IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v47y2014ip3p416-427.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Prevention of violence against children and psychosocial models of intervention: Network analysis of an inter-institutional service

Author

Listed:
  • Como, Maria Rosaria
  • Trobia, Alberto
  • Manna, Giovanna

Abstract

This study describes an Italian service, the Inter-institutional Groups Operating against child Abuse and Maltreatment (GOIAM), which specializes in the treatment of child abuse. The GOIAM service is composed of 53 professionals divided into four different categories: social workers, psychologists, child neuropsychiatrists, and psychopedagogists. With the aim of detecting strengths and weaknesses of the operative model adopted by GOIAM, the whole service was analyzed through the application of social network analysis (SNA). The analysis revealed a low-density network, while the study of centrality yielded different distributions of power indicators (degree, closeness, and betweenness): prestige and pervasiveness were balanced, while influence, reachability, and betweenness were quite unbalanced. The search for subgroups (N-clans, lambda sets, community structure) suggested the presence of many overlapping triads, leading to the formation of large clusters. The inspection of such groups revealed that professionals belonging to the same district tended to cluster. This condition did not promote the diffusion of opinions and expertise, and could be an important factor of weakness in an interdistrict service. The analysis of inter-groups relationships (brokerage) and the study of social roles (REGular Equivalence) showed that most professionals had “diffuse” roles through which they try to perform every task, exchanging assignments, activities, and positions. The flattening of the roles inside the organization might at first appear as facilitation, although this could represent a limit for a complex organization in the long term because it generates a lack of specialization. Finally, the potential evolution of the GOIAM network (P1 model) seems to be characterized by a further decrease in density, more isolation of peripheral nodes, an increase in centralization, and, consequently, a higher level of hierarchy in the network.

Suggested Citation

  • Como, Maria Rosaria & Trobia, Alberto & Manna, Giovanna, 2014. "Prevention of violence against children and psychosocial models of intervention: Network analysis of an inter-institutional service," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P3), pages 416-427.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:47:y:2014:i:p3:p:416-427
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.11.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740914003892
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.11.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jent, Jason F. & Merrick, Melissa T. & Dandes, Susan K. & Lambert, Walter F. & Haney, Mike L. & Cano, Nicole M., 2009. "Multidisciplinary assessment of child maltreatment: A multi-site pilot descriptive analysis of the Florida Child Protection Team model," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 896-902, August.
    2. Wells, Rebecca, 2006. "Managing child welfare agencies: What do we know about what works?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(10), pages 1181-1194, October.
    3. Ehrle, Jennifer & Andrews Scarcella, Cynthia & Geen, Robert, 2004. "Teaming up: collaboration between welfare and child welfare agencies since welfare reform," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 265-285, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bustos, Tatiana E., 2020. "A scoping review of social network analyses in interorganizational collaboration studies for child mental health," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simon, James David & D'Andrade, Amy & Hsu, Hsun-Ta, 2021. "The intersection of child welfare services and public assistance: An analysis of dual-system involvement and successful family preservation completion on a maltreatment re-report," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    2. Ogbonnaya, Ijeoma Nwabuzor & Keeney, Annie J., 2018. "A systematic review of the effectiveness of interagency and cross-system collaborations in the United States to improve child welfare outcomes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 225-245.
    3. Appleton, Jane V. & Terlektsi, Emmanouela & Coombes, Lindsey, 2013. "The use of sociograms to explore collaboration in child protection conferences," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 2140-2146.
    4. Charis Asimopoulos & Sofia Martinaki & Katerina Maniadaki*, 2018. "Problem-Solving Skills and Mental Health of Social Work Students in Greece," The Journal of Social Sciences Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, vol. 4(11), pages 220-228, 11-2018.
    5. Jackson, Shelly L., 2012. "Results from the Virginia Multidisciplinary Team Knowledge and Functioning Survey: The importance of differentiating by groups affiliated with a child advocacy center," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1243-1250.
    6. Garcia, Antonio R. & DeNard, Christina & Morones, Seth M. & Eldeeb, Nehal, 2019. "Mitigating barriers to implementing evidence-based interventions in child welfare: Lessons learned from scholars and agency directors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 313-331.
    7. McBeath, Bowen & Collins-Camargo, Crystal & Chuang, Emmeline & Wells, Rebecca & Bunger, Alicia C. & Jolles, Mónica Pérez, 2014. "New directions for research on the organizational and institutional context of child welfare agencies: Introduction to the symposium on “The Organizational and Managerial Context of Private Child Welf," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 83-92.
    8. Karatekin, Canan & Hong, Saahoon & Piescher, Kristine & Uecker, Jill & McDonald, Jeff, 2014. "An evaluation of the effects of an integrated services program for multi-service use families on child welfare and educational outcomes of children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 16-26.
    9. Lee, JoAnn S. & Romich, Jennifer L. & Kang, Ji Young & Hook, Jennifer L. & Marcenko, Maureen O., 2017. "The impact of income on reunification among families with children in out-of-home care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 91-99.
    10. Bunger, Alicia C. & Collins-Camargo, Crystal & McBeath, Bowen & Chuang, Emmeline & Pérez-Jolles, Monica & Wells, Rebecca, 2014. "Collaboration, competition, and co-opetition: Interorganizational dynamics between private child welfare agencies and child serving sectors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 113-122.
    11. Collins-Camargo, Crystal & Hollie, Mary & McBeath, Bowen, 2014. "Private child and family serving agencies: Implications of national survey results for policy and managerial practice," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 142-149.
    12. Nouwen, Eva & Decuyper, Stefan & Put, Johan, 2012. "Team decision making in child welfare," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 2101-2116.
    13. Latzman, Natasha E. & Lokey, Colby & Lesesne, Catherine A. & Klevens, Joanne & Cheung, Karen & Condron, Susanne & Garraza, Lucas Godoy, 2019. "An evaluation of welfare and child welfare system integration on rates of child maltreatment in Colorado," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 386-395.
    14. Horwath, Jan & Morrison, Tony, 2011. "Effective inter-agency collaboration to safeguard children: Rising to the challenge through collective development," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 368-375, February.
    15. Bai, Rong & Collins, Cyleste & Fischer, Robert & Crampton, David, 2019. "Pursuing collaboration to improve services for child welfare-involved housing unstable families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 1-1.
    16. Crea, Thomas M. & Crampton, David S. & Abramson-Madden, Anne & Usher, Charles L., 2008. "Variability in the implementation of Team Decisionmaking (TDM): Scope and compliance with the Family to Family practice model," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 1221-1232, November.
    17. Bender, Kimberly, 2010. "Why do some maltreated youth become juvenile offenders?: A call for further investigation and adaptation of youth services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 466-473, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:47:y:2014:i:p3:p:416-427. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.