Amy J. L. Baker - Research Methods in Child Welfare

Research Methods in Child Welfare

AMY J. L. BAKER

WITH

BENJAMIN J. CHARVAT

Columbia University Press New York

Columbia University Press

Publishers Since 1893

New York Chichester, West Sussex

cup.columbia.edu

Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press

All rights reserved

E-ISBN 978-0-231-51214-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Baker, Amy J. L.

Research methods in child welfare / Amy J. L. Baker with

Benjamin J. Charvat.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-231-14130-7 (cloth : alk. paper)ISBN 978-0-231-14131-4

(pbk. : alk. paper)ISBN 978-0-231-51214-5 (ebook)

1. Child welfareResearchUnited States. I. Charvat,

Benjamin J. II. Title.

HV741.B294 2008

362.7072dc22

2007044173

A Columbia University Press E-book.

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References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

This book is a welcome addition to the field of child welfare. The past several decades have seen an increased emphasis on research and evaluation in both public and private child welfare settings. This research and evaluation on child welfare issues is occurring in academic as well as public and private child service agency settings. It is incumbent on those of us who seek to improve the lives of children and their families to seek empirical evidence to support our practice. With limited resources, we must identify promising and evidence-based practices to serve as a basis for effective assessment, interventions, and policies. Whether information collection involves simple client satisfaction surveys, analysis of data in administrative databases, or more complex randomized control studies, certain processes and procedures are important to follow to know that the information produced is valid and reliable.

Research Methods in Child Welfare by Amy Baker with Benjamin Charvat is a well-written and comprehensive book that discusses the underlying philosophy of research, offers important considerations regarding research ethics, and provides easily understandable information related to different aspects of the conduct and dissemination of research and evaluation data. Early chapters provide an overview of the child welfare context within which research is conducted; later chapters provide step-by-step coverage of research issues on problem formulation, design, measurement analysis, and dissemination of research findings. The authors identify the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches and contexts within which research and evaluation in child welfare is conducted, providing useful guidance on the implementation of future research.

Evaluation and research in child welfare settings is not as straightforward as research in a laboratory setting. In the social sciences, many factors influence both how data may be gathered and how that data may be understood. The Child Welfare League of America supports the goal of this bookto inform child welfare practitioners, researchers, and policymakers about issues related to research in a child welfarespecific context. This book will be of value to both the private and public child welfare sectors and will assist us all in better serving vulnerable children and families.

Christine James-Brown, president and CEO

Child Welfare League of America

In this chapter the following topics will be covered:

The purpose of and audience for this book

A brief overview of philosophy of science

A brief history of child welfare policy and research

The Purpose of and Audience for This Book

Welcome to the world of child welfare research. The purpose of this textbook is to provide a thorough discussion of the theory and practice of conducting social science research in a child welfare setting or with a child welfare population. Much of what is known about how to conduct child welfare research is based on basic research principles that apply to any social science field of study. However, these principles will be described in the context of child welfare research, consistent with the mission and purpose of this book. In addition, conducting research in a child welfare setting or with a child welfare population often carries with it additional considerations or nuances, and these will be highlighted throughout the book as applicable.

There are four primary audiences for this book: (1) social work and psychology students who need a comprehensive overview of how to conduct social science research, (2) graduate students and child welfare professionals who need to acquire research method skills in order to better understand published research so that they can integrate the findings into their practice, (3) professional researchers working in a child welfare context who need to understand how to apply the basic tenets of research practice into this particular setting, and (4) professional clinicians and administrators in child welfare settings who want to conduct their own research and need a thorough and practical guide for doing so. It is also quite likely that child welfare administrators, both public and private, will consult this book in order to sharpen their understanding of the research being conducted in their agency or under their auspices.

To set the stage for the book, this chapter begins with a brief discussion of the books philosophy of science, followed by a brief history of child welfare research.

A Brief Overview of Philosophy of Science

All research is conducted within a particular worldview about the nature of reality and the ability of scientific inquiry to discover and predict that reality. The worldviewalso known as an epistemologyof social science researchers has evolved over the course of social science research and shapes the general paradigm that guides the researchers projects. A paradigm is a basic model or schema that organizes the way a researcher views his or her world (Kuhn 1970).

The French writer and philosopher Auguste Comte (17981857) is widely credited with being the first to apply the methods of the physical sciences to the social sciences, an approach he termed positivism. This approach became the dominant epistemology for scientific inquiry beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century. As a philosophical system of thought, positivism maintains that the goal of knowledge is to describe systematically observed phenomena. In a positivist view of the world, scientific truths exist and the scientific method is the appropriate means for discovering these truths in order to understand the world well enough so that events and experiences can be predicted and perhaps controlled. Thus, the objective world exists in dependently of the perspectives of or measurements by researchers, and the goal of research is to disclose these objective facts. A distinguishing feature of positivism is the absence of any distinction between reality (as things that exist) and knowledge of reality (as things that are recognized). The universe is viewed as deterministic and controlled by the laws of cause and effect, which can be discerned through the application of the scientific method.