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Objectives Child protection referrals that contain information about incidents of physical child abuse, sexual abuse, and domestic violence have a high chance of being screened in for investigation. The aim of the current study is to investigate which case factors that affect the decision to screen-in cases with other types of concerns. Method A sample of referrals (N = 1365) to child protection services in Norway was randomly drawn. Information was collected regarding (i) child and family characteristics, (ii) the content of the referral (iii) the decision to investigate. A structural equation model that describe how case characteristics and the contents of the report influence the screening decision was estimated. Results Non abuse-concerns were grouped in three latent variables. The first consisted of referrals that contained concerns about a wide range of problems related to the child’s health and development. The second consisted of referrals that contained concerns about parental conflicts and child safety. The third consisted of concerns related to different types of family and environmental risk factors. Families with immigrant background have an increased chance of being screened-in, irrespective of referral content. Cases with previous referrals have a decreased chance of being screened-in. Conclusions When controlling for other case factors, more complex referrals with multiple concerns have increased chance of being screened in.

Internationally there has been a movement to reform investigative work in child welfare and protection systems. These reforms have aimed to introduce national frameworks that systematize the way assessments are carried out. Several reports have identified shortcomings in the way that child protection investigations are carried out in Norway. Consequently, there is a need for improvement. However, an attempt to change practice within an organization has little hope of succeeding unless the organization implementing the new practice accepts that a change in practice is needed. The aim of this study was to examine child protection agency managers’ views on the advantages and disadvantages related to implementation of an assessment framework in Norway. Electronic survey questionnaires were distributed to the managers of all Norwegian child protection services. The response rate was 68% (N = 217). The majority agreed that the use of an assessment framework is helpful in child welfare and protection services investigations in general, and helpful in terms of facilitating child and family participation. This study indicates that some prerequisites would need to be present for successful implementation of an assessment framework: training, supervision and ongoing support, and sufficient resources.

Source at https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0020872819828333. The primary aim of this study is to summarise research findings about the use of assessment frameworks, that is, structured models that guide information collection and decision making in child protection services, by reviewing the literature. The research review method consisted of identification, selection, coding, categorisation and summary of publications on child protection investigative work. The results indicated that there is some documentation showing that the use of frameworks leads to more information being gathered, a greater focus on the needs of the child and increased involvement of the child during the investigation. One side effect is that the investigative work becomes more extensive and time-consuming.

This is the published version of the following article: Fossum, S., Vis, S.A. & Holtan, A. (2018). Do frequency of visits with birth parents impact children’s mental health and parental stress in stable foster care settings. Cogent Psychology, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2018.1429350. Source at https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2018.1429350. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. This article explores whether the number of visits by birth parents influence perceptions of attachment, children’s competence and mental health, and stress levels in foster parents. Foster parents acted as informants regarding 203 children living in kinship and non-kinship foster care. The children were young when placed in foster care, on average 2.3 years old (SD = 1.0) and had been living in the foster home for sometime at assessment, 5.4 years (SD = 3.0). Information were collected using validated instruments. The results showed that 47% of the children had monthly or more frequent visits with their mothers, whereas 21% of the fathers had visits this often. Visitations with birth parents did not significantly influence who was the main attachment figure or foster parental attachment relationships, the children’s psychosocial functioning or competence, or stress levels among the foster parents. These findings could indicate that social workers should emphasize the quality and short- and long-term consequences of visits for children when making decisions regarding the frequency of visits with birth parents. This could be done taking the child’s reactions and wishes into account, when evaluating the visit and the frequency of future visits. It is important that decisions concerning visits should be continuously revised in both the short- and the long term, since both wishes and practical aspects may change for all parties involved.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Nordic Social Work Research on 14 May 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/2156857X.2017.1326977. There are several studies conducted on parenting stress, and the conclusion in the parenting stress research literature is generally that parenting stress decreases the quality of the parent-child relationship. There are however few studies on parenting stress comparing kinship homes to ordinary types of foster homes. The aims of this study were to measure parenting stress in kinship and non-kinship foster homes and to explore factors that predict parenting stress related to the child and to their role as foster parents. Results show that kinship-foster parents experienced higher stress related to the parent domain i.e. depression and relationship problems with the spouse. This was associated with kinship foster parents being of older age and receiving fewer social support services. Non-kinship foster parents experienced higher parenting stress related to the child domain i.e. child’s acceptability and adaptability in the family. This was associated with children in non-kinship foster homes having higher internalising and externalising mental health problems. The implications are that different types of support are needed for kinship foster parents and non-kinship foster parents. More differentiated support for foster parents may help prevent parenting problems and increase placement permanency.

