The effect of child protection attitudes on child protection decision-making: the mediating role of person perceptions

This study investigates whether these attitudes are associated with person perceptions that professionals form about parents who may be perpetrators of child maltreatment (e.g., perceptions of the perpetrator’s sociability, competence and morality) and whether they mediate the decision to provide a supervision order.

A vignette study was conducted among 133 child protection workers. The estimated structural equation model (SEM) showed that child protection attitudes had an impact on person perceptions that were formed about the perpetrator of child maltreatment (perceived competence and morality). Workers were less likely to support a supervision order when they perceived the perpetrator as more moral.