Morag McArthur - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Morag McArthur

The ICPS Research to Practice Series links the findings of research undertaken by the Institute o... more The ICPS Research to Practice Series links the findings of research undertaken by the Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University, to the development of policy and practice in the area of child, youth and family welfare. This issue explores children and young people’s views about safety in institutions, what they believe makes an institution safe for children and young people, and what advice they would give adults about dealing with their safety needs. It builds on Issue 11 of this series, which looked at children’s conceptualisations of interpersonal safety.

Child & Family Social Work

Children's participation is essential to achieve good outcomes for children involved in child... more Children's participation is essential to achieve good outcomes for children involved in child protection systems. Despite this, research has consistently found children report low levels of participation, are poorly consulted and feel inadequately involved in decisions about their lives. To explore how practitioners understand children's participation, 18 in‐depth interviews were conducted with statutory child protection practitioners in Australia. The interviews explored the ways child protection practitioners understand children's participation. Our findings show practitioners conceptualize children as rights holders and believe it is essential to hear directly from children about their needs and wishes to keep them safe. Practitioners identified the importance of transparent processes and decisions. Different understanding of participation emerged, with some participants talking about children as their central focus but not discussing meaningful participation of the c...

On Friday 11 January 2013, the Governor-General appointed a six-member Royal Commission to inquir... more On Friday 11 January 2013, the Governor-General appointed a six-member Royal Commission to inquire into how institutions with a responsibility for children have managed and responded to allegations and instances of child sexual abuse. The Royal Commission is tasked with investigating where systems have failed to protect children, and making recommendations on how to improve laws, policies and practices to prevent and better respond to child sexual abuse in institutions. The Royal Commission has developed a comprehensive research program to support its work and to inform its findings and recommendations. The program focuses on eight themes: Why does child sexual abuse occur in institutions? How can child sexual abuse in institutions be prevented? How can child sexual abuse be better identified? How should institutions respond where child sexual abuse has occurred? How should government and statutory authorities respond? What are the treatment and support needs of victims/survivors an...

The ICPS Research to Practice Series links the findings of research undertaken by ICPS, to the de... more The ICPS Research to Practice Series links the findings of research undertaken by ICPS, to the development of policy and practice in the area of child, youth and family welfare. Issue 11 explores children and young people's conceptualisations of interpersonal safety, and what gives rise to these perceptions. This issue is based on the findings of the first part of a study conducted by ICPS, commissioned by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which examined children's experiences and perceptions of safety in institutions. This component of the study included focus groups with 121 children and young people aged 4 – 18 in the ACT, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. These included three focus groups with young carers, students at an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school, and children and young people in out-of-home care. More information about the project is provided at the end of the issue.

Children and Youth Services Review, 2021

Abstract Introduction Contact is an important part of the out-of-home care system and for maintai... more Abstract Introduction Contact is an important part of the out-of-home care system and for maintaining birth family relationships, but little research has sought the parents’ perspective. It is important to understand parents’ experiences of contact and the reasons why they may cancel contact visits, in order to both reduce cancellations and improve the contact experience and associated outcomes for all involved. Methods As part of the larger Australian kContact trial of a contact intervention, 90 parents having supervised contact with their children in long-term care were interviewed at baseline. The parents’ description of their contact visits is provided. Logistic regressions were used to estimate the odds of parent cancellation of contact visits for the predictor variables. Results Parents in the study reported a number of health, financial, and support issues, and had large numbers of children. Most of their children were in long-term foster care with visits primarily supervised by agency staff. In the multivariate analyses two significant results were found: parents were less likely to cancel visits when carers supervised contact and more likely to cancel when they, the parent, were on psychiatric medication. There was also a small effect suggesting that hosting contact visits away from an agency space may reduce parent cancellations. Discussion The need to provide supports for parents, particularly those on medication for mental health problems, to attend visits is an important finding from this study. Normalising contact visits by holding them in locations other than agency spaces and providing support for carers to supervise is recommended.

Children's Geographies, 2020

Children and young people's decision-making in social research about sensitive issues.

