“Just Did The Best That I Could Do”: CPS Social Workers’ Perceptions of Self-Efficacy in Legal Aspects

Child protective services (CPS) social workers assess safety and risk needs during abuse and neglect investigations to determine if legal interventions are needed. However, only 60% of abuse and neglect cases have safety and risk assessed during the investigatory process in North Carolina. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of self-efficacy among rural North Carolina CPS social workers in child abuse and neglect investigations. Understanding CPS social workers’ perceptions of self-efficacy and factors that may influence their self-efficacy is vital to improving job satisfaction, retention, and the legal and investigative processes relating to child abuse and neglect. A purposive sampling approach was used to recruit nine CPS social workers in rural counties in North Carolina. Through a process of open, axial, and selective coding, we conclude that a CPS social worker’s self-efficacy is impacted by factors relating to leadership and legal teams, longevity, previous social work experience, and paperwork and caseload demands.