NCJ Number
214891
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 30 Issue: 6 Dated: June 2006 Pages: 679-689
Date Published
June 2006
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined inter-rater reliability under the Illinois Structured Decision Support Protocol, which is designed to guide child protection services (CPS) workers in making consistent intervention decisions.
Abstract
The study found that CPS workers had a low level of agreement about the level of intervention required in three case vignettes. Apparently, the workers (n=41) final judgments about the level of case intervention were not based on the identified risk factors or their perceived levels of risk. One explanation of this finding is that caseworkers based their judgments on previous experiences or personal values. As other research has found, workers might rely on their subjective interpretations rather than standardized criteria or official guidelines for decisionmaking processes. Other possible explanations for the findings could be differences in culture, norms, policies, or organizational climate among the three CPS field offices represented. Given the range and complexity of child protection decisionmaking, the authors recommend more research to guide the development of protocols. For this study, 41 workers were recruited from 3 Illinois CPS field offices. Each of the workers assessed 3 cases, which were based on actual cases investigated by the agency. Participants were instructed to use the Illinois Structured Decision Support Protocol in making their decisions about the level of intervention in each case. The kappa statistic was used to calculate the level of workers' agreement in their decisions. 2 tables and 23 references