Strength-based practice and parental engagement in child welfare services: An empirical examination

• We tested the relationship between strength-based practice and parent engagement.
• Parents' reports of worker use of strength-based practice predicted investment.
• Parents were more likely to view positively challenged workers as strength-based.
• Parents with more hardships and who admitted to substance abuse were more engaged.
• Parents with a child in out-of-home care experienced workers as more deficit-based.

Child welfare policy and practice increasingly emphasize the use of strength-based practice in concert with efforts to reduce identified risks to child safety. Compared with strategies for assessing risk, however, strength-based child welfare interventions lack a robust empirical foundation. Using data from a linked sample of primary caregivers (n = 679) and child welfare caseworkers (n = 327), the present study used path analysis to examine the relationship between parent report of workers' use of strength-based practice and parent investment in child welfare services. The study also examined the role of worker characteristics, organizational factors, child placement status, and parent risk factors. As hypothesized, parents' perceptions regarding their workers' use of strength-based practices robustly predicted their buy-in to services. Furthermore, those parents with a child in out-of-home placement, compared to those receiving in-home services, were less likely to perceive their worker as strength-based or to engage in services. The only significant organizational variable was workers' positive challenge, directly influencing strength-based practices and indirectly affecting parent engagement. Further, parents who reported using substances and those experiencing more economic hardship were more likely to buy-in to services. The findings provide empirical support for the link between parents' willingness to engage in services and the use of strength-based interventions, and contribute to current discussions regarding the appropriate balance between reducing risks to child safety and strengthening family capacities.