Efficacy in working with migrant families in child welfare services: influencing factors

ABSTRACT

The Child Welfare Services (CWS) practitioners’ cultural competence in service provision influences the practice and decision-making, and thus outcomes for migrant children and families. This study investigates social workers’ confidence in delivering culturally sensitive services in Norway and assesses the main influencing factors by examining the relationship between self-efficacy and personal and work-related resources. In this study, a Self-efficacy Scale was developed to assess professionals’ beliefs in their capability to work with migrant families. The scale was administered through a questionnaire to child welfare workers in Norway (N = 251), and the reliability of the scale measured by Cronbach's alpha coefficient was .904. The data were analysed using univariate statistics, correlations, and multiple regressions. The study shows that practitioners’ level of efficacy in working with migrant families is high. Experience, training, and access to services with cultural expertise were the main contributing factors to confidence in delivering culturally sensitive services in CWS. The findings add to an emerging body of research exploring welfare services providers’ efficacy in service provision and highlight the need for recognising professional experience and training needs as well as developing and strengthening collaboration with culturally sensitive services in advancing the cultural competence within CWS’ practice.

ABSTRAKT

Ansatte i barnevernet utøver en type kulturell kompetanse som har implikasjoner for deres praksis og deres beslutninger, og som får betydning for migrantbarn og deres familier. Denne studien undersøker barnevernsarbeideres opplevelse av egen mestring for å kunne utøve kultursensitive tjenester i Norge; og vurderer de viktigste påvirkningsfaktorene mellom mestringfølelse og personlige og arbeidsrelaterte ressurser. Jeg utviklet en skala for opplevelse av mestringskompetanse for å kunne arbeide med migrantfamilier. Skalaen gjorde bruk av et spørreskjema som jeg hadde laget for barnevernsansatte i Norge (N = 251), og reliabiliteten til skalaen ble målt med Cronbachs alfa som har koeffisient på .904. Dataene ble analysert med univariate metoder samt korrelasjon og multippel regresjon. Resultatene viser at barnevernsarbeidernes opplevelse av egen mestring i arbeidet med migrantfamilier er høy. Erfaring, opplæring og tilgang til tjenester med kulturell kompetanse var de viktigste faktorene for å oppnå mestringstro på å kunne gi kultursensitive tjenester i barnevernet. Studien bidrar til å utvikle en gryende forskning om profesjonelle utøveres opplevelse av mestring i tjenesteyting og den viser betydningen av yrkeserfaring og behovene for spesialisert opplæring for å kunne utvikle kultursensitive tjenester og for å fremme den kulturelle kompetansen innenfor barnevernets praksis.

KEYWORDS:

• Child welfare services
• cultural competence
• self-efficacy
• migrant families
• resources

NØKKELORD:

• barneverntjenester
• kulturell kompetanse
• mestringstro
• migrantfamilier
• ressurser

Introduction

Like most European countries, Norway faces demographic changes due to immigration influx. The immigration doubled just in a decade between 2006 and 2016 and currently, immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents account for 19.9% of the 5.4 million population (SSBa, 2023). The diversity that migration brings to Norwegian society began in 1960s, which is relatively late in comparison to some other European countries and poses immediate challenges for policymakers, practice educators and not least reshapes the practice of Child Welfare Services (CWS). In recent years, the Norwegian CWS has attracted negative media attention after the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has sentenced the Norwegian state to violation of human rights concerning child protection cases, several of them involving migrant families (Hansen, 2019; Totland, 2019; Whewell, 2018). Following, a report from the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI, 2021), one of the main recommendations for Norwegian CWS, was to develop cultural competence and sensitivity and also to develop support services for families with a migration or minority background as a preventive measure for care and placement orders.

