This exploratory study sought to better understand power in the context of working
relationships between child welfare practitioners providing prevention services and parents
receiving court-ordered services. Twenty-five participants were recruited for this study: 13
parents receiving mandated prevention services for child abuse and neglect, and 12 child
welfare practitioners providing mandated prevention services. Naturalistic and
phenomenological inquiry guided the methodological framework. The data was collected …

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to gain an explicit awareness of power within the
context of child welfare so that practice models might better meet the needs of at-risk
children and families. Currently, the distribution of power is perceived as the worker having
the ability to create change through his or her use of referent, expert, reward, coercive or
legitimate power (French & Raven, 1962) or that the worker shares power utilizing models of
empowerment, strength-based and feminist theory (Brinker-Jenkins & Hooyman, 1986; …