Citation

Enosh G, Alfandari R, Nouman H, Dolev L, Dascal-Weichhendler H. Child Maltreat. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1077559520937351

PMID

32633613

Abstract

This study investigated child protection decision-making practices of healthcare-professionals in community-health-services.

We examined the effect of heuristics in professional judgments regarding suspected maltreatment, as affected by the child's ethnicity, gender, and family socioeconomic-status, as well as the healthcare-worker's workload-stress, and personal and professional background. Furthermore, we examined how these variables influence judgments regarding suspected maltreatment and intentions to consult and report child-maltreatment. We used an experimental survey design including vignettes manipulating the child's characteristics. Data was collected from 412 professionals employed at various community-health-service-clinics of the largest health-management organization in northern Israel.

Findings show that all subjective factors have a significant effect on suspected child-maltreatment assessment, which appears as a significant predictor of later decisions regarding consultation and reporting.

This study lends support to prior research indicating that healthcare-professionals' decisions may incorporate biases, and suggests how the effects of these biases' are mediated through a sequence of decisions.

Recommendations focus on providing regular consultation opportunities for practitioners.

Language: en

Keywords

child maltreatment; community health services; decision bias; healthcare professionals; mandatory reporting; subjective judgment