The assessment of parenting in child protection cases

This article reports on the development of a procedure far standardized assessment of parenting within statutory child protection agencies. The instruments were trialed on 64 children and adolescents under the supervision of the New Zealand Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Services (CYPFS) and results were compared with normative samples from Canada and Australia Results revealed that CYPFS cases displayed poorer functioning and received fewer positive parenting practices than the normative populations. Eight of the CYPFS children were also subjected to severe or very severe abuse in the 1-month study period General population norms were then used to construct a taxonomy of CYPFS cases according to the dimensions of nurturance and abusiveness. Using this schema it was found that 29 of the CYPFS cases could be classified as "nonabusive + nurturant" and had therefore reached criteria for case closure. Limitations of the research and implications for practice are discussed.