Recent media enquiries and reforms have put child protection practice under pressure to question the effectiveness of services and the competence of practitioners. Research shows that scrutiny of child protection services efficiency and increased managerialism may lead to reduced confidence in practice (Featherstone et al., 2014; Munro, 2005; White et al., 2010). A similar effect may be observed with regard to Norwegian CWS, as statistics show that the number of children removed from home under a care order has nearly halved between 2017 and 2021 (SSBc, 2021). Although the exact reason for the decrease in child removal decisions is unknown, it is considered that the ECtHR enquiries into social work practice could have led to practitioners being more cautious in their decision-making to avoid making mistakes (Alvik, 2021; Myklebust Odland, 2022; SOS-barnebyer, 2021, p. 33). The political and media discourses can negatively influence the public confidence in child protection services, as well as decrease the professional sense of confidence and expertise. Attention has mainly been focused on the deficiency of resources, competencies, and skills in child welfare, with less focus on what works in practice.

Understanding social worker’s abilities and development needs to deliver culturally sensitive practice is a vital part of practice improvements. National Guidelines for Child Protection and Child Welfare Social Work Education (Kunnskapsdepartemenet, 2019) require social work graduates to be able to ‘apply professional knowledge of cultural diversity and show multicultural understanding and cultural sensitivity in the performance of the service’ (§ 11, h) and furthermore ‘have insight into and can safeguard the rights of children, young people and families and contribute to ensuring equal services in a society characterized by diversity’ (§ 12, c). Cultural competency skills in CWS are recognised as a professional capability to deliver effective services to the diverse population, although social work practitioners may have a good theoretical background to work with migrant families, the organisational limitations and lack of required resources may interfere in the way services are delivered (Volckmar-Eeg & Enoksen, 2020). Although the competence of practitioners is essential to the quality of culturally sensitive service provision, the focus remains on practitioners to address the challenges with little attention paid to structural and organisational constraints that can affect their efficiency (Harrison & Turner, 2011).

Unfolding contributing factors to the confidence of social workers in working with diverse populations can provide more insight into opportunities to strengthen culturally sensitive practice and safeguard migrant children and families. These considerations are important for practice efficiency, development, and staff retention.

Culturally sensitive practice and self-efficacy concept

The efforts to improve the efficiency of service delivery to migrant families in the CWS have focused mainly on the development of social worker competence through training in cultural skills and knowledge (Bufdir, 2019). The main criticism of the concept of cultural competence is its vague definition and the limited research available concerning cultural skills past the graduation level. The term cultural competency is interchangeably used with a notion of cultural sensitivity, multicultural practice, cultural awareness, or anti-oppressive practice though sometimes the ideas may have contradictory meanings (Das & Carter Anand, 2016). The definition of cultural competence provided by Cross et al. (1989) is one of the most common definitions used in helping professions, such as social work, describing cultural competency as a ‘complex process of continuous development in systems and organisations involving policymakers, management, practitioners, and families as participants of the process’ (Cross et al., 1989, p. 28). Like other competences, cultural competence is a developmental process that is possible to achieve over time through training, experience, and support in conjunction with the organisation.

Although cultural competency training needs in social work practice have been discussed to some extent (Boyle & Springer, 2001; Danso, 2015; Jani et al., 2016; Williams, 2007), fewer studies have looked at the experiences and support needs of social workers as culturally competent service providers (Harrison & Turner, 2011; Teasley et al., 2005). Furthermore, evidence shows that the challenges of working with migrant families are one of the major contributing factors to stress in the social work profession (Holm-Hansen et al., 2007; Skivenes, 2015).

Despite increased efforts from Child Welfare organisations to provide access to professional training and development opportunities, the operationalisation of cultural skills and knowledge remines challenging for practitioners. Fraser and Greenhalgh (2001) argue that improving cultural competence defined as knowledge, skills, and attitudes is not enough to meet the developmental needs of professionals due to the complexity and changing nature of the praxis needs. They suggest that professional development should include capability described as the ability to adapt to change, generate new knowledge, and continuously improve performance (ibid).

