@article{ref1,
title="Responding to basic and complex cases of child abuse: a comparison study of recent  and current child advocacy studies (CAST) students with dss workers in the field",
journal="Journal of child and adolescent trauma",
year="2020",
author="Parker, Jennifer and McMillan, Lynn and Olson, Stacey and Ruppel, Susan and Vieth, Victor",
volume="13",
number="4",
pages="357-364",
abstract="In an effort to improve the training of future child protection professionals, more  than 70 universities and graduate schools in the United States have implemented  Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) minors or graduate programs. In order to assess the  efficacy of these programs, 46 current and recent graduates of a CAST minor and 43  child protection professionals currently employed by a Department of Social Services  (DSS) were given two vignettes. The first vignette involved a clear case of sexual  abuse and the second vignette involved a more complex case involving  polyvictimization. The students were asked to identify various systems that needed  to be involved, potential corroborating evidence, risk and protective factors, and  types of victimization. In the case of sexual abuse, the current CAST students and  CAST graduates performed at the same level as DSS caseworkers. On the more complex  polyvictimization scenario, the current CAST students and CAST graduates performed  significantly better than all levels of DSS caseworkers in identifying systems that  respond to child maltreatment and in identifying psychological and emotional abuse. The results of this study suggests that undergraduate CAST minors may be an  effective model for improving the knowledge and skills of future child protection  professionals in responding to complex cases of maltreatment.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1936-1521",
doi="10.1007/s40653-019-00297-7",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40653-019-00297-7"
}