Collaborative Research Projects
Enhancing self-understanding and social integration of middle school students with learning disabilities
Principal Investigator: Faye Mishna, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto
Co-Investigators: Judy Wiener, OISE/UT; Collaborator: Barbara Muskat, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.
Funded by: SSHRC Standard Grant
Traditional interventions for children with learning disabilities (LD) and psychosocial problems, which have focused on the characteristics of the child such as academic or social skills deficits, overlook contextual environmental conditions that affect the children’s psychosocial adjustment. This study targeted the psychosocial functioning of students with LD, as well as the interpersonal and social context in which they function, specifically the classroom and school. There are three components: a) school-based group treatment for students with LD and psychosocial problems, b) workshops on LD for teachers, parents, and students without LD, and c) consultation for teachers of the students in the group treatment.
Risky Business: disclosure of intimate partner violence and help-seeking actions of women
Funding by: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Principal Investigator: Ramona Alaggia (Child Development Institute); Co-Investigators: Cheryl Regehr (University of Toronto); Angelique Jenney (Child Development Institute)
Collaborating Agency: Child Development Institute
Mothers in Mind Program Evaluation
Principal Investigator: Ramona Alaggia, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto
Co-Investigator: Angelique Jenney, Child Development Institute
Funded by: Child Development Institute
This study will investigate a number of important issues including, how living with domestic violence impacts on parenting and how a parenting group designed for mothers who have experienced IPV with young children are impacted in their parenting. A process evaluation will be conducted of the Mother in Mind (MIM) group at the Child Development Institute This evaluation will use a multi-method approach.
Canadian incidence study of reported child abuse and neglect (CIS-2008)
Principal Investigator: Barbara Fallon, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.
Funded by: Public Health Agency of Canada
The Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS) (CIS; Trocmé et al., 2001; Trocmé et al., 2005) is a national child maltreatment surveillance survey conducted for the Public Health Agency of Canada every five years by a team of researchers at the universities of McGill, Toronto and Calgary. Two study cycles have been completed: the CIS-1998 and the CIS-2003. The research team is currently planning for the third cycle, which will begin data collection in 100 child welfare agencies in the fall of 2008. The study is designed to examine the scope and characteristics of reported child abuse and neglect across Canada and to monitor the short-term outcomes of these investigations, including substantiation, placement, child welfare court and criminal charges. With each cycle of the CIS a number of specialized studies have been completed using enriched samples, these include three Ontario Incidence Studies (OIS; Trocmé, McPhee, Tam & Hay, 1994; Trocmé et al., 2002; Fallon et al., 2005), the Alberta Incidence Study (AIS; MacLaurin et al., 2005), an études d’incidence québecoise (EIQ; Tourigny et al., 2003), and Mesnmimk Wasatek (Trocmé et al., 2005), a study of the overrepresentation of First Nations children in the child welfare system. The CIS and related studies are the most comprehensive source of information on Canadian children receiving child welfare services, and in many jurisdictions the only source of information.
The CIS-2008 will incorporate a number of specialized studies including incidence studies in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. The provincial governments in these provinces provide funding and direction to the study team. All provinces and territories support the CIS through in-kind donations of worker time. The CIS-2008 has a large Aboriginal component. It is expected that 20 Aboriginal sites will be sampled in this cycle. The CIS research team works closely with an Aboriginal Advisory Committee and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.
Child welfare researchers, administrators and practitioners from across Canada have worked with the CIS study team to explore a range of research, policy and practice questions. Child welfare researchers, administrators and practitioners across Canada have utilized the experience of the CIS study team members to ask secondary questions of the data. These investigations generally fell into three categories: academic papers and presentations; use of the CIS data to guide child welfare policy initiatives; and responding to specific questions from the child welfare community and other related sectors. The topics for secondary analyses of the CIS have been as varied as the families and children served by the Canadian child welfare system. These include: analyzing factors driving the increase in child reports in Ontario; examining false allegations in investigations involving divorce and custody disputes; analyzing the relationship between physical abuse and corporal punishment; and comparing placement decisions for First Nations and non-Aboriginal children. To date, 25 peer reviewed articles and 12 book chapters have been completed.