The notion of capability was defined by Bandura (1986) in social cognitive theory and conceptualised as self-efficacy in person-behaviour-environment interrelationship. There is evidence to suggest that higher levels of self-efficacy in social work are associated with a greater aptitude for learning and effort to overcome obstacles, hence drawing attention to the strengths’ perspective (Kearns & McArdle, 2012; Molakeng et al., 2021). The concept of self-efficacy is identified as one of the central personal and organisational strategies to manage stress and support resilience. The theory suggests that people with a greater sense of efficacy use more effort to deal with challenges, while those who see themselves as ineffective concentrate on their deficiencies and can behave indecisively even if they know what to do. A self-belief in personal skills determines how much effort is made to achieve change and to be resilient to adversity (Bandura, 2001). The level of self-efficacy in multicultural work indicates the degree of confidence professionals have in their ability to provide culturally competent care and assistance.

Applying Bandura's concept of self-efficacy (1997) in the analysis of social work practice with migrant families, this study offers a new perspective, since it emphasises the importance of individual confidence in the ability to respond to challenges and the role of supporting factors in practice with diverse populations. The purpose of this article is to explore the broader support and resources necessary to strengthen the confidence of professionals and, thus, the effectiveness of culturally sensitive practice. In this context, risk and protective factors are explored in relation to self-efficacy beliefs. The findings from previous studies on self-efficacy in social work and supporting resources are discussed.

Self-efficacy in helping professions and supportive factors

Holden et al. (2002) were among the first to claim the self-efficacy construct to be used as an assessment tool for social work education outcomes, creating scales for general social work competencies. Several studies explored since social worker’s efficacy beliefs and associated factors, primary in studies concerning social work teachings and student performance (Holden et al., 2002; Petrovich, 2004; Simmons et al., 2017) as well as social work competencies and interventions delivery (Holden et al., 2017; Cheri J. Shapiro & Charest, 2020).

Education outcomes and training were found to be one of the main influencing factors for provider efficacy (Isawi & Post, 2020; Cheri J. Shapiro & Charest, 2020; Cheri J Shapiro et al., 2021). In a study investigating the confidence of counsellors in providing mental health support to refugees, the results showed a relationship between trauma training and efficacy beliefs (Isawi & Post, 2020). Furthermore, the training received was found to play an important role in the efficacy beliefs of the CWS providers in the implementation of evidence-based programmes (Cheri J. Shapiro & Charest, 2020). Bandura (1997, p. 131) suggests that ‘comparative feedback is essential in ongoing regulation of motivation’. Hence, direct and indirect feedback, such as supervision and team support, can be expected to positively contribute to self-efficacy beliefs in task delivery performance. Indeed, supervision that was perceived as effective and supporting was associated with lower levels of vicarious traumatisation in a study investigating self-efficacy among child welfare professionals (Berlanda et al., 2017). Workplace support was recognised to be a supporting factor in self-efficacy beliefs in a study of evidence-based programme delivery in child welfare (Cheri J. Shapiro & Charest, 2020); and a positive workplace environment was also attributed to higher efficacy beliefs and job satisfaction among social workers (Berlanda et al., 2017). Bandura (1997) suggested that the most influential factor in self-efficacy are mastery experiences, also called enacting attainments, where putting knowledge into practice develops confidence. Studies exploring cross-cultural self-efficacy within the nursing field have shown that practitioners who have more experience working with diversity feel more efficacious to work with culturally diverse patients (Herrero-Hahn et al., 2019; Jimenez et al., 2006; Quine et al., 2012). Furthermore, nurses who took training in cross-cultural content showed an increase in their self-efficacy beliefs in relation to working with patients over time (Coffman et al., 2004; Herrero-Hahn et al., 2019).

