The resilience of child protection social workers: are they at risk and if so, how do they adjust? A systematic Meta-Synthesis

Abstract

Globally, social workers protect, among others, children who are in need of care and protection. Child protection social workers protect children by means of statutory intervention. Concomitant professional risks threaten child protection social workers' well-being and competence, resulting in sub-standard services, attrition and calls for child protection social worker resilience. Promoting child protection social worker resilience requires a deep understanding of child protection social worker risk and resilience. Given the scarcity of studies focused on child protection social worker risk and resilience around the globe, we aimed to ascertain how well child protection social worker risk and resilience are understood. We thus undertook a systematic meta-synthesis of fourteen qualitative studies on child protection social worker risk and resilience. This meta-synthesis demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of child protection social worker risk in minority-world countries, but not in majority-world countries. It also demonstrates an inadequate understanding of child protection social worker resilience worldwide.