Naslov
Does social workers’ personal experience with violence in the family relate to their professional responses, and how?

Autori
Pećnik, Ninoslava ; Bezenšek-Lalić, Olga

Izvornik
European Journal of Social Work (1369-1457) 14 (2011), 4; 525-544

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
personal history of violence; professional judgements; child protection; social work; Slovenia

Sažetak
Previous research has indicated that a significant proportion of social workers have experienced violence in the family in their private lives. The aim of this study was to examine if and how social workers’ personal experience with domestic violence affects their professional responses to children's exposure to domestic violence and physical abuse. The study participants were 106 social workers from 61 centres for social welfare in Slovenia. The participants were presented with 4 case vignettes depicting situations of physical child abuse and of children witnessing abuse of their mothers. They then completed a series of rating scales concerning their assessment of the case and the appropriateness of subsequent interventions. These findings were correlated with their self-reported frequencies of receiving corporal punishment, witnessing father's violence against mother, and experiencing violence from an intimate partner in the ir private lives. The results suggest that the social workers’ history of victimisation may affect some of their professional responses in a complicated way. While corporal punishment in social workers’ childhoods was linked to favouring children's protection, social workers’ histories of intimate partner violence were associated with perceiving lower risks to children exposed to domestic violence and physical child abuse. Social workers who had personally experienced violence from their parents and intimate partners were most reluctant to suggest shelter for battered women and children, parent counselling, or notification to the police.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Psihologija, Socijalne djelatnosti

POVEZANOST RADA