Human service professionals’ observations of suboptimal parenting: Barriers to intervention and potential solutions

• Published in: Children and youth services review Vol. 162; p. 107703
• Main Authors: Baker, Amy J.L., Brassard, Marla R., Rosenzweig, Janet, Murov, Roslyn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2024
• Subjects: Abuse; Mandated reporting; Poor parenting; Abuse; Poor parenting; Mandated reporting
• ISSN: 0190-7409; 1873-7765
• DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2024.107703

•Human service professionals observe many types of suboptimal parenting that do not meet state reporting thresholds.•Most forms of suboptimal parenting are subclinical levels of psychological maltreatment.•There are many barriers to intervening with parents including fear about parental response.•Human service professionals need more training in how to transition from bystander to intervenor.•Human service agencies can modify their environments to better support parents. This study was designed to learn about the types of sub-optimal parenting observed by human service professionals and the barriers they faced in moving from being a bystander to an intervenor on behalf of children. Twenty-four human service professionals participated in an in-depth audio interview about the types of poor parenting they observed and the barriers they perceived to their intervening. Using an inductive grounded theory approach, a set of themes were identified based on the content of the interviews. Teams of coders independently coded statements extracted from the transcripts according to these themes and subthemes (average kappa = 0.80). Seven types of problematic parenting were mentioned (physical aggression, verbal aggression and rejection threats, lack of supervision, poor parental coping, interfering with a child abuse investigation, and imposing their own needs on the child) along with five main categories of barriers to intervention (role constraint, behavior not bad enough, bad timing, uncertain what to do, and fear of parental response). Human service professionals are in a position to observe parents engaging in behaviors that if persistent or severe would qualify as child maltreatment. Many do not intervene even though they are concerned about the impact of these parental behaviors on children. Agencies that provide human services to parents and children can benefit from providing their workers with enhanced training, support, and practice in intervening in ways that can feel helpful and respectful. In addition, they could engage in efforts to improve the environments and culture of their agencies to reduce parental stressors which are significant triggers for poor parenting.