Research Regarding Child Protection Services and the Family

from Jules - Friday, July 02, 2004
accessed 2168 times

Did you have experiences involving investigations by social workers, police or child protection services while in the Family? Were you a child in the Family? If so, your input is needed for a new research project. Livia Bardin is a clinical social worker, whom I recently met, and who is studying children in NRMs. She sent us the following introduction and request for participants in her research.

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PARTICIPANTS NEEDED FOR CHILD PROTECTION RESEARCH PROJECT

My name is Livia Bardin. I am a clinical social worker currently researching how the child welfare system interacts with isolated authoritarian groups. I would like to interview people who grew up in COG about their childhood experiences in the group; and also child welfare workers who worked on COG cases. The research involves a telephone (or in-person) interview about the participant’s experiences. The goal of the research is to help children growing up in isolated authoritarian groups by providing better information about life in the groups for child welfare workers.

The author of Coping with Cult Involvement; A Handbook for Families and Friends , I specialize in problems of cults and destructive groups. I have worked with ex-members, presented workshops for families, trainings for mental health professionals on cult involvement and related topics, and facilitated an ex-members’ support group. Since I also have a background in child welfare, I recently conducted a study of interactions of child protective services with members of fundamentalist Mormon groups. The findings suggest that certain features of these isolated authoritarian groups make it very difficult for child welfare workers to protect children in such groups.

If you were in COG when you were 16 or younger, I would like to talk with you about your childhood experiences. I would also like to hear about your experiences if you intervened as a child welfare worker in a case involving COG members. To participate in this study, please e-mail me at LiviaBardin@aol.com for more information. Thank you.