Fathers and Case Planning : Child Abuse

by Child Welfare Information Gateway

(Page 5 of 5)

Addressing Fathers' Abuse of Their Children

There is little literature on the rehabilitation of fathers who have maltreated their children, as well as the role that fathers can play in helping children who have been abused. The following sections should be viewed as preliminary efforts to understand and to help fathers who have abused their children or fathers who are helping their children recover from abuse and neglect.

Fathers who have abused or neglected their children need to:

Address any factors that may have led up to their perpetration of maltreatment.

Be honest about the fact that they have a problem and need to take active steps to prevent future acts of maltreatment. Therapists and scholars agree that the crucial first step that abusive parents must take is to acknowledge what they have done.

Acknowledge that their abuse was wrong and harmful. They should reflect specifically on the harm they have done to their child, which is a crucial step in helping them to desist from further abuse.

Apologize to their children, either in-person or in writing, both to acknowledge their own culpability and to help their children recover from the abuse. Research suggests that children can benefit when they do not have to hide the fact of their abuse - especially sexual abuse - from people they care about.

Identify the psychological and situational stressors and stimuli - e.g., loneliness, drug or alcohol use, being alone with their child in the evening - that led to physical or sexual abuse and avoid them at all costs.

Individual or group treatment is generally incorporated into interventions to help confront patterns of abusive behavior and the psychological issues underlying that behavior. Either through counseling or parenting classes, these fathers need to be taught appropriate disciplinary principles and techniques. Physical abuse is often linked to unrealistic expectations on the part of a parent. By learning about the developmental stages of children, they can develop appropriate rules and expectations.

Reconciliation between a father and his child - especially in cases of sexual abuse or multiple incidents of physical abuse - will necessarily be difficult. Indeed, involved family members, CPS caseworkers, and judicial officials will often legitimately decide that a father can no longer live with his children as a consequence of his physical or sexual abuse. Nevertheless, research on restorative justice suggests that some contact, even if it is brief, between the father and his child may be helpful to all concerned parties if the father takes responsibility for his actions, expresses. Thus, professionals and family members seeking to address a father's abuse of his child may wish to consider some effort at reconciliation, provided that both the father and the child (along with the mother or guardian) consent to such an effort.

Addressing the Abuse of Their Children By Others

Children who have been maltreated are more likely than children who have not to suffer from a range of psychological problems, to have difficulty relating to others, and to suffer from physical or developmental impairments. Research on children who have been abused or neglected indicates that their behavior is quite variable (e.g., one moment they are warm, the next aloof), that they often can be irrationally angry with their caretakers, and that they can be unusually manipulative in their treatment of caretakers. Fathers who are dealing with a child who has been maltreated need to be prepared to be unusually flexible, patient, consistent, and nurturing. This necessitates preparing themselves ahead of time for such difficulties and communicating in both word and deed to their children that their affection and commitment to them is unconditional. The knowledge that most maltreated children will respond quite well to a consistent, affectionate, and disciplined approach to parenting over the long haul should also help fathers prepare to handle erratic or difficult behavior for a year or two.

Fathers will also have to tailor their parenting style to the specific type of maltreatment that their children have experienced. Children who have been physically abused will need consistent, calm, and nonphysical discipline from their fathers. Children who have been sexually abused will need fathers to respect their privacy - especially in connection with bathing, changing, and toileting - and to display modesty around them. Children who have been neglected will need their fathers to pay particular attention to cultivating a routine that provides them with a sense of security, direction, and regular adult attention.

Finally, fathers often will have to address feelings of betrayal on the part of a son or daughter who has been maltreated, especially if the mother is the perpetrator. Children often think of fathers as protectors and, consequently, can feel let down by their fathers if abused or neglected. Therapeutic research on children who feel betrayed by their mothers suggest that a father and his child should openly express their concerns or feelings about what transpired, preferably in the presence of a counselor or a member of the clergy. The father should acknowledge, where legitimate, any responsibility for the abuse and any of his child's disappointment, anger, or frustration. However, the overall goal of any encounter over a father's perceived failure to protect his child must be reconciliation between the father and the child, especially since such reconciliation can help the child recover from his or her abuse or neglect.

Learning From the Child and Family Services Reviews

The 1994 amendments to the Social Security Act mandated the development of regulations to review States' child and family services. In response, the Children's Bureau developed and implemented the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs), a results-oriented, comprehensive monitoring system designed to assist States in improving outcomes for the children and families they serve. The CFSR process assesses States in two areas:

Outcomes for children and families in the areas of safety, permanency, and child and family well-being. There are seven outcomes; each is measured using a number of indicators. Six national standards have been developed related to these outcomes that set benchmarks for States to achieve.

Systemic factors that directly impact the States' abilities to deliver services that can achieve the designated outcomes.

There are three phases of the CFSR that each State must undergo. The first is a comprehensive self-assessment using the CFSR tool to assess the safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for children in the child welfare systems. Following this phase, the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conducts on-site reviews in each State and produces a Final Report identifying the State's performance on each outcome and factor under review. The last phase involves each State developing a Program Improvement Plan (PIP) to address outcomes and factors with which the State was not in conformance. The CFSR findings are important to CPS caseworkers for two key reasons: they are a tool to improve service delivery to families and children and, if these changes are not incorporated, the State and agencies face funding penalties.

The CFSR findings regarding fathers showed several areas for needed improvement. A common challenge with respect to child well-being was a lack of father involvement in case planning. Findings also show that child welfare systems are often not making adequate efforts to establish contact with fathers, even when fathers are involved with the family. Additionally, agencies were less likely to assess the needs of fathers, to search for paternal relatives as possible placements or for other involvement, or to provide fathers with services than they were with mothers.97 Also, if the mother was not contacted, then the father was also not likely to be contacted. In general, child welfare agencies recognize this lack of involvement and are working to address the issue primarily through initiating changes in policies, protocols, and practice guidelines.

About the Author

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Formerly the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information and the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, Child Welfare Information Gateway provides access to information and resources to help protect children and strengthen families. A service of the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.