The effect of statutory regulations on Social Workers’ decisions to report child maltreatment
Abstract
This study examined social workers’ perceptions of the New York State law
requiring the reporting of child maltreatment and the relationship of those perceptions
with the likelihood that workers would report incidents of maltreatment to child
protective services. Data were collected by a mailed questionnaire from a sample of 710
social workers belonging to the New York City chapter of NASW. Findings show that
social workers differ in their understanding of the law and that the worker’s
understanding is related to reporting behavior. The worker’s understanding of the law
had a small but significant effect on the likelihood of reporting, accounting for 6% of the
variance. The binomial effect size of the relationship (r = .24) is such that a worker’s
understanding of the law is sufficient to increase the likelihood of reporting a case of
maltreatment from 38% to 62%. Implications for practice are discussed.
Description
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Article
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Keywords
Mandated reporting, child maltreatment, law
Citation
Ashton, V. (2009). The effect of statutory regulations on Social Workers’ decisions to report child maltreatment. Advances in Social Work, 10(2).