Research examining child welfare services (CWS) decisions finds that child, family, and case characteristics influence the interventions children receive from CWC. This study aimed to explore the child, family, and case characteristics' role in social workers' decisions regarding placement of children exposed to physical abuse by a parent. Data was extracted from 150 randomly selected child welfare investigations conducted during 2018-2020 in seven CWS offices from five Swedish municipalities. A logistic regression model was created to investigate associations between child, family, and case characteristics and social workers' decisions regarding placement in out-of-home care (OHC). The study found that the odds of being placed in OHC was higher for children exposed to severe physical abuse compared to those exposed to less serious physical abuse. Furthermore, an important finding in this study was that children between the ages of 13 and 17 had higher odds of being placed in OHC compared to younger children. The study highlights the need for further research into how children subjected to parental physical abuse may be over- or under-represented in CWS based on their age, as this could reveal inequalities in their access to services. 

Abstract in Swedish:

Forskning som studerar den sociala barnavårdens beslut visar att egenskaper hos barnet, familjen och fallet påverkar vilken typ av insatser barn får från socialtjänsten. Denna studie syftade till att undersöka vilken roll som egenskaper hos barnet, familjen och fallet spelar vid socialsekreterares beslut om placering av barn som utsätts för fysiskt våld av sin förälder.

Data extraherades från 150 slumpmässigt utvalda barnavårdsutredningar som genomfördes under åren 2018–2020 på sju socialkontor i fem svenska kommuner. En logistisk regressionsmodell skapades för att undersöka samband mellan egenskaper hos barnet, familjen och fallet och socialsekreterares beslut om placering av barn i vård utanför hemmet.

Ett viktigt fynd i denna studie är att barn mellan 13 och 17 år har större chans att placeras utanför hemmet jämfört med yngre barn. Dessutom fann studien att fall där barn hade utsatts för allvarliga fysiska övergrepp öka oddsen att bli placerade jämfört med de som utsatts för mindre allvarligt fysiskt våld. Studien belyser behovet av ytterligare forskning om hur barn som utsätts för fysiskt våld från föräldrar kan vara över- eller underrepresenterade inom socialtjänstens beslut om insatser baserat på deras ålder, eftersom detta kan avslöja ojämlika skillnader i tillgång insatser från socialtjänsten.

Welcome to the first issue of Nordic Social Work Research for 2025! Historically, children’s services have been a cornerstone of social work practice. Social work itself originated in part due to the unmet needs of vulnerable children. As such, we begin the year with a publication that highlights various aspects of child welfare services, a field that is becoming increasingly dynamic and complex, involving a wide range of actors and settings. The issue brings forward the voices of children, parents, and social workers, whose experiences and reflections are telling of new socio-economic and historical realities that are challenging both child welfare organizations and everyday practices.

Background

A challenge to implementation is management of the adaptation-fidelity dilemma or the balance between adopting an intervention with fidelity while assuring fit when transferred between contexts. A prior meta-analysis found that adapted interventions produce larger effects than novel and adopted interventions. This study attempts to replicate and expand previous findings.

Methods

Meta-analysis was used to compare effects across a whole-population of Swedish outcome studies. Main and subcategories are explored.

Results

The 523 studies included adapted (22%), adopted (33%), and novel (45%) interventions. The largest effect was found for adapted followed by novel and adopted interventions. Interventions in the mental health setting showed the highest effects, followed by somatic healthcare and social services.

Conclusions

These results replicate and expand earlier findings. Results were stable across settings with the exception of social services. Consistent with a growing body of evidence results suggest that context is important when transferring interventions across settings.

Research on intervention development has expanded over the past decade. However, much of the extant literature on complex intervention development is confined to healthcare and public health broadly or intervention science specifically with scant attention to the process within other fields known for their extensive provision of social interventions such as social work or community-based services. This paper aims to advance understanding of the complex intervention development process within social work using an example from the Swedish municipal social services. We use the Guidance for Reporting Intervention Development Studies (GUIDED) to describe the development and content of My Choice-My Way! an intervention to support youth transitioning from out-of-home care. Youth in out-of-home care is an extremely vulnerable group and one of social welfare services’ core user populations. Coproduction processes were used to develop a theory-, evidence-, and implementation-based approach to intervention development. Implications for future development within social work are discussed.

One of the challenges facing child welfare services (CWS) in Sweden is offering equal services to all children in need of protection and support. International research has suggested that unequal access to CWS exists but in Sweden the research evidence is weaker. This retrospective cross-sectional study of child welfare investigations focuses on the extent to which differences exist in social workers’ assessment of risk, need and decisions on services for children suspected of exposure to physical violence by a parent, which cannot be explained by the individual child’s documented risk exposure. A random sample of reports during the period 2018–2020 was drawn from seven CWS offices. Frequencies for background characteristics were obtained and comparisons between groups were performed using Chi2 and t-test. We carry out statistical analyses of the relationship between child and family characteristics and social workers’ determination of risk, need, and decision on services. We also investigate the relationship between documented risk factors and social workers’ determination of risk, need, and decision on services. Our study did not find any clear evidence of unequal provision of services based on child or family characteristics. Results indicate that cumulative risk and marital status appear to be the main determining factors for assessments of risk, need and decision on services. However, after adjusting for several background factors, the main explanatory variables underlying decisions on services are accumulated risk and economic stress. Although we must interpret these findings with caution, these results are in line with previous studies.

