Empirical Methods for Studying Decision-Making in Child Welfare and Protection

Studying the complex nature of decision-making in child welfare and protection is challenging. Researcher in this field uses various empirical methods, each with its advantages and limitation. This chapter describes the current state of the art of the most prominent empirical methods used to study this subject and to identify empirical methods from other fields, with the potential to advance decision-making research in child protection. The authors briefly describe methods for decision-making research, give examples of how these methods were used, and critically assess their strengths and limitations. “Black-box” input-output analysis is reviewed, and the authors describe the use of case files and administrative data, agency surveys, and experimental designs with simulated cases. The chapter then describes methods to trace decision processes based on verbalization (think-aloud), behavior (tracing information acquisition), and people’s sense-making in everyday contexts (ethnographic observations). The review ends with recommendations of future directions for research on decision-making in child protection.