Accepted manuscript version. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10826-015-0221-8. The present meta-analytic review explored long-term treatment effects in children and adolescents, age ranging from 2 to 17 years, treated because of conduct problems. The presumed mediators were examined. Various treatments, in all 56 studies including 2589 participants, were included. 32 studies involved an untreated control condition, whereas 24 studies did not. The overall weighted effect size (ES) in conduct problems after termination of treatment was a reduction of ES = 0.08 for a mean follow-up period of 8.9 months. Long-term changes on the presumed mediator showed a small deterioration of ES = -0.06. The moderator analysis confirmed that treatment effects in conduct problems and mediators were related. Changes in conduct problems from post-treatment to follow-up were larger in studies with cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) or a combination of behavior therapy (BT) and CBT compared to BT and family therapy. Individual treatments resulted in larger changes in aggressive behaviour as compared to group treatments or a combination of these. Treatment effects for both conduct problems and the presumed mediators seem to last, but changes were small. Few studies included teenagers and knowledge of lasting treatment effects is limited for older children including CBT treatments. More knowledge of the mediators involved in treatment is needed, in particular for cognitive and family therapeutic interventions.

This article is part of Svein Arild Vis' phd dissertation, which is available in Munin at http://hdl.handle.net/10037/7042 Purpose: Following the UN convention on the rights of children, a shift in policy towards greater emphasis on child participation in child protection case processing has occurred. A growing body of research has emerged concerning participation processes in child protection cases and the experiences of children in child protection cases. Very few studies have looked into if and when children get what they want, however. The aim of this study is to assess children's views about living arrangements and visitations in dependency court hearings and to compare these views with the rulings of courts. Method: The study uses a retrospective cohort design. Cases where child welfare board rulings are in line with the wishes of children are compared to cases where rulings differ from the wishes of children. Data were collected from regional social welfare board archives. The study included 151 cases that were randomly drawn from a total population of 2481 cases. Simple and multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with the rulings being in accord with the child's wishes in each sample case. Results: A child advocate was appointed in almost 95% of the cases (n = 142). Fifty-nine percent of the children did not want a change in care. Rulings about care were in line with the wishes of the child in 39% of the cases. Rulings about care were most likely to be what the child wanted, if the child was presently living in public care and did not want to move. Children wanted more visitations with their mothers in 60.5% of the cases and with their fathers in 39.8% of the cases. Whether children wanted more visitations with their mothers was asso- ciated with more visitations being granted. What a child wanted was not associated with the ruling on visitations with the child's father. Conclusion: The impact of children's views on visitations on dependency court rulings depends on what a child wants and how these desires coincide with what is proposed by child protection services. Children's views can be quite effective in blocking certain decisions but are less effective if the child requested a specific change. If a child does not want to stay with his or her birth parents, then the odds that the birth parents will be granted custody is minimal.

This article is part of Svein Arild Vis' phd dissertation, which is available in Munin at http://hdl.handle.net/10037/7042 Although some attempts are being made to increase children's participation in Norwegian child protection cases, much needs to be done in order to comply with the participation principle in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This paper reports on a study of factors that are likely to predict if social workers will attempt to give children an effective voice in decision making processes. 53 child protection case managers and 33 social work students participated in a questionnaire survey in which they were asked to agree or disagree with 20 statements about child participation. Statistical factor analysis was used in order to identify underlying factors in the dataset. The results suggest three main reasons for children not being allowed to participate: communication difficulties (communication factor); because child participation was not deemed necessary (participation advocacy factor); or that participation was considered inappropriate because it might be harmful (protectionism factor). This research suggests that, if we are to improve participation within the child protection system, formal regulations and guidelines need to be accompanied by a greater attention to development of social work skills in working with children through participatory processes