make
a person extremely anxious (e.g.
PTSD), hyper-vigilant or emotionally
blunted and shut down. And it can
affect behaviors. This process can be
made better or worse by risk and
resilience (protective) factors.
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Mix of external, stable,
uncontrollable and internal, stable
uncontrollable attributions
(interaction effect between
severity and persistence of
external stressors or traumatic
events on humans who are
processing in various ways partly
due to other variables).
Being traumatized can create the
context for harsher punishment of
children and child maltreatment is
a traumatic event for a child. So
trauma is both a cause and an
effect of child maltreatment.
Risk factors exacerbate and prolong
maladaptive reactions to traumatic
events.
Can mitigate effects of trauma with
enhancing protective and resilience
factors.
Protective or resilience factors
mitigate the effects of the traumatic
events.
Have to treat traumatized parents,
children and the family unit in
general in a particular way so as not
to cause re-traumatization.
Identify risk and resilience
(protective) factors and use natural
supports and resources to surround
individuals and family unit with
protective factors. Find ways to
neutralize the risk factors or
address those.
There can be risk and resilience
(protective) factors in both parents
and children where maltreatment,
family violence, neglect is prevalent.
Intervene with EBPs that address
the trauma such as TF- CBT, TGCBT, TST, Functional Family
Therapy, etc.
In order to staff to interact
appropriately the organization
needs to be trauma informed and
prevent and treat secondary trauma
among staff.
Attribution for Causes of
Problems
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Stance on Problem Prevention
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
18
BEHAVIORISM (with enhancements
that incorporate cognitive processes
in learning and behavior change)
Behavioral theories are interested in
why behaviors occur, how to change
or influence behaviors.
Classical conditioning (Pavlov,
Watson) emphasizes emotional and
physiological responses that
becomes routine through
association. When a naturally
eliciting stimulus leading to a
particular response is paired with a
neutral stimulus over and over again
then the neutral stimulus begins to
elicit the response. Ring a bell when
a dog smells food and begins to
salivate. Remove the smell and food
but ring the bell and the dog will still
salivate.
3 principles important to classical
conditioningGeneralization- refers to the spilling
over of the conditioned response to
a stimulus that is similar but not
identical to the conditioned stimulus.
Extinction- gradual decrease and
eventual disappearance of a
conditioned response when the
conditioned and unconditioned
stimuli are no longer paired… but if
reintroduced there will be
spontaneous recovery of the
response…
Operant conditioning (Skinner)focused on the consequences of
behavior- that when reward behavior
that behavior will increase (by
introducing something positive
(reinforcer) or removing something
negative (reinforcer), when punish a
Cause of maltreating behavior is
through classical condition (from
care-giver’s own childhood),
operant conditioning (reinforced
for certain behaviors), and/or
social learning (modeling what
learned in own home, which also
includes a cognitive component).
Behavior is thus largely due to
external (environmental), semistable (depending on the stability
of the situation; a child can change
teachers/models every year) and
uncontrollable causes.
But social learning theory notes
can think differently and thus
behave differently (internal,
controllable, unstable).
Cognitive theory asserts that
problems are caused by cognitive
distortions that affect both
emotions and behaviors.
Problem
Strong associations make behavior
unconscious and difficult to tease
out why the person is behaving the
way he or she is. This makes it
difficult to change behavior without
replacing those associations with
new more healthy ones.
Intermittent, variable ratio
reinforcement makes the behavior
routine. It also is very difficult to
change behavior that is reinforced
this way periodically, even if it also
is sanctioned.
Punishment for trying new
behaviors could extinguish
progress.
Social learning is also strong- have
to replace models, practice new
behavior repeatedly.
Many of the thoughts and feelings
that lead to behavior are fleeting
and seem unconscious to the
person having them- thus making it
difficult to know why they behave
the way they do. Without
untangling the sequence of events
including situational factors,
thoughts, feelings and triggers that
led to a maltreating incident or
situation (neglect), it is difficult to
change or know when a child is
safe.
Learned helplessness (Seligman,
1975) represents application of
social learning theory to human
functioning. When people are faced
with punishing outcomes for which
they have no control, despite their
efforts, they develop a sense of
helplessness. Helpless cognitions
Problems are prevented by all caregivers who have a healthy
childhood with positive parents,
and by encouragement and success
in the education and labor system
that leads to effective behaviors
and stress-coping skills.
Bring to awareness the triggers of
behavior, give new ways of thinking,
pair new behavior with something
good, reinforce new behavior until
it is routine, exposing to role
models who exhibit desired
behaviors.
Positive parental behaviors are
sustained by reinforcement from a
spouse, partner, relatives, religious
community and social network.
In assessment, have to find a way to
zero in on the behavior that needs
to change in order for children to be
safe and why that behavior was
there in the first place and/or why it
persists in order to change it. The
why likely involves a complex set of
situational, emotional, cognitive
and modeling variables that need to
be understood- unearthed. Tool for
that is identifying the sequence of
events that led to maltreatment.
Individuals can be inoculated
against learned helplessness by
being given small to moderate
challenges that they learn to
overcome,
Children tend to model those who
are prestigious, receive social
recognition and monetary rewards,
and who are demographically
similar. Do not imitate those who
are punished or who seem
dissimilar.
Perceived self-efficacy (belief one
can perform a necessary behavior)
can help regulate behavior. People
who are self-efficacious persist in
face of adversity- part of
empowerment theory.
People set standards for themselves
and strive to meet those standards;
reward with self- reinforcement
when standards are met and feel
guilt when standards are not met
Albert Ellis (1962, 1977, 1982, 2009)
first to systematize a cognitive
approach to therapy applied to both
individuals and couples.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
comes out of Bandura’s work… to
intervene in established patterns
that are not helpful and to replace
with better patterns…
Use of Relapse Prevention Model
or CBT questions can help unearth
these contributing factors that
reinforce or allow the behavior to
be exhibited. Trauma Focused CBT
can also illuminate the role the
trauma history or current trauma in
the adult’s life play in the sequence
of events.
