Examining the role of child welfare worker characteristics and the substantiation decision.

Background: The role of child welfare workers is twofold, to promote the safety of children and youth and to address their wellbeing. This provincially legislated mandate requires child welfare workers to make decisions across the child welfare service continuum. After a report of child maltreatment is investigated, workers are required to assess the veracity of the allegation through the substantiation decision and to determine whether the child has been victimized, which may impact on families' future involvement with services.

Understanding the overrepresentation of Black children in Ontario's child welfare system: Perspectives from child welfare workers and community service providers.

Background: The overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system is a social problem that has received longstanding attention in the United States, but has recently received increasing attention in Canada.

Objective: This qualitative study explores the findings of two quantitative studies (Antwi-Boasiako et al., 2020, 2021) in order to interpret them through the perspectives of child welfare workers and community service providers.

Addressing the overrepresentation of Black children in Ontario's child welfare system: insights from child welfare workers and community service providers.

Background: The overrepresentation Black children experience in the child welfare system is well documented in the United States, but such studies are now emerging in Canada. In Ontario, there are few studies that address this issue concerning Black families.

Objective: This study is to explore the insights of child welfare workers and community service providers on how to potentially address Black children's overrepresentation in Ontario's child welfare system.

Differences and disparities over time: Black and White families investigated by Ontario's child welfare system.

Background: Black-White disparities in child welfare involvement have been well-documented in the United States, but there is a significant knowledge gap in Ontario about how and when these disparities emerge.

Objective: This paper compares incidence data on Black and White families investigated by Ontario's child welfare system over a 20-year period.

Methods: Data from the first five cycles of the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS) (1993-2013) were used to examine trends in child maltreatment investigations involving Black and White families.

Factors associated with racial differences in child welfare investigative decision-making in Ontario, Canada.

Despite the substantial body of literature on racial disparities in child welfare involvement in the Unites States, there is relatively little research on such differences for Canadian children and families. This study begins to address this gap by examining decision-making among workers investigating Black and White families investigated for child protection concerns in Ontario, Canada. Using provincially representative data, the study assessed whether Black children were more likely than White children to be investigated by child welfare, if there was disparate decision-making by race throughout the investigation, and how the characteristics of Black and White children contribute to the decision to transfer to ongoing services.

Examining the independent protective effect of subjective well-being on severe psychological distress among Canadian adults with a history of child maltreatment.

The purpose of this study was to examine the independent protective effect of subjective well-being on severe psychological distress among adult Canadians with a history of child maltreatment. Data for this study were obtained from the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey-Mental Health (CCHS-MH). A sample of 8126 respondents aged 20-69 years old who experienced at least one child maltreatment event was analyzed using binary logistic regression with severe psychological distress as the outcome variable.