| Stress responses and decision making in child protection workers faced with high conflict situations. |
| Summary: Tests how the stress levels of professionals affects the way they assess children at risk of abuse and neglect. Puts 96 child protection professionals in two scenarios, one confrontational and one non confrontational. Finds that, regardless of the scenario they are confronted with, practitioners measure high levels of stress during the first assessment. In the second scenario those exposed to the confrontational version reported feeling more stressed, but their cortisol responses remained level. Finds that in the first scenario, when participants all showed a greater stress response, risk assessment scores were higher on one risk assessment tool for the confrontational scenario than the non-confrontational. Concludes that professional stress levels are influenced by the novelty of the situation they are in and the levels of confrontation they face and that some risk assessment tools are more influenced by the user’s emotional state than others. |
| Publication details: Child Abuse and Neglect (Vol.36, Iss.5) May 2012 pp 404-412 |
| Authors: LeBlanc, Vicki R.; Regehr, Cheryl; Shlonsky, Aron; Bogo, Marion |
