Date of Conferral
2022
Degree
Ph.D.
School
Social Work
Advisor
Lakisha Mearidy-Bell
Abstract
North Carolina has the infrastructure to investigate the allegations of child abuse and neglect. However, the problem is that during the investigation, not all children have risk and safety evaluated. Assessing for risk and safety determines the child’s immediate or future need for legal interventions. The purpose of this basic qualitative inquiry was to explore CPS social workers’ self-efficacy with legal aspects when completing abuse and neglect investigations in rural counties in North Carolina. Albert Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy was the theoretical framework used to explain the phenomenon in this study. The research questions were: (a) What are the perceptions and implementation processes of legal aspects as it relates to rural North Carolina CPS social work interventions in child abuse and neglect cases. and (b) How is self-efficacy perceived among rural North Carolina CPS social workers in the profession of investigating child abuse and neglect. A purposive sampling approach was used to recruit nine CPS social workers in rural counties in North Carolina. Through a process of open, axial, and selective coding, seven themes emerged from the semistructured interviews. These themes were: (1) legal training needs, (2) legal aspects is a complex process which contradicts policy, (3) race, class, and resources, (4) leadership and legal teams impact self-efficacy, (5) self-efficacy challenges decreases with longevity, (6) self-efficacy begins before becoming a CPS social worker, and (7) paperwork and caseload demands. CPS social workers will be able to identify new information from this study to increase their self-efficacy with CPS investigations.
Recommended Citation
Bates, Michelle E., "North Carolina CPS Social Worker Self-Efficacy with Legal Aspects" (2022). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 12924.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/12924
