Peer-reviewed article
“I do not want to cause additional pain …”–child protection workers’ perspectives on child participation in child protection practice
Karmen Toros, Asgeir Falch‐Eriksen ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study surveyed 106 child protection workers in Estonia about how children participate in decisions affecting them. Workers understood child participation mainly as asking children for their opinions, which they believed was important for making decisions in children's best interests. However, in practice, participation was limited by children's age and development, custody disputes, and time constraints. Workers worried that involving children too much in protection processes might cause them additional harm.
Key points
- Child protection workers primarily understood child participation as asking for a child's opinion
- Theoretically, workers valued child participation for making decisions in the child's best interests
- In practice, child participation was limited by developmental level, age, custody disputes, and time factors
- Workers adopted a protectionist approach, concerned that participation might be detrimental to vulnerable children's well-being
- A gap existed between workers' theoretical support for child participation and their practical implementation
Limitations
The study captures workers' perspectives and understanding of child participation but does not directly measure children's actual participation experiences or outcomes. It does not evaluate whether protectionist approaches actually protect or harm children's well-being.
Abstract
This paper examines the perspectives of child protection workers (CPWs) (n = 106) on the participation of children in child protection practice in Estonia. The findings indicated that child participation was most related to the term “asking a child’s opinion.” On a theoretical level, CPWs considered the asking of a child’s opinion to be significant in child protection practice in order to make decisions in the child’s best interests. In practice, however, asking a child’s opinion was acknowledged to be dependent on the level of development and age of the child, whether there were any custody disputes, and time factors. The reflections of CPWs indicate a protectionist approach regarding child participation because they discussed the issue of children being vulnerable and how encouraging them to participate might be detrimental to their well-being.