Essay on Immigrant Minors and Child Protective Services
This paper discusses the role of child protective services in the life of immigrant minors who face abuse and neglect caused by their parents. Immigrant minors encounter considerable challenges because of the long-term adaptation in the new country. As parents are considered to be the primary caretakers of their children, they should bear responsibility for the development of them. Unfortunately, in many immigrant families, parents are maltreating their children. The professionals of child protective services are focused on providing protection from any negative factors that may cause damage to immigrant minors’ psychological, emotional and developmental well-being. The U.S. law guarantees protection from negative effects of environment and personal experiences, including child abuse and neglect.
Introduction
Children of immigration face considerable challenges in the new country because of the long-term adaptation. Parents are considered to be the primary caretakers of their children. In many immigrant families, “parents are maltreating their children” (Lansford et al., 2009, p. 297). Children should be protected from any negative factors that may cause damage to their psychological, emotional and developmental well-being. The U.S. law guarantees protection from negative effects of environment and personal experiences, including child abuse and neglect. Child protective services (CPS) are an effective system of intervention of child abuse and neglect in the USA. The major goal of the CPS is to use the proper strategies in order keep the child in safety, and if the child is at risk in his /her home, to develop an effective plan to solve the existing problems. Immigrant children need support and protection. According to the CPS experts, “cultural competency with immigrant children and their families requires not just learning about culture, but also having an understanding of the process of migration, the reasons families migrate, and the process of acculturation and related family or marital stressors” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Official Website, 2014). Child protective services help immigrant minors to achieve cultural competence through effective practices.
Child protective services: background information
Child protective services (CPS) is a governmental agency specially developed to address the issues of child abuse and neglect. The responds provided by the child protective services agency are based on the established laws. This organization can be found practically in all states of the USA. Some organizations in the field of child protection are aimed at addressing family-centered issues, e.g. Department of Children & Family Services and Department of Social Services.
The CPS activity is focused on the established laws, including Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, Indian Child Welfare Act, Multi-Ethnic Placement Act, Adoption and Safe Families Act and other laws and regulations. Special attention is paid to the issues of child abuse and neglect, family violence, etc.
The history of child protection services is long. In the U.S., child protection had been included in social justice reform, which was launched in the 1800s (McDaniel & Lescher, 2004, p. 32). The story of Mary Ellen Wilson was one of the first cases of child abuse that received wide publicity in the U.S. in 1875. The young girl who was abused by her caregivers involved public concerns. The concerned citizens wanted to help the child through the involvement of various organizations in New York City that provided various social services. As a result, legal assistance was obtained from American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) (McDaniel & Lescher, 2004).
Since that time, the scope of child protective services has increased. Due to the rapid growth of various types of child protective services, as well as the significant effects of various interventions in this field, healthy environment was created to produce accountability in decisions and actions taken by the organizations and general public (Klein-Rothschild & Brittain, 2004, p. 494). Today a wide range of child protective services and interventions are aimed at making a difference, providing safety for children (McDaniel & Lescher, 2004). The CPS agents use the proper skills and abilities to enhance the well-being of children of different age groups, including immigrant minors.
Actually, child welfare laws and policies developed and implemented in the USA and other countries help immigrant children exposed to domestic violence, no matter what country their parents have arrived from (Klein-Rothschild & Brittain, 2004; Song, 2004).Today the professionals of child protective services thoroughly investigate all causal factors that lead to child abuse and neglect. The police have adopted to provide mandatory reporting procedures for any type of domestic violence that encounter in immigrant families. Besides, child protective services agents protect children from witnessing domestic violence (Song, 2004).
In general, the current rate of immigration requires effective child protective services initiatives and procedures. Many immigrant families move to the USA and other countries knowing nothing about the laws and regulations. The professionals of child protective services use the proper strategies to better understand the etiology of immigrant minors’ maltreatment. According to researchers, there are several predicting factors that can give explanation to child abuse and neglect by immigrant parents (Alaggia & Maiter, 2013). These factors include:
- Parent-related factors, such as the history of child abuse, personality traits, various psychological resources, etc. (Alaggia & Maiter, 2013)
- Child-related factors, such as age of a child, some problems with physical health of a child, behavior patterns, personality type and temperament, etc.
- The effectiveness of community and social support networks
- Negative environmental factors that may create negative conditions, resulting in child abuse (Alaggia & Maiter, 2013, p. 250).
The professionals of child protective services take the above mentioned factors into consideration in order to find the most appropriate approaches to solving the existing problems. To have a better understanding of the strengths of immigrant families, child protective services are focused on the cultural aspects of each family. The professionals of child protective services realize that for immigrant families, “these so-called risk factors may be exacerbated by the process of migration and the associated psychological distress and settlement struggles that may arise” (Alaggia & Maiter, 2013, p. 249). Undoubtedly, migration leads to serious psychological problems that may result in child maltreatment. The attitudes of immigrant parents toward their child’s obedience and corporal punishment may vary. The knowledge of existing cultural factors helps to better understand child abuse and neglect in immigrant families (Alaggia & Maiter, 2013). According to researchers, “different families from a particular ethno-cultural group or from an immigrant group will exhibit differential behaviors, depending on their niche within this ecological framework”(Alaggia & Maiter, 2013, p. 249).
Essay on Immigrant Minors and Child Protective Services part 2
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