Purpose: This article investigates the extent of effectiveness studies of behavioral, psychological, and social interventions aiming for measurable changes at the individual level in Sweden 1990–2019.

Methods: The data stems from a retrospective analysis of published literature on effect studies between 1990 and 2019.

Results: The results show an increase in published articles reporting on effect studies in Sweden the past 30 years, accelerating the past 10 years. However, only 25% of the studies focuses on core social work practices and only certain target groups and areas, especially children and elderly, are covered. Of these studies, only 4% are conducted by social work scholars.

Conclusions: Effect studies still holds a weak position in Swedish social work research, despite of processes of professionalization and academization with national efforts to promote knowledge production for practice. This is discussed in relation to competence, opportunity, and motivation in Swedish social work and beyond.

A rapidly growing body of research spanning several scientific disciplines and countries converges to show that mental health problems among students are an increasing challenge for higher education institutions. Mental health problems among students threaten academic performance, degree completion and student well-being. Structural efforts aimed at building health-promoting, learning environments for all students are lacking in the literature. This study aims to identify and describe what is currently known about structural approaches to promote mental health or prevent mental health problems among students in higher educational settings. We conducted a scoping review of studies published in peer-reviewed journals between 2001 and 2021, which studied structural interventions to promote mental health or prevent mental health problems among students in higher educational settings. The search identified 8372 articles, and 27 were included in the final sample. Four broad categories of approach were identified: (1) inclusion and diversity approaches, (2) adaptations to the physical environment, (3) teaching health-related skills and behaviours and (4) adaptations to pedagogical practices and teaching approaches. The general finding from the studies reporting student perceptions was that students were favourable to the interventions to which they were exposed. Studies investigating pre- to post-test changes in well-being had mixed findings. Institutions aiming to support student mental health at the structural level should rigorously study and describe these approaches and their outcomes to advance our combined understanding of how we might design and deliver structural interventions to support students' mental health.

We aimed to explore social workers’ experiential accounts of developing complex interventions for youth and families within practice settings. Social workers’ experience of developing interventions has not been leveraged in scientific research even though many complex interventions in use are developed by social workers in practice settings. Lack of insight into the intervention development process impairs our ability to link approaches to outcomes and thereby assess whether specific approaches produce interventions that are more successful than others. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 developers of seven complex interventions. Through qualitative content analysis we identified 11 categories of activities participants engaged in during the development process. Participants described engaging in a range of activities found in the scientific literature. However, participant engagement in development activities were motivated on different grounds and conducted at different stages than suggested by current intervention development frameworks. Contextual and organisational factors were important in shaping the final approach to intervention development. We recommend future research on intervention development from the practitioner perspective to further explore and validate these findings. We encourage practitioners to document important details in their intervention development work to build a literature base and guide other practitioners who engage in complex intervention development.

Svensk titel: Socialarbetares erfarenheter av att utveckla komplexa insatser förungdomar och familjer i praktiken

I denna artikel utforskar vi socialarbetares erfarenheter av att utveckla komplexa insatser för ungdomar och familjer i praktiken. Socialarbetares erfarenhet av insatsutveckling har inte tillvaratagits i den vetenskapliga forskningen, trots att många komplexa insatser som används idag är utvecklade lokalt av praktiker. En bristfällig förståelse och insyn i insatsutvecklingsprocessen begränsar möjligheten att länka olika tillvägagångssätt i utvecklingsfasen till insatsernas utfall, och därmed möjligheten att bedöma om specifika tillvägagångssätt producerar mer framgångsrika insatser än andra. Vi genomförde semi-strukturerade intervjuer med tolv utvecklare av sju olika komplexa insatser. Genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys identifierade vi elva kategorier av aktiviteter som deltagarna genomförde under utvecklingsprocessen. Socialarbetarnabeskrev att de genomförde en rad aktiviteter som återfinns i den vetenskapliga litteraturen. Motivet för aktiviteterna och när i utvecklingsprocessen de genomfördes kunde dock skilja sig från hur de beskrivs i aktuella teoretiska ramverk för insatsutveckling. Kontextuella och organisatoriska faktorer spelade en viktig roll i att forma det slutgiltiga tillvägagångssättet. Vi rekommenderar fortsatt forskning om insatsutveckling från praktikers perspektiv för att vidareutveckla och validera dessa resultat. Vi uppmuntrar även socialarbetare att dokumentera viktiga detaljer i sitt utvecklingsarbete för att bygga en litteraturbas som kan stödja andra praktiker som utvecklar insatser.