Supportive factors to social work confidence in practice

Several studies researched the association between risk and protective factors in the social work profession (Lloyd et al., 2009; McFadden et al., 2015). Lloyd et al. (2009) point out that organisational structure and climate, such as work pressure, role ambiguity, and type of relationship with supervisor are some of the factors related to increased risk of stress and burnout. The findings further suggest that lack of autonomy and difficulties in providing services to clients were found to contribute to low self-esteem, however, the support provided by managers and co-workers played a significant role in alleviating work-related stress. Similarly, a literature review conducted by McFadden et al. (2015) examined individual and organisational contributors to social work resilience. Positive contributors to retention of staff included training and development opportunities, constructive organisational cultures, supervisory support, and manageable workload. Furthermore, a sense of mastery, the appropriate level of job challenge, and the sense of belonging to an organisation were found to be some of the protective factors associated with resistance to stress (Baugerud et al., 2017). Norway as one of the first countries to implement evidence-based practice (EBP), encouraged the use of models and programmes in child welfare as the national government strategy moving towards model-based social work (Ekeland et al., 2019; Reime, 2016). The EBP literature advocates for use of manuals and standardised practice for achieving professional accountability and efficiency in practice (Gambrill, 2008), however, the critics argue that standardisation and privatisation of the practice pose risk of de-professionalisation and decrease of discretion in social work (Healy & Meagher, 2004). The research suggests that work pressure, lack of support and decreased professional autonomy are some of the risk factors in child protection leading to stress and burnout, these feelings can be further exacerbated by criticism and lack of trust from the public. In addition, research shows that social work with migrant families is complex and often more demanding compared to working with native families (Skivenes, 2015; Rugkåsa et™al., 2017; Laird & Tedam, 2019).

Based on previous research, this study explored the relationship between the level of experience, training, access to services, team support, use of guidelines, and research literature on perceived self-efficacy in work with migrant families. Research suggests that these resources are fundamental part of supporting social work practice and therefore part of professional resilience and confidence in providing effective services.

Jeffreys (2015) suggests that self-efficacy is a vital component that influences motivation, persistence, and commitment in the development of cultural competency. As such, exploring self-efficacy in providing culturally sensitive services and influencing factors is an important concept in providing implications for culturally sensitive practice and policy.

The questions to investigate in this article are:

1. What are the social worker’s self-efficacy beliefs in working with migrant families?

2. Is there a relationship between resources and self-efficacy and which resources are mostly related to the self-efficacy of the social worker in multicultural settings?

Method

Data collection and procedure

A convenience sample was used to reach social workers from the CWS in 11 counties in Norway for data collection. Contact email addresses for higher management were obtained through The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS). The sample was recruited by an email sent to senior management with a request to distribute an invitation letter and a survey link within their local CWS offices. It is difficult to estimate how many social workers received the link to the questionnaire and for that reason the response rate could not be calculated. The sampling method was intended to reach larger cities as well as more remote offices to gather diversified data. Only one county manager sent a response to advise that, due to high work demands and frequent requests to participate in research, they decided not to participate on this occasion. More managers probably did not respond for the same reasons but did not inform about their decision. After sending two reminders, 251 child protection social workers provided their responses to the online survey. The responses are anonymous, and the participants cannot be identified.

Measures

The demographic questions included in the questionnaire were gender, ethnic background, level of education, and years of experience in the profession.

Emerging from the perspective that perceived abilities of social workers to deal with challenges will influence how they handle and act on issues that arise, an efficacy scale was developed for the purpose of this study, adopted from Albert Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory and guide how to construct efficacy scales (Bandura, 2006). The conceptual framework for the resources questions was guided by the Norwegian Regulation on National Guideline for Social Work Education (Kunnskapsdepartemenet, 2019), literature review; and personal experience as child protection social worker. According to the National Guidelines, professionals are required to demonstrate cultural sensitivity in their work, protect the rights of migrant families and contribute to the development of equal services. The design of the questionnaire was consulted with a child protection team manager and piloted with 4 social workers in their team.

The letter sent with the survey link to managers provided an introduction to the study and the request for the survey to be forwarded to teams that work directly with migrant families. The general requirement for participation in the survey sent to social workers was to have some experience working with migrant families and answer the questions in relation to their experience working with this group of service users.