Also need to identify new behavior
to replace the old one that can
nurture, discipline properly and
effectively and keep the child safe.
Case plan needs to have Individual
Level Objectives to help the adult
change the pattern of behavior that
19
behavior that behavior will
decrease… especially strong when
the reinforcement is intermittent…
and variable ratio…
Social learning theory or social
cognitive theory (Bandura)- behavior
is learned through observation or
modeling and is then shaped by
internal cognitive processes prior to
performance of learned behaviors…
adds social and cognitive
contributors to changing behaviors
and learning.
Bandura built on Mead and Piagetbehavior is based on the interaction
between internal causes and
external influences and an
appreciation of the role of
symbolization in cognition.
Showed role of imitative response
pattern from model to the observerwhen observe a model engage in a
novel behavior- observer will copy it..
Inhibitory or disinhibitory effects
may strengthen or weaken a
previously learned response- and
observing a model might prompt a
previously acquired response- like
spontaneous recovery… A cognitive
mediational process allows for
vicarious learning. Social cognitive
theory learning is knowledge
acquisition through cognitive
processing of information. For
modeling to take place first must pay
attention to the relevant stimuli and
screen out those not important,
retention Is necessary to remember
the behavior. Must be able to
produce the behavior. Finally
motivation is necessary to sustain
the efforts of these processes.
prevent effective action even when
the situation has changed and
escape or improvement is possible.
Discrimination and economic
oppression can lead to this.
leads to maltreatment or keeps
children unsafe. Very specific rather
than global listing of “problems”
like mental illness, substance abuse,
domestic violence, low cognitive
functioning. What about not taking
meds or the type of mental illness
the parent has affects thinking
about the child or parenting or
discipline.
Therapists need to know what has
been identified and work that task
on the case plan to help bring about
change. Therapist can help further
unearth sequence of events, where
those came from, help client
understand why a particular
situation, thought, emotion was a
trigger for the maltreating behavior.
Then can give the client strategies
for avoiding, escaping, planning
ahead to keep kids safe.
Therapists can help extinguish CC
behaviors, reinforce desired
behavior, model desired behavior.
During case monitoring can see if
individual can plan ahead, or avoid
problematic situations or escape
before lashing out or get help to
manage the child or demonstrate
new way of disciplining child to
show progress and how child will be
safe if allowed back in the home.
Can assess for enhanced selfefficacy in safety planning,
prevention of maltreatment, new
discipline techniques, general
parenting. Through the master of
new behaviors the parent will be
empowered and not exhibit learned
helplessness.
20
Cognitive Behavioral Family Therapy
(Datillo, 2010, Gottman) Roots in
Behaviorism and CBT (Beck) but also
Bandura and Gottman, Jacobson but
also in systems theory
Martial and family dysfunction
occurs when couples or parents with
children have illogical and unrealistic
ideas about their relationships and
introduce negative, extreme
evaluations of self and others when
problems arise.
10 most common cognitive
distortions in human interaction and
personal reflection are arbitrary
inference a conclusion generated
about an event without
substantiating evidence (i.e., teen is
behaving in delinquent behavior
when 5 minutes late)
selective abstraction taking things
out of context, paying attention to
distortion-supporting details,
ignoring other important information
overgeneralization- generalizing
from one or two incidents to
assigning someone a consistent
ongoing attribute
magnification and minimizationmaking more or less out of a
situation or event than is warranted
by the facts.
personalization- a form of arbitrary
inference that occurs when external
events are attributed to oneself
without sufficient evidence.
dichotomous thinking- classifying
experiences as all or nothing, always
Illogical, unrealistic, distorted
thoughts are an internal, stable
and semi-controllable attribution
for the cause of problems.
Cognitive distortions are supported
by underlying core beliefs that
people develop about the world
and how it works (schemas). What
“should be” that are shaped by
family of origin, cultural
backgrounds, societal norms, early
relationship experiences.
Family schema maintained through
routines and relatively consistent
and predictable interactions.
Ellis’ ABC model separates
activating events from distressing
consequential emotions by
concentrating on irrational beliefs
or cognitions that cause disturbed
feelings and behaviors.
Psychoeducation and training in
communications and problemsolving skills can help families
change poor patterns.
In therapeutic setting help families
identify the individual and collective
schemas that support automatic
thoughts, distortions, and resulting
useless interactions.
Applying CBT to families- focus on
the nature and rate of patterns of
upsetting behavioral interactions,
how family members express and
hear the thoughts and feelings of
others, the methods and skills
families employ to solve problems
and how all of this affects the family
system.
Examine who has power and
control in family, are parents a team
or in emotional divorce, is a parent
overly enmeshed with the children
while other parent withdraws, do
parents have psychological needs
that spill over into family life and
limit their ability to parent
effectively. Is education enough or
are changes needed like cognitive
restructuring and behavioral
intervention.
In child welfare setting some of the
behavioral intervention is focused
on parenting behaviors.
21
or never, complete success or failure,
totally good or totally bad, absolutely
right or absolutely wrong.
labeling and mislabeling- attaching
trait labels to self or others for what
is essentially a single or small set of
incidents
tunnel vision- tunnel vision occurs
when one person in a relationship
sees only what she or he wants to
see or what fits the individual’s
current state of mind
biased expectations- during times of
distress, a biased explanation
attributes a negative underlying
motive or intent even to positive
behaviors
mind reading another arbitrary
inference in which one individual
believes that she or he knows what
another is thinking or will do- even
though nothing had been verbally
communicated between the two
people.
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Attribution for Causes of
Problems
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Problem
Stance on Problem Prevention
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
SYSTEMS THEORIES
General Systems Theory and
Dynamic Systems Theory led to the
Multiple causes of problemscomplex interplay of forces within
Self preservation maintains patterns
that may not be healthy.
