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This article draws on the findings of the qualitative phase of a New Zealand longitudinal study on vulnerable young people’s transitions to adulthood. The young people were aged between 12 and 17 years at the time of the first interview. The paper focuses on one key finding, how youth enact agency through their relationships with significant others: families, social workers, teachers and care workers. These youth had experienced sustained exposure to harm including abuse, violence, addictions, disengagement from school and mental health issues. The qualitative interviews focused on young people’s experiences with services (child welfare, juvenile justice, mental health and education support services) their key transitions, and the strategies they used to locate support and resources. The thematic analysis of the interviews indicated that a search for agency was a central motif in young people’s experiences. This was reflected in three thematic clusters: making sense of the world, having a voice and acting on the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We examine how frontline workers and supervisors delivering a research-supported intervention (RSI) to reduce child neglect negotiated system-related challenges, the pragmatics of RSI implementation, and their professional identities and relationships with clients. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews, small group discussions, and focus groups with frontline workers and supervisors in one large county over two time periods. We used iterative coding to analyze qualitative data. Results: Frontline workers navigated several aspects of RSI implementation and sustainment: (1) contract requirements and information dissemination, (2) fidelity, (3) competing demands and crises, (4) structure versus creativity, and (5) relationships with clients. Conclusions: Workers dynamically negotiated multiple system- and provider-level (or outer- and inner-contextual) demands influencing RSI provision for clients with complex service needs. Results affirm the need to attend to the unintended consequences of implementing new contract, reimbursement, and other system or organizational processes and to address the “committed work” supporting RSI delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Many decisions in the child welfare arena revolve around the concept of ‘children’s best interests’, but determining what they actually consist of is contestable and subject to conflicting criteria. This article describes the content of ‘children’s best interests’ discourses used by social workers and parents as part of decision-making rationales. Findings This study found that the construction of children’s ‘best interests’ was underpinned by concepts related to children’s needs. Needs were framed as emotional needs best met by family relationships, and theorised primarily using attachment theory. This resulted in decisions that tended to favour stability over change, as children’s distress on separation, indiscriminate affection, and difficult behaviours were interpreted as evidence of attachment problems that should lead to decisions to retain stable caregiving arrangements. The use of attachment theory was not straightforward, and illustrates the uneasy juxtapositions of conflicting discourses impacting on child welfare decision-making, particularly the influence of policy orientation. Applications These conflicts highlight the contested child welfare domain, and the contextualised interpretations required of attachment theories in decision-making contexts in order to make sound decisions for specific children. Implications for practice and education are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]