Dependent variable: self – efficacy

A literature review investigating self-efficacy research found that the measures used in previous studies were all different and many consisted of short scales with one to three questions only (Cheri J Shapiro et al., 2021). However,Bandura (1997) claims that the self-efficacy is a context-specific measure where global measure of self-efficacy cannot be applied, thus a specific measure should be designed to capture a concept. He also instructs that self-efficacy scales must be customised to ‘the particular domain of functioning that is the object of interest’ (Bandura, 2006, p. 308). To do this, the current study developed an instrument to capture the cultural and system-related nuances that characterise social work involving migrant families. The survey was designed based on the literature review, Bandura (1986, 1997, 2006) self-efficacy theory and guidance. (Figure 1)

Figure 1. The research model.

An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to ensure the validity of the concept. The criteria used for validation included loadings above .40 and factors having more than one substantial loading (Hair, 1998). Additionally, common sense should be used when deciding the number of factors to extract. A scree test (Cattell, 1966) indicated differences in the size of eigenvalues between the fourth and fifth factors. A four-factor solution was chosen as the best possible outcome and the eigenvalues that were higher than 1.0 were extracted. The four dimensions explained 71% of the variance and were labelled assessment skills, relationship building ability, support request ability, and teamwork. Where assessment skills accounted for 41%, relationship for 16%, support request ability 7%, and teamwork for 6% of the total variance. As the Cronbach’s alpha value of all of the factors are higher than 0.6 the instruments’ internal consistency and reliability can be considered adequate. As a result of factor analysis, four factors were configured, and cultural self-efficacy sub-dimensions were distinguished accordingly to the range of practice tasks. The internal reliability of the scale measured by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .904.

Self-efficacy beliefs were assessed using 18 questions (Table 1).

Table 1. Self – efficacy scale items.

Item	N	Mean	Median	Std. Deviation	Range	Min	Max
Help migrant families to understand reasons for your involvement	209	5.36	6	1.23	5	2	7
Get migrant parents to be honest with you	208	4.42	4	1.16	6	1	7
Get migrant parents to trust you	206	4.83	5	1.24	6	1	7
Develop a good working relationship with migrant family	208	5.38	6	1.18	6	1	7
Establish a good working relationship with the migrant child	206	5.48	6	0.98	5	2	7
Assess the child’s needs	208	5.19	5	1.21	5	2	7
Identify strengths and resources of the family’s extended network	207	5.00	5	1.20	5	2	7
Establish the migrant child's wishes	205	5.08	5	1.09	5	2	7
Establish the parent’s values in upbringing their child	198	4.82	5	1.24	5	2	7
Seek clarification with the family on their cultural values	197	4.77	5	1.24	6	1	7
Ensure that parents understand their parental rights and responsibilities	194	4.94	5	1.29	6	1	7
Get support from a colleague when dealing with a culturally related issue	199	5.69	6	1.39	6	1	7
Get support from your line manager when dealing with a culturally related issue	194	5.59	6	1.44	6	1	7
Openly discuss in your team meeting challenges affecting you in your work with migrant families	194	6.04	6	1.23	6	1	7
Get your family and/or friends to support you with culturally related challenges at work	193	4.24	4	1.96	6	1	7
Challenge my colleagues if they are not dealing with multicultural issues in an appropriate way	199	5.50	6	1.21	5	2	7
Support my colleagues in challenges related to work with migrant families	197	5.97	6	0.98	4	3	7
Influence internal policy regarding working with migrant families	197	5.12	5	1.45	6	1	7

The 7-point Likert-type scales (1-7) ranged from ‘I cannot perform the task at all’ to ‘I am highly confident to perform the task’. The sum of 18 items of the scale results indicated the level of self-efficacy beliefs with a higher score indicating the highest level of efficacy. The belief scale was calculated as the mean of these items, with 1 representing a low confidence in performing a specific task.

Independent variables – personal and organisational resources

To assess resources, participants were asked 8 questions about their personal resources and the support available to them as practitioners. The question regarding (a) experience was measured on scale 1-4 with a range from ‘no experience’ to ‘a lot of experience’ and the remaining questions (b) have you participated in cultural training and (c) ‘Do you have access to translation services were given yes or no answer options; (d) ‘Do you have access to culturally sensitive services to assist clients of ethnic background’; (e) ‘Do you receive support from your manager in cases related to migrant families’; (f) ‘