Self adaptation and self
transcendence help to prevent
Assess by understanding all of the
inter-related pieces at play. Where
22
Ecosystems Perspective and
Interactionism (person x
environment)
(Bertalanffy, 1968, Germain &
Gitterman, 2008, Bales, Lee, et al,
2009)
What began as Structural
Functionalism has moved to a
Dynamic Systems Theory.
Reality is composed of interrelated
and interconnected systems. Each
system is a whole that includes and
transcends its component systems.
All systems are changing all the time
in various directions and degrees of
intensity and speed.
Dynamic systems engage in four
complementary activities:
Self-preservation (pattern
maintenance and tension
management), self-adaptation
(copes with demands with resources
and change), self-transcendence
(integration) and self-dissolution
Stress- when inputs or stimuli are
insufficient, excessive or missing an
upset occurs in the adaptive balancethe fit between person and
environment has broken down.
Stress is a transactional concept- a
psychosocial condition generated by
discrepancies between needs and
capacities and environmental
qualities… arises in three areas of
living- life transition, environmental
pressures and interpersonal process.
People are purposive and goal
seeking thus this perspective focuses
on growth, development and
potentialities.
systems and across interdependent systems.
Entropy, system becoming closed,
disorganized, stagnant can cause
problems. Self-dissolution can
cause problems.
External system could cause
disruption or give negative
feedback about how the individual
or family system is performing
(output).
When there is an imbalance or lack
of harmonious operation within or
between systems, a problem can
result. Frequent repetition of a
problem situation may lead to a
crisis situation.
There is a complex interplay
between internal and external,
controllable and uncontrollable
causes of homeostasis and
disequilibrium.
problems.
In a family, each person is a
subsystem, all family members
together are mutually influencing,
family relationships are woven
together into patterns and
developmental processes, the
family as a whole encompasses
subsystems such as parents, siblings
and the family transacts with
external suprasystems such as the
neighborhood and the child welfare
agency.
Families are usually open systems
where boundaries are semipermeable to allow energy and
resources to be transferred
between them.
Entropy- when a system becomes
closed and then devolves by
becoming disorganized and
stagnant using up energy and can
lead to death.
Negative entropy- exchanges of
energy and resources between
systems that promote growth and
transformation.
Synergy- transactions within and
between human systems that lead
to enhanced creativity and
fulfillment.
Open systems are self-maintaining
and self- transforming- to survive
must protect self from excessive,
destructive disruptions.
To grow, a system must adapt in
response to environmental changes
and internal drives for creativity and
development.
Constant adaptation can bring back
balance and harmony to prevent a
problem.
did the disruption come from
(within a person in the system,
between several members of the
family, between the family or
members of the family and an
outside entity like work or school or
church or society).
In some ways the work of assessing
what led to child maltreating
behavior by the parent can
incorporate a systems analysis- did
the father lose his job and feel
shame and worry about caring for
his family as a result, then when
confronted with a screaming baby
at home, lashed out in anger when
he normally does not do that?
Is father not adapting well to the
situation? Is there a bad fit
between the father and the work
system or larger societal system? Is
the company downsizing to raise
profits for the shareholders and
sending jobs overseas thus
dislocating the father?
While the father may need to work
on stress management or anger
management within his system in
adapting to changes in the
environment to keep his child safe,
he may also need to work with an
advocate to help him get another
job or negotiate with the company
to compensate him fairly.
Systems approaches also know that
changing one part of the system can
have an impact on other parts of
the system. A way to leverage
change.
23
There is a general evolutionary trend
for dynamic systems to evolve
toward greater complexity,
comprehensiveness and awareness.
All systems develop through mutual
influence. Diversity of human beings,
life forms, and ecological niches is
natural; it contributes to the overall
health, creativity, and development
of dynamic systems.
Four functions of systems- input,
throughput, output and goal
direction.
Goal direction- setting priorities,
values and morals
Input (energy)- gaining resources
needed to accomplish the goals
Throughput- integration of energy
into the system in such a way that it
can be used to accomplish the
system goals.
Output- product that the system
exports to the environment
Feedback is information that a
suprasystem gives to the system
about the system’s output (tells
about the quality of the output)
and becomes part of the input
process is continual and cyclical.
Focus on issues of adaptation,
goodness of fit, sociocultural
dislocation. Support for adaptive
capacities of people, environments
and interactions.
Self-maintaining property of
dynamic systems is morphostasis
(form maintaining)
Self-transforming property is
termed morphogenesis (form
changing) both are complementary
within the constant change and
development of systems.
Together these properties keep
dynamic systems in a process of
constant flow and change that is
called homeokinesis (Anderson &
Carter, 1990). Continuity with
change.
This is where our role as a child
welfare system that interacts with
the family comes in.
We could have biases as a result of
living in this oppressive culture that
will make us unkind towards our
clients and prone to misunderstand
the dynamics and even do things to
add to their oppression.
Thus, we must be aligned with a
social justice orientation and
respect families as we interact with
them.
We need to put in checks and
balances to make sure we are not
prejudiced and acting in
discriminatory ways as we practice.
These respectful practices will be
manifest in our behaviors and
embedded in our person-centered
and strengths based orientation.
Dynamic systems theory
incorporates these realities into the
model and has practical ways child
welfare workers can interact with
families to enhance respect and
place levers of change strategically
so as to disrupt unhealthy power
dynamics, conflict, coercion and
special interests from further
hurting our families.
Focus is on creative change, winwin problem solving and linkage to
both formal and informal networks
Emphasizes importance of contextcultural and other aspects. Helps
practitioners understand the link
between internal family patterns
24
and environmental pressures such
as oppression or lack of resources.
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Family Systems Theories
Multigenerational Family Therapy
Bowen, 1966, 1976, Carter, 1997,
McGoldrick, et al 2011) He had an
evolutionary perspective and a
systems perspective.
Use of the genogram to understand
at least 3 generations of a family.