Cyber Abuse of Children
Principal Investigators: Faye Mishna / Robert MacFadden, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.
Funded by: Bell Canada
The objectives of this project are to inform development and evaluation of strategies for cyber abuse prevention and intervention; disseminate knowledge to children’s service agencies, public awareness organizations, schools, professionals, and parents and children; and provide Internet service providers information on the effectiveness of their current protection mechanisms. There are several components to the cyber abuse of children initiative.
- We have had our protocol on cyber abuse approved by the Campbell Collaboration, Crime and Justice Group, and are currently preparing the full systematic review.
- We conducted focus groups with 47 students, and a number of parents and teachers, to inform a cyber bullying survey.
- We analyzed the children’s and youth’s posts on cyber interactions on the Kids Help Phone “Ask a Counsellor” website.
- We recently completed a survey on cyber bullying for students in grades 6 and 7 and grades 10 and 11, in 30 schools in the GTA in schools within the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and the UJA Board of Jewish Education (BJE). We also surveyed a convenience sample of parents and teachers and administrators.
- We are collaborating with a number of key organizations to address cyber risk of children and youth. The aim is to develop an interactive and fun web-based toolkit that would be available to educators as part of the school curriculum for grades 4-6 and that would also be available to parents. The organizations collaborating with us on this cyber risk project are (in alphabetical order): Bell/Bell Sympatico; Canadian Teachers’ Federation; Centre for Innovation Law & Policy, Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto; Kids Help Phone; Media Awareness Network; Ontario Physical and Health Education Association; Ontario Provincial Police; Peel Regional Police; PREVNet; Suspected Child Abuse & Neglect Clinic (SCAN); and the Toronto Police Service.
The Bell Canada Cyber Counseling Research, Training And Service Project
Principal Investigators: Faye Mishna / Robert MacFadden, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.
Funded by: Bell Canada
This research project is based on recognition of the momentous implications and impact that cyber activity is already having on traditional counselling. The purpose of this project is to develop this new and innovative form of counselling by creating a Cyber Counselling Research, Training and Service Centre within the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.
We are currently developing the first several components of this project:
- Development of a practicum placement for 6 second year Master of Social Work students, to provide timely and accessible services to undergraduate students at St. Michael’s College and Victoria University at the University of Toronto three days per week from September to April 2008/2009. The services will entail traditional face-to-face counseling including individual and group counseling addressing specific concerns; and cyber counseling. An integral component will be to evaluate the cyber counseling and to examine and identify competencies involved in online counseling, with the aim of dissemination and knowledge transfer.
- Development of a Continuing Education certificate program on cyber counseling to be offered in September 2008.
- Development of a course on cyber counseling that will be offered as an elective for second year MSW students, in January 2009.
Cyber Counseling Training Program
Principal Investigator: Faye Mishna, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.
Co-Investigator: Rob MacFadden, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto
Collaborators: Marion Bogo, Barbara Muskat, Eunjung Lee, Andrea Litvack, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.
Funded by: Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General: Victim Services Secretariat
The purpose of this project is to develop a cyber counseling training program in collaboration with Kids Help Phone, to provide service to victimized children and youth seeking help online and to identify required competencies and skills. In the training program, students have the opportunity to practice the skills and strategies by being responsible for responding to a set number of posts by children and youth on the Kids Help Phone ‘Ask a Counsellor’ website. The demand for cyber counseling is increasing dramatically with not enough trained professionals to respond and no training programs available in Canada.
We have provided courses to first and second year MSW students as well as to Kids Help Phone counselors. We are currently evaluating the course through interviews with students, instructors and supervisors and through content analysis of the posts that course participants prepared in response to actual posts made by youth to the ‘Ask a Counsellor’ website.
