Parents’ perspectives of how the parent-family worker relationship enhances parenting capacity to support children’s wellbeing in families where child neglect is an issue

There is widespread agreement that the working relationship is a necessary condition to parents effectively engaging in child welfare interventions (de Boer and Coady, 2007; Kazdin and Whitley, 2006). Successful engagement has been found to have positive implications for families. Regarding child welfare work, numerous studies have found the working relationship to support improved parent relationships with their children, along with improved parent self esteem, confidence, coping, advocacy, parenting skills, physical circumstances, and social support (de Boer and Coady, 2007; Howe, 2010 ; Kirkpatrick, Barlow, Stewart-Brown, and Davis, 2007; Ribner and Knei-Paz, 2002).