Problem is rooted in the system not
the individuals, but plays out in the
individual
Attribution for Causes of
Problems
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Problem
Stance on Problem Prevention
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
Family system or dyad is an
external, stable, uncontrollable
cause.
Lack of differentiation,
triangulation, lack of awareness,
sibling positions
Deindividuation of adults from their
parents, children from parents, etc.
Cannot join or effectively coach
family unless know own family
dynamics
Individual’s lack of differentiation
is an internal, stable,
uncontrollable cause.
Individuals who are not
differentiated (able to choose to be
guided by thoughts rather than
feelings). Undifferentiated people
have difficulty separating
themselves from others and tend to
fuse with dominant emotional
patterns in the family. Low degree
of autonomy, emotionally reactive
unable to take a clear position on
issues. They have a pseudo-self.
When fused with their family of
origin tend to marry people at
similar levels of differentiation to
fuse together.
Individual’s anxiety is an internal,
unstable, controllable cause.
When there is anxiety in one dyadmay bring in a third person to reduce
it- called triangulation. The third
person has major problems because
of unresolved conflict between
parents or dyad. This may be passed
on to next family due to
multigenerational transmission
process.
Prevent triangles from forming by
managing conflict appropriately
among adults, family members.
Work with parents first, then the
rest of the family members.
Lessen anxiety and relieve
symptoms and increase
differentiation. Open closed family
ties and to engage actively in a detriangulation process.
If just disengage or cut off that is
not a sign of differentiation.
Use of genograms, process
questions (so family can think about
roles they play in relating with
members of their family), tracking
sequences (reverse pursuerdistancer relationships,
triangulation), teaching and
coaching.
Sibling relationships can contribute
to problems in the family.
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Attribution for Causes of
Problems
Human Validation Process Model or
Satir Transformational Systemic
Therapy (Satir & Baldwin, 1983;
Banmen, 2008) Has some roots in
A primary cause of problems are
family rules that are too rigid,
controlling and absolute.
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Problem
Repetitive dysfunctional
communications (negative Velcro
loop).
Assess: Differentiation of the self
and emotional cutoff, triangulation,
nuclear family emotional system,
the family protection process, the
multigenerational transmission
process, sibling position and
societal regression.
Stance on Problem Prevention
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
Clear communication, awareness,
acceptance of difference, flexible
rules, change and growth and
coping prevents problems
Initially the worker makes contact
with each of the people in the
family physically, emotionally,
intellectually and spiritually. Starts
25
phenomenology as well as systems
theory
A dysfunctional family is
characterized by closed
communication, poor self-esteem,
rigid patterns. Resists awareness and
blunts responsiveness, little support
for individuality, relationships are
strained, members are incapable of
autonomy or genuine intimacy. Rules
mask fears over differences. Rules
are rigid, many and inappropriate.
Everyone expected to think, feel and
act in the same way. Parents attempt
to control the family by using fear,
punishment, guilt, or dominance.
External stress makes family
members resort to defensive
communication stances- placating
(diminish self), blaming (diminish
other to preserve the self), being
super reasonable (life is governed by
principle, isolated from others- self
and others are sacrificed for
principles) and being irrelevant
(busy, use of humor, do not take a
clear position so as not to offend
others). Batters use multiple styles
during the cycle (super reasonable to
control, blaming during explosion,
placating after abuse to give
remorse).
Cause of problems for children is
external, stable and
uncontrollable.
Cause of problem for parents may
be internal, unstable and
controllable.
Specific cause may be understood
through use of family mapping
(genograms) and family life-fact
chronologies. It emphasizes factors
such as making contact, metaphor,
reframing, emotional honesty,
creating new possibilities, drama,
humor, and personal touch in the
process. Liked to examine 3
generations of family. But tried to
bring that to the present
Lack of awareness of how the family
functions.
Lack of insight into family history
and how that is still impacting the
present family dynamics.
Not understanding the systemic
nature of the individual and family.
Further helped by enhancing
potentials for growth, especially
self-esteem and coping with
demands and processes of change.
1) Enhancement and validation of
self-esteem 2) family rules (broaden
rules that are too absolute) 3)
congruence versus defensive
communication patterns – healthy
communication patterns allow
individuals to have a separate life as
well as a shared life with family,
different relationships are allowed
and nurtured, change is expected
and invited, not viewed as a threat,
disagreement is viewed as an
opportunity for growth rather than
attack on family system, structure
of family system is flexible with
freedom and open communication,
all members have a voice and can
speak for themselves, individuals
feel support for taking risks and
venturing into the world.
Sculpting helps form nurturing
triads or dyads (roles are flexible
and open to change). Roles can be
added or discarded because not
tied to self esteem.
Family in status quo until there is a
stressor that leads to chaos.
.
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Attribution for Causes of
Problems
Structural Family Therapy and
Interactional patterns are external,
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Problem
Under-organized families have
Stance on Problem Prevention
Proper organization of the family
with a warm greeting and interest
that may include taking each
person’s hand, making eye contact,
and bringing one’s full attention to
each individual. Validation involves
processes of appreciating pain,
effort, courage or different points of
view, seeing and listening, interest
and fascination, warmth and caring.
It is collaborative and engaging.
Helps people feel welcome and
safe. Reflecting feelings, clarifying
and translating.
Facilitates awareness uses family
maps to contextualize family
experience and family learning,
weaving understanding of family
history in new awareness and
current family functioning,
educating about family process,
identifying dysfunctional processes,
sculpting physical stances and
interactions of family members.
Prompts acceptance normalizes
feelings, situations and interactions
in families, personalizing and
helping people state and own their
feelings in family process,
contracting to see if people ready
for change, bridging, reframing with
a focus on good intentions, hopes,
desires and wishes. Makes changes
interrupting dysfunctional
processes, challenging people to
change, modeling open
communication, breaking rules of
silence that constrain family
interactions activating dialogue and
reinforces changes anchoring
significant changes in perceptions,
feelings, beliefs or behaviors by
calling attention to felt experience.
