Published article: Social Work Paradigms and Their Effect on Decision Making About Out-of-Home Placement

Dr. Jarosław Przeperski has published an article in the social work journal, Research on Social Work Practice (RSWP). This is a highly ranked journal with a 5-year impact factor of 1.492 and a MNiSW score of 100. In the research paper, “Social Work Paradigms and Their Effect on Decision Making About Out-of-Home Placement”, Dr. Przeperski attempts to explain the worldview within which decisions concerning the out-of-home placement of children by social workers occur. Through the Q-sort methodology, the views of social workers on specific statements regarding children and their families and the role of social workers in ensuring the welfare of children are analyzed. Results point to five unique paradigms—Family-Centered Paradigm; Veiled Shared Concept Paradigm; Child-Centered Paradigm; Paternalistic Paradigm; and Professional Evidence-Based Paradigm—within which social workers make decisions. Results also show differences in worldview concerning decision-making based on whether a social worker has made any previous decisions to move a child from their home or lacks such experience. With these results, a modified paradigmatic model of decision-making ecology which is based on the model created by Donald J. Baumann and colleagues in 2011, is proposed in this paper. Proposals relevant for practice and further research are made in the paper.

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