In providing and evaluating the program we are developing a curriculum that includes the competencies, skills and strategies required for cyber counseling. As a result of the evaluation and content analysis, we will develop a pilot online training manual that can be used as part of the training course and as a standalone resource for professionals. Research suggests that children and youth are increasingly turning to the Internet and email for online counseling. This program will ensure that that victimized children and youth have alternative means of getting help and support from counsellors who are specifically trained to provide this service.
The Children's Services Database (CSD): A repository for secondary data drawn from agencies serving Canada's children
Principal Investigator: Cheryl Regehr
Co-investigators: Aron Shlonsky, University of Toronto, Deborah Goodman, Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, Bruce Leslie, Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, Faye Mishna, University of Toronto, Tahany Gadalla, University of Toronto, Susan Stern, University of Toronto
Funded by: Canadian Foundation for Innovation - New Opportunities Fund
The need for better research and knowledge in child welfare and children’s mental health is increasingly recognized. New research on high-risk children is emerging in Canada. A rich source of information, however, remains untapped: the enormous amounts of information collected by child welfare and children’s mental health service providers. The objective of the 'Children Services Database' (CSD) is to make these rich sources of data available to researchers to develop a better understanding of the services provided to children and their families, track intervention outcomes and ultimately improve the quality of services. This funding provides the programming and hardware infrastructure required to download administrative data from 3 child service agencies into analyzable datasets. Children’s services datasets include a broad enough range of demographic, service utilization and child and family functioning data to allow much more sophisticated multivariate and longitudinal analyses.
Centres of Excellence for Child Welfare (CECW)
Principal Investigator: Cheryl Regehr
Co-Directors: Nico Trocme, McGill University, Claire Chamberland, Université de Montréal, École de service social, Peter Dudding, Child Welfare League of Canada, Cindy Blackstock, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada
Funded by: Public Health Agency of Canada
The main activities of the CECW are: Fostering research: The CECW carries out and funds original research, gathers and analyzes child welfare information, and supports the development of research capacity through training and consultation. Disseminating information: Timely, effective dissemination of information is the cornerstone of CECW activities. Developing policy: The CECW provides policy advice to child welfare policy makers. We also sponsor and participate in meetings, consultations, and other events that promote policy development and link policy to research and practice. Forging networks: The CECW promotes collaboration among professionals in child welfare and related areas throughout Canada and in other countries. Researchers, service providers, and policy makers are linked through the CECW's electronic information network, research activities, policy forums, and other activities.
Website located at : http://www.cecw-cepb.ca/
Applying Information and Communication Technology to Improve Outcomes for Maltreated Children
Principal Investigator: Aron Shlonsky, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.
Funded by: Ontario Early Researcher Award
Despite skyrocketing rates of child maltreatment investigations, little is known about what happens to children who enter foster care or the services that might improve their outcomes. Advances in management information systems are urgently needed to respond to the crisis in children’s services in Ontario. This program of research will employ advanced database construction and analytic techniques to build a database that details the characteristics of maltreating families in Ontario and the trajectories of youth through the foster care system. Evidence generated from the database will inform key child welfare policies, directly affecting the province’s response to child maltreatment.
Ontario’s New Child Welfare Decision Aids
Principal Investigator: Aron Shlonsky, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.
Funded by: Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services
This validation study will use risk assessment and administrative data to model the likelihood of subsequent investigation, confirmed abuse, child injury or death, and placement in foster care. Specifically, the study will investigate the statistical prosperities of the risk assessment tool by following a cohort of children and families investigated for maltreatment within a 6 month period for up to 24 months to ascertain the child experiences. The researcher will work with each of five CSA’s, the Ministry and OACAS and IBM to obtain a data upload of randomly selected cases.
A Contextually Responsive Model to Enhance Parent Engagement in Children’s Mental Health
Principal Investigator: Susan Stern, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.
Co-Investigator: Debra Pepler, York University
Collaborators: Leena Augimeri and Kathyrn Levene, Child Development Institute
Funded by: SSHRC Standard Grant
The objective of this project is to understand parent adversity and client and community perceptions of engagement barriers. This research will advance conceptualization of an ecological engagement model and enhance community agencies’ capacity to provide evidence-informed engagement responsiveness to the context of families’ lives.