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
Assess the nature of the family, the
26
Ecostructural model (Minuchin,
1974, Aponte, 1994)
unstable and semi-controllable by
the individual.
Focuses on interactional patterns in
the family that gives information
about the structure of the family and
problems.
Views the individual as part of the
family context. Changing the
structure of the family can lead to
health.
patterns and sequences that
describe their processes with each
other, but they are harder to
diagnose and often appear chaotic.
They lack consistency needed for
dependability, coherency for
internal compatability and flexible
structure for coping.
structure prevents problems from
arising.
presenting problem, and the
process of change. Have to
understand the family structure.
Family structure is the invisible set
of functional demands or rules that
organize the way family members
relate to one another- watch the
family interact- who says what to
whom to what result?
Same patterns maintain
problematic issues in the family
Family subsystems- various roles
such as spouse, parent, child,
sibling. If members of subsystems
join together to perform essential
tasks that are essential for the
functioning of the subsystem that is
good. If one subsystem intrudes on
another that is a problem.
Ecostructural model is designed to
challenge oppression based on race,
culture and poverty.
Repeated sequences that emerge
reveal rigid structural patterns of the
family. Three ways families organize
themselves- alignment, force or
power, boundaries.
Boundaries- need emotional
barriers to protect and enhance the
integrity of individuals, subsystems
and families. Governs amount of
contact. Rigid- disengagement to
diffuse- enmeshment (no
boundaries, too much support or
accommodation).
Alignment is the joining or opposition
of one family member to another as
the family carries out an operation.
Force defines the relative influence
of each member on the outcome of
an activity
Important for community agencies
to be careful about boundaries so
as not to make situation worse. To
be coordinated and aligned with
family unit. Focus on conflict and
interactional patterns.
Boundary tells who is included and
excluded from the activity and what
each person’s role is in the
operation.
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Attribution for Causes of
Problems
Strategic Family Therapy (Bateson,
1960s, Haley, 1973 at the Mental
Research Institute in CA) This is
where Brief Family Therapy was
born (Watzlawick, 1978, Segal,
The use of ineffective solutions is a
cause that is internal, unstable and
controllable
Stance on Processes that Reinforce
the Problem or Maintain the
Problem
Repeated use of ineffective
solutions
Stance on Problem Prevention
Stance on Practice to Ameliorate
the Problem
Use of effective solutions
Joining- help clients feel
comfortable and form a
partnership.
Reframing- problematic behavior
27
1991)
Blends general systems theory and
metaphor.
Problems in families are simply
solutions that are ineffective, given
the circumstances. The client needs
to act but fails to. The client needs to
stop acting, but does not, or the
client tries to solve a problem at a
level that is ineffectiveness.
Paradox- want change but
demanding everything stays the
same. Need to use counter paradox,
reframing, positive connotations to
problems and circular questioning.
Double binds
patterns that have become
entrenched and rigid, reframing
provides a means of reinterpreting
the behavior and its context. Assign
positive connotations to problems
and family interactions.
Directives- used to create
experiments with new behaviors or
processes to undermine or reverse
dysfunctional patterns or
sequences.
If the worker lacks power can give
indirect directives such as
restraining people from changing,
advising them to remain the same,
imposing a paradox, metaphoric
communication, absurd tasks or
doing nothing and becoming a
frustration.
Paradoxical interventions- to
interrupt positive feedback loops
that maintain or escalate problems.
A final set of theories are explored here to address the system that supports a child welfare casework practice model. Systems theory and Organizational Culture and Climate
Theories have been applied in recent practice models. Other child welfare organizations implementing a casework practice model have found the theories of the Learning
Organization (Senge, 2008) and Parallel Process to be useful as well as ensuring that all organizations that work with traumatized individuals become trauma informed.
Theories describe the distribution of power and resources in organizations, how organizations function, how people interact in organizations and how organization systems
maintain themselves.
28
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
Organizational Culture and Climate
Theory
Parallel Process
Has ties to Psychodynamic Theory
and Social Learning Theory and
Systems Theory as well.
Key Points
Problems or criticisms
How top administration treats
middle management (including
front line supervisors) in terms of
policies, procedures,
organizational culture and climate,
etc. affects those middle
managers. Healthy treatment and
culture leads to positive manager
behavior towards workers.
Unhealthy treatment and culture
leads to negative manager
behavior towards workers.
Inferred from research on
organizational culture and climateneeds more research to uncover the
various mechanisms and when
certain mechanisms are likely to
drive outcomes.
Organization Practices that are
derived from the theory
Ensuring alignment between
organizational practices and
orientation and practice with clients
(for example= if the agency wants
to prevent re-traumatization of
clients, then organization needs to
be trauma informed).
Serves as a foundation for
supporting a practice model
through organizational policy,
procedures, tools, training,
supervision/coaching, CQI process
as well as organizational culture and
climate.
How a worker is treated by his or
her supervisor affects how they in
turn treat families. Healthy
treatment and culture leads to
positive worker behavior towards
families. Unhealthy treatment and
culture leads to negative worker
behavior towards families.
One mechanism of this transfer is
modeling (social learning theory).
Another mechanism of this
transfer is transference or
displacement (Psychodynamic
Theory)
Organizational Culture and Climate
Theory
Trauma Informed organizations and
systems (could be considered a part
of the Systems of Care Approach)
A third mechanism of this transfer
is the effect of the stressful
environment on cognition and
affect which lead to negative
behavior unless there is a
mediator of social support.
A system is trauma informed when
it understands the impact of
traumatic stress on the children
and families it serves and
understands how the system can
mitigate the impact of trauma or
prevent re-traumatization
Still working on building an
evidence base of what a trauma
informed organization looks like,
acts like- what policies should be in
place, procedures, practices, etc.
According to NCTSN (Wilson,
2008)- essential elements of a
trauma informed child welfare
agency include:
1, Maximize the child’s sense of
safety.