Institute of Child Protection Studies research to practice series, 2016

The Institute of Child Protection Studies at the Australian Catholic University was established i... more The Institute of Child Protection Studies at the Australian Catholic University was established in 2005 to carry out high quality research, evaluation and professional development to enhance outcomes for children, young people and families. Institute of Child Protection Studies Research to Practice Series Section 1 Challenges experienced by refugee families resettling in Australia Fifteen: Supporting Refugee Families in Australia Families with a refugee background often experience a range of challenges both prior to and during their resettlement in Australia. Refugee children, young people and their parents have often experienced frightening, traumatic, violent and life-threatening situations in their home countries prior to commencing their journey to safety; and may have spent years in refugee camps or time in immigration detention, prior to resettlement in Australia. These experiences, which can lead to significant psychological and emotional stress for families, underpin the complexity of their resettlement in Australia. Upon resettlement, concerns about language, employment, medical and health needs, education and housing; alongside the impacts of trauma and mental health issues, can make parenting a challenging task. As families adapt to a new and unfamiliar culture, new social systems and changing family roles and dynamics, some families experience difficulties managing family conflict and developing culturally appropriate parenting practices.

Law in Context. A Socio-legal Journal, 2018

The ethical complexities associated with research with children are well recognised and have been... more The ethical complexities associated with research with children are well recognised and have been debated extensively within the childhood literature. However, ethical issues occurring in research with children about sensitive issues, such as parental incarceration, and the practical solutions required to address such issues, are less well described. This paper draws on recent experiences of a research project conducted in the Australian Capital Territory exploring the needs of children of prisoners. It discusses three key interrelated methodological and ethical challenges observed by the researchers. While there is no doubt that considerable care needs to be taken to identify ethical and effective ways to undertake research with this group of children, we argue that applying a process of ethical reflexivity will assist researchers in planning and conducting ethical and methodologically valid research with children of prisoners.

Recent research with refugee families and specialist service providers highlights areas where ser... more Recent research with refugee families and specialist service providers highlights areas where service systems can be improved.

Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 2019

The MESSI (Managing Ethical Studies on Sensitive Issues) study used hypothetical scenarios, prese... more The MESSI (Managing Ethical Studies on Sensitive Issues) study used hypothetical scenarios, presented via a brief online survey, to explore whether payment amounts influenced Australian children and young people to participate in social research of different sensitivity. They were more likely to participate in the lower sensitivity study than in the higher at all payment levels (A$200 prize draw, no payment, 30,or30, or 30,or100). Offering payments to children and young people increased the likelihood that they would agree to participate in the studies and, in general, the higher the payments, the higher the likelihood of their participating. No evidence of undue influence was detected: payments can be used to increase the participation of children and young people in research without concerns of undue influence on their behavior in the face of relatively risky research. When considering the level of payment, however, the overriding consideration should be the level of risk to the children ...

Pädiatrie & Pädologie, 2015

This article won a competition seeking submissions on the subject of cancer for the Canada-wide s... more This article won a competition seeking submissions on the subject of cancer for the Canada-wide student journal, Health Science Inquiry (hsinquiry.sa.utoronto.ca).

Children & Society, 2016

In 2012, the Australian Government announced the establishment of a Royal Commission into Institu... more In 2012, the Australian Government announced the establishment of a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The aim of the Royal Commission is to understand how and why sexual abuse occurred within Australian institutions and to provide guidance as to how future abuse might be prevented. The Royal Commission commissioned a mixed methods study to explore what children need to be safe and to feel safe, to explore how they determine their level of safety, and their observations about how institutions act to prevent and respond to safety issues. This article reports on the findings from the first phase of the study that involved focus groups carried out with children aged 4-17 years from different types of institutions. The discussion focused particularly on how children conceptualise safety and how they make judgments about their levels of safety. Children and young people's conceptualisation of safety had multiple dimensions, which include the idea that being safe and feeling safe are two distinct, interrelated but sometimes non-concurrent experiences; that safety is identified and experienced as a set of feelings; trusting relationships are the foundation of safety; familiarity helps children feel safe; and safe environments are those that are ordered and orderly.

Children and Youth Services Review, 2017

Young people who live in residential care are at greater risk of experiencing sexual abuse and ot... more Young people who live in residential care are at greater risk of experiencing sexual abuse and other forms of abuse than those living in other out of home care placements. To better understand how young people perceive and experience safety in residential care, and the things that they most need to be and feel safe, a qualitative study was conducted with 27 Australian children and young people for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. This paper describes young people's perspectives on what makes residential care safe: supportive relationships, stability and predictability, fair rules, and having some control over their environment. Young people said that safety could be improved with: better appreciation of the risks in residential care; better matching, staffing and oversight; and better-designed responses that involve young people themselves. The findings provide critical insights from young people themselves and argue that adults and institutions need to appreciate their views of safety so as to adequately respond. Given the prevalence of historical and present abuse in group care settings in many countries, our work group was unanimous in designating child

Child & Family Social Work, 2016