Peer-reviewed article
Practitioners Challenges in Child Participation in Out-of-Home Care in Sweden: A Systematic Literature Review
Md. Shahriar Kalam Bosunia ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This systematic review examines how child protection practitioners in Sweden understand and implement children's participation rights in out-of-home care settings. The study reviewed 10 documents published between 1989 and 2023 to identify practitioner challenges in promoting child participation as required by Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is Swedish law. The research found that while practitioners have basic knowledge of child participation, significant gaps exist in their understanding of the UNCRC and how to apply participation models. Organizational policies, legal frameworks, and competing perspectives about children as agents versus subjects needing protection create barriers to effective child participation.
Key points
- Child protection practitioners in Sweden hold satisfactory basic knowledge about child participation but have significant knowledge gaps regarding the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
- Existing laws, practices, and organizational policies define many of the challenges practitioners face when promoting child participation
- Tension exists between viewing children as autonomous agents with participation rights versus as subjects requiring protection
- Communication dynamics between children and practitioners are explored as part of the participation process
- Knowledge gaps about child participation models aligned with UNCRC contribute to organizational and perspective-based challenges
Limitations
This is a literature review synthesizing existing research rather than primary data collection, so it reflects gaps in the existing evidence base. The review does not directly measure outcomes of participation interventions or provide quantitative data on the prevalence of specific challenges.
Abstract
This study aims to investigate the understandings by child protection practitioners regarding participation rights of the children and the challenges they encounter when promoting child participation for children in out-of-home placement. Child participation holds increasing significance within the field of child protection services in Sweden. In accordance with Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is enshrined in Swedish law, children have the right to express their opinions on matters directly affecting them. However, child protection practitioners in Sweden have not consistently prioritized listening to children in such cases. There is limited knowledge regarding the challenges faced by child protection practitioners in promoting child participation, particularly in the context of out-of-home care. To address this research area, a qualitative systematic review was conducted, involving PRISMA statement and literature published between 1989 and 2023. Sources of documents were Scopus database, Gothenburg university catalogue and google scholar. Thematic analysis was used to showcase the results from the existing literature. Total 10 documents were included for systematic review. The results revealed that child protection practitioners hold satisfactory knowledge about child participation though still gaps of knowledge exists among them regarding UNCRC which is now law in Sweden. The study also explores the dynamics of communication between children and practitioners. Existing laws and practices as well as organizational policies define the challenges of practitioners in promoting child participation. However, other challenges e.g., perspectives and organizational challenges arose because of unsatisfactory knowledge of child participation within child participation models aligned with UNCRC but child as agent versus subject to protection also build the present perspectives towards child participation in out-of-home care. Recommendations for further research are also made based on the results and discussion of the research.