2. Assist children in reducing
Implications for Child Welfare and
Practice Model Implementation
If we want to be strengths based,
solution focused and humanistic in
our orientation and approach
towards clients, then management
must use that same lens when
thinking about the workforce.
If we want to understand families in
context of stress and trauma- then
we must understand workforce
behavior in that same context of
stress and secondary trauma.
If we want to understand the
underlying cause of maltreatment
and intervene with families using
cognitive-behavioral approaches
that help prevent future
maltreatment and ensure future
safety of children- then we must
understand worker behavior using
root cause analysis and other tools
that help to identify community
level, organizational level, team
level, supervisor level and individual
level contributors to the breakdown
and intervene accordingly.
Gives an overarching approach of
the organization to commit to a
practice model. Belief that how the
organization functions can affect
practice and outcomes. Elevates the
role of the supervisor in practice.
Commitment to change org culture
and climate, policies, procedures,
training, technical assistance,
supervision, CQI and tools to align
with practice model.
Administration needs to change
policies, procedures, practices that
could further traumatize parents
and children who come into contact
with our system.
Administration needs to pay close
attention to the workforce-
29
It also understands secondary
trauma and its impact on the
workforce and resource families
that work with families and
children as well as on the system
itself (how trauma affects the child
welfare system)
The system becomes trauma
informed when it can make use of
the information about the trauma
adults, children and staff
experience, the impact of that
trauma on thoughts, feelings and
behaviors as well as the lens and
culture of families and the system
so as to improve services and
prevent re-traumatization.
Maximize the child’s sense of
safety.
2. Assist children in reducing
overwhelming emotion.
3. Help children make new
meaning of their trauma history
and current experiences.
4. Address the impact of trauma
and subsequent changes in
the child’s behavior, development,
and relationships.
5. Coordinate services with other
agencies.
overwhelming emotion.
3. Help children make new meaning
of their trauma history and current
experiences.
4. Address the impact of trauma
and subsequent changes in the
child’s behavior, development, and
relationships.
5. Coordinate services with other
agencies.
6. Utilize comprehensive
assessment of the child’s trauma
experiences and their impact on
the child’s development and
behavior to guide services.
7. Support and promote positive
and stable relationships in the
life of the child.
8. Provide support and guidance to
child’s family and caregivers.
9. Manage professional and
personal stress.
Make sure clients have access to
trauma informed EBPs
Building a strong therapeutic
relationship
Psychoeducation about normal
responses to trauma
Parent support, conjoint therapy, or
parent training
traumatic lens, culture, secondary
traumatic stress, burnout, vicarious
trauma- have mechanisms in place
to prevent these problems,
minimize their impact on the
workforce and clients, ways to
support those suffering these
effects and ways to re-integrate
back into the organization
Supervisors need certain skills and
need to be rewarded for supervising
with support, care of the staff to
prevent and treat STS, burnout and
vicarious trauma.
Workers need space to talk about
traumatic events they experience
(Resilience Alliance), watch out for
one another, learn social support
strategies and have places to seek
help if necessary to prevent or treat
STS, burnout and vicarious trauma.
The system needs to utilize tools,
training, coaching and supervision
and include in CQI processes and
annual evaluations to reinforce
positive behavior towards staff and
towards families to mitigate effects
of stress on workforce and families.
Recognize that exposure to trauma
is the rule, not the exception,
among children in the child welfare
system.
Emotional expression and
regulation skills
Anxiety management and relaxation
skills
Cognitive processing or reframing
Construction of a coherent trauma
narrative
Recognize the signs and symptoms
of child traumatic stress and how
they vary in different age groups.
Recognize that children’s “bad”
behavior is sometimes an
adaptation to trauma.
Recognize impact of trauma on
development
Understand the cumulative effect
30
Strategies that allow exposure to
traumatic memories and feelings in
tolerable doses so that they can be
mastered and integrated into
the child’s experience
Personal safety training and other
important empowerment activities
Resilience and closure
Organizational Culture and Climate
and Open Systems Theory both
undergird Organizational Learning
and
The Learning Organization (Argyris,
Senge, 2008)- Where the
organization and its employees can
learn to learn.
Characteristics of the Learning
OrganizationAdaptation must happen so
quickly that traditional, planned
development is not fast enough
The entire organization must
contribute to developing new
products, structures and processes
Complicated concepts and tools
People have to be able to handle
ambiguity
of trauma.
Gather and document psychosocial
information regarding all traumas in
the child’s life to make betterinformed decisions.
Assist parents and caregivers
who have secondary adversities and
traumatic experiences of their own.
Make a special effort to integrate
cultural practices and culturally
responsive mental health services.
Identify and build on foster parent
and caregiver protective factors.
Recognize that child welfare
system interventions have the
potential to either exacerbate or
decrease the impact of previous
traumas.
Lessen the risk of system-induced
secondary trauma by serving as a
protective and stress-reducing
buffer for children:
Develop trust with children
through listening, frequent
contacts, and
honesty in order to mitigate
previous traumatic stress.
Avoid repeated interviews,
especially about experiences of
sexual abuse.
Avoid making professional
promises that, if unfulfilled, are
likely to
increase traumatization
Managers must give employees
room to think, learn, have the
opportunity to develop as a result
of being exposed to learning
innovations. There needs to be
creative tension between the vision
for the future and the current
situation.
When a child welfare agency
becomes a learning organization,
there is a shift in the hierarchy and
attitudes of leadership throughout
the organization (for example,
central office staff focus on
facilitating learning, problem
solving, and serving the field).
Managers have role of designer,
Management by data, robust CQI
31
The org must be structured and
managed in a way that allows the
employees to constantly form new
ideas based on surroundings,
which are collected, tested and
implemented
teacher and servants.
