title: The influence of differential response and other factors on parent perceptions of child protection involvement.
abstract: As Child Protective Services (CPS) agencies examine how to produce better outcomes with the families they serve, child welfare literature has increasingly focused on the perspectives, emotional responses, and engagement of CPS-involved parents or other primary caregivers. Despite this encouraging trend, the construct of engagement is ill-defined and our understanding of precursors to and factors affecting parent engagement is limited. This article extends the literature by presenting a conceptual framework for examining engagement and associating the identified constructs with parent outcomes. Using data from a survey of parents who were randomly assigned to receive either an assessment response (AR) or investigation response (IR) in two states' Differential Response CPS systems, a factor analysis on 12 commonly assessed emotional responses reported by parents indicated that parents responded with three primary emotions: positive affect, worry, or anger and that these responses varied by their receipt of AR or IR. Further, the results of multivariate analyses indicate that pathway assignment (AR or IR), parents' assessments of the quality of the casework they received, and other parent or household factors contribute to differences observed on the three emotional response factors identified.
authors.affiliation: Kempe Center, University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Merkel-Holguin
authors.affiliation: Kempe Center, University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, USA.
authors.forename: Dana M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Hollinshead
authors.affiliation: Kempe Center, University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, USA.
authors.forename: Amy E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Hahn
authors.affiliation: Kempe Center, University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, USA.
authors.forename: Katherine L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Casillas
authors.affiliation: Kempe Center, University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, USA.
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Fluke
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003120:Colorado; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois; D009820:Ohio; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010465:Perception; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012947:Social Work / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alternative response; Caregiver and household characteristics; Child protective services; Child welfare; Differential response; Engagement; Parent perspectives