Understanding factors associated with barefoot social workers' decision making in assessing and reporting child...

Mandatory reporting is new in China, and barefoot social workers are responsible for detecting and reporting child maltreatment.

Guided by the decision-making ecology, this study examined factors associated with barefoot social workers' decision making in assessing and reporting child physical abuse in China.

Cross-sectional data were collected from barefoot social workers (N = 1489) in a metropolitan city in Southern China.

Descriptive, bivariate, and binary logistic regression analyses were conducted. Dependent variables were barefoot social workers' assessments of and intention to report child physical abuse in two cases.

For a less severe physical abuse case, case severity (OR = 2.78, p < .001), receiving a social worker license (OR = 1.64, p = .03), and having a reporting history (OR = 23.55, p = .03) were associated with higher odds of assessments, whereas being younger (OR = 0.97, p = .04) was associated with lower odds. For a more severe physical abuse case, case severity (OR = 3.64, p < .001) and child welfare training (OR = 2.27, p = .03) were associated with higher odds of assessments. Across two cases, case severity (Case 1: OR = 1.44, p < .001; Case 2: OR = 1.34, p < .001), assessment of whether it is abuse (Case 1: OR = 11.48, p < .001; Case 2: OR = 15.98, p < .001), impacts of reporting on the family (Case 1: OR = 1.21, p < .001; Case 2: OR = 1.25, p < .001), and perceived behavior control (Case 1: OR = 1.06, p = .01; Case 2: OR = 1.10, p = .01) were associated with higher odds of reporting. Impacts of reporting on the child (OR = 1.27, p < .001) were associated with higher odds of reporting the less severe case. Attitudes regarding punishment of offenders or victims of child abuse (OR = 1.09, p = .01) and subjective norms of reporting (OR = 1.09, p = .01) were associated with higher odds of reporting the more severe case.

This study identified factors associated with barefoot social workers' decision making in assessing and reporting child physical abuse in China. Results of this study indicate the importance of providing training to barefoot social workers on recognizing, detecting, and reporting child physical abuse. It is also important to encourage them to receive continued social work training and obtain a social work license, which may increase their confidence in decision making. Furthermore, increasing the effectiveness of mandatory reporting is needed.