The organization sets up systems
which secure the assessment of
the sustainability of the
assumption that controls the
organization- single loop learning
Where the org learns from
consequences of previous actions
and ensures that the same
mistakes are not made again (like
a thermostat). Double loop
learning- the system is intelligent
and considers what works and
what does not work. All parts of
the organization think
independently based on the
assumption that all employees are
different and have different
interpretations of a given
situation. These different
interpretations can all help the
organization move in a new
direction
Theory or Model (also speaks to
underlying philosophy and values)
FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE AND
STRUCTURE
Classical Organizational Theoryorganizations exist to accomplish
production-related and economic
goals. There is one best way to
processes and use of environmental
scanning tools can facilitate
understanding of how the
environment affects the
organization and can serve as a
platform for creative solutions
through cross functional learning
teams.
The learning organization is open to
change and facilitates change. This
is a perfect setting for the
installation of a practice model
because resistance will be lower
and teams will be ready to develop
and adopt new products, structures
and processes.
The Learning Organization is one
with a healthy organizational
culture and climate of openness,
flexibility, teamwork, creativity and
learning. It is a healthy
environment to install a practice
model that is strengths based,
solution focused, client/family
centered, culturally competent,
humanistic, developmentally aware
and clear about the antecedents to
maltreatment so that unhealthy
family cycles can be interrupted,
maltreatment prevented and safety,
permanency and well-being
obtained.
Key Points
Problems or criticisms
Organization Practices that are
derived from the theory
Implications for Child Welfare and
Practice Model Implementation
Maximize productivity through
specialization, division of labor,
use of authority
Too narrowly focused on
production- fueled industrial
revolution but undermined
craftsmanship
Theory X- humans inherently dislike
work and will avoid it if possible so
need control, discipline and
sanctions are needed to force
Can be a problem for workforce
morale and professionalism and
actually create passivity, learned
helplessness and poor performance.
32
organize for production through
systematic, scientific inquiry.
Focus on two perspectives-
Use of job analysis, personnel
selection, management
cooperation, functional
supervision
Scientific Management- focusing on
the management of work and
workers with an emphasis on
efficiency and speed (Taylor).
Role of managers is to plan,
organize, command, coordinate,
control (Fayol) and also staff,
report and budget (Gulick)
Administrative Managementaddressing issues concerning how
overall organization should be
structured (Fayol, Gulick, Webe)
Bureaucracy (Weber)- control with
heavy use of power, authorityespecially rational legal authority
in child welfare- based on a code
or set of rules and law with a
system of abstract rules which are
applied to particular cases, and
administration looks after the
interests of the organization within
the limits of that law. A series of
authorized jobs maintained by
regulations
There is a best structure for any
organization given the objectives,
environmental conditions
surrounding nature of products
and services and technology of the
production process.
Modern Structural Organization
Theory- organizations are rational
institutions whose primary purpose
is to accomplish established
objectives; rational organizational
behavior is achieved best through
systems of defined rules and formal
authority. Control and coordination
are key (Blau).
Neoclassical Organizational Theoryfocused more on the coordination
among units within an organization
and the operation of internalexternal organizational relations
(Bernard, Merton, Simon, Parsons)
FOCUS ON MOTIVATION
people to do their work (McGregor)
Little empirical support
Employees have minimal power
over their jobs and working
conditions.
Subordination, passivity and
dependence are expected- work to
a short term perspective
Employees are lea to mediocrity
Undermines positive organizational
culture and climate, positive
practice and outcomes (Glisson, et
al 2006)
Working conditions produce to
psychological failure as a result of
the belief that they are lower class
employees performing menial tasks
Same problems as those with
classical organizational theory= too
mechanistic, goal oriented, rational.
Specialization and division of labor
increases quality and quantity of
production particularly in highly
skilled operations and professions
Focus on improving processes,
communication among units
within an organization and across
interdependent organizations. Also
focuses on how to best make
decisions.
Theory Y- People do not inherently
dislike work because work can be a
source of satisfaction so
management can take action so
that employees will become
motivated to do their work.
Workers are regarded as goaloriented and as having potential to
further develop their talents and
skills (McGregor)
Focus on process- reinforces
bureaucracy.
Organizational Structure (such as
simple structure, hierarchical org,
functional org, product org, matrix
org)
Theory of Administrative Behavior
(Simon)
Team Organization
Team based organizations
Can be a problem for workforce
morale and professionalism and
actually create passivity, learned
helplessness and poor performance.
Focus on policy, procedure,
practice- completing forms,
following protocols
Can be a problem for workforce
morale and professionalism and
actually create passivity, learned
helplessness and poor performance.
Undermines positive organizational
culture and climate, positive
practice and outcomes (Glisson, et
al 2006)
Undermines positive organizational
culture and climate, positive
practice and outcomes (Glisson, et
al xxx)
33
Human Relations/Resource TheoryOrganizations exist to meet human
needs. Organizations and people
need each other (organizations need
ideas, energy, talent while people
need careers, salaries and work
opportunities). When fit poor- both
will suffer (individuals exploited or
will exploit org). Meeting employee
needs will be good for organization
and vice versa (Maslow, McCelland)
Outgrowth of a study that
discovered the Hawthorne Effectpeople change when being
observed (Mayo).
Perhaps too much emphasis on
consideration for the employee
Oversimplifies human motivation
and needs
Organizations have unique
cultures influenced by values of
participants.
People form groups so there are
informal leaders who influence
behavior of co-workers and people
work better in teams
Managers should use these
informal groups to influence and
motivate workers
Power and Politics Organizational
Theory- organizations are complex
systems of individuals and coalitions
fighting for scarce resources (Kantor,
Kotter, French and Raven)
Workers need control over their
work and should be given rewards
for performance
Influence is the primary weapon
for use in competition and
conflicts
Raises awareness of competition
but doesn’t focus on solving them.
Goals are not so much set by
people in positions of formal
authority, but result from ongoing
maneuvering and bargaining
among individuals and coalitions.
Coalitions are transitory- they shift
with issues and often cross vertical
and horizontal organizational
boundaries.
FOCUS ON ADJUSTMENT TO
EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
Theories of Organizational Culture
and Change- organizational culture is
comprised of many intangible
phenomena such as values, beliefs,
assumptions, perceptions, behavioral
norms, artifacts and patterns of
behavior (Berger, Deming, Schein,
Peters, Senge, Cooperrider &
Whitney)
Many organizational behaviors and
decisions are not determined by
rational analysis but are
predetermined by patterns of
basic assumptions held by
members of an organization.
Basic assumptions are the culture’s
underlying level of convictions,
Difficult to measure and change
Also Theory X and Theory Y
Contingency Theory- employees are
motivated by different things, but
need to achieve a sense of
competency. The manager must
provide appropriate incentives to
motivate individual employees
Participatory Management- staff
involvement in organizational
decision making increases job
satisfaction and productivity and
decreases staff turnover.
Expectancy Theory (Vroom)
Self-Efficacy (Bandura)
Herzberg’s 2 Factor Hygiene and
Motivation Theory and Hackman
and Oldham’s Job Characteristic
Model extension
Reward/Reinforcement Theory
(Skinner)
Organizational Justice (
Empowerment Model- need to find
ways to empower workforce and
clients through participatory
management, use of a feminist
approach (to minimize the social
distance between administrators,
staff and clients- all should be
partners in decision making and
reduction of the results of powerdependency theory- should
incorporate principle of reciprocity
so that service users contribute
something back to the organization-
Workforce is very important in child
welfare and should be attended to
extensively in order for a practice
model to work because the work
happens through workers- key to
reaching outcomes.
External adaptation includes vision,
mission, objectives and strategy
Internal Integration process when
common language is defined,
reward systems are set up and
status relations are clarified.
But if the organizational culture is
more fragmented, then there will
be lots of cultures within the large
Importance of culture and climate
in affecting the workforce, in
guiding the change process
(installation of a practice model
involves organizational change) and
in supporting a new practice model
Interface between Human Relations
and Organizational Culture and
Climate- the role of power and
politics in affecting productivity,
worker satisfaction and client
outcomes
Organizational culture and climate
need to align with the practice
34
“Culture is that pattern of basic
assumptions that a given group has
created, found or developed during a
learning process owing to problems
with external adaptation and internal
integration” (Schein)
Also part of open systems thinking
shared by the members of the
organizations. The basic
assumptions define the
organization’s self-image and its
view on its surroundings. The
assumptions are taken for granted
and are described as the truth,
which makes them difficult to
change.
Values are opinions and norms
which define what the
organization presumes is
important. Values are the basis for
assessing what is right and wrong.
The individual is more conscious of
its values than of its basic
assumptions.
Artifacts are the visible and
tangible symbols for the values in
the basic assumptions and are
evidence of the cultural core of the
organization (e.g. a large office
with big desk for top manager
which is a symbol of power
distance)
Gives clues to organizational
change
Can be essential to attain a
competitive advantage in a rapidly
changing environment.
Theory of Open Systems (vs Closed
Systems)- focus on the external
dynamics of organizational
competition, interaction and
interdependency- organizational
success is interdependent on the
wider environment (March, Argyris,
Senge, Katz & Kahn, Weiner, Pfeffer
& Salancik, Mintzberg)
Embedded in General Systems
Since a systems theory- the focus
is on the complex set of
dynamically intertwined and
interconnected elements including
loops and the environment in
which it operates and with which it
continually interacts.
A change in any element of the
system causes changes in other
elements. Orgs much adjust to
Encourages an external locus of
control
Have to develop more mechanisms
for reading the environment and
adapting
organization and identify will be
more important
Total Quality Management (TQM)Management produces an
organizational culture based on
product quality, consumer
satisfaction, standardization of
production and employee
empowerment
Theory Z- focuses on quality of
production, collective accountability
and loyalty. Decisions are made by
consensus (Japan)
Re-engineering- seek to increase
productivity, flexibility,
responsiveness, and customer
service by reshaping organizational
cultures.
Empower employees and work
teams with autonomy and
discretion to make decisions
Reduction or elimination of
hierarchy
Accountability to clients rather than
bosses
Emphasis on use of data to
coordinate and correct actions
Parallel Process (See above)
Appreciative Inquiry
Learning Organization (See above)
Implementation Science is a
mechanism for creating change and
imbedding a new practice in an
agency
model and need to be healthy
Learning Organization (See above)
Given the reducing resources in the
environment (anti-government
sentiment) child welfare agencies
will have to increasingly rely on
community partnerships and
privatization of services for
resource expansion and solving
problems of families.
Organizational Model with Loose
Couplings (Weick)
PERT (Performance Evaluation and
Review Technique)
CPM (Critical Path Method)
See Parallel Process Above
See Trauma Informed Care Above
See Implementation Science Above
35
Theory (Bertalanffy)
FOCUS ON MANAGEMENT
Quinn’s Competing Values
FrameworkAll of the dominant organizational
theories of the 20th Century focus on
different important aspects of
organizational life and health.
Productivity, smooth processes,
attention to human relations and
building a strong workforce in a
healthy culture as well as giving
attention to the larger environment
and being able to change and adjust
quickly as necessary to survive are all
important.
change in env. to survive
Each organizational theory and
management approach focuses on
different values which compete.
Thus, a good leader/manager has
developed skills in each area and
must learn how to balance these
competing values in running the
organization and interacting with
employees.
Complex with a focus on how to
lead or manage using the best of
each organizational theory to date
(not really a theory)
Focused on
leadership/management using all
previous organizational theories
and tools in order to optimally run
an organization
Related to Quinn is the large
literature on leadership,
management and particularly
leading change
Importance of both leadership and
management (Kouzes & Posner)
Continuum of Leadership
(Tannenbaum & Schmidt) and
Situational Leadership )Hersey &
Blanchard)
Transformational, Servant and
Values Based Leadership
Leading Change (Kotter)
Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperider)
Leadership is critical to the success
of any child welfare agency and
adoption and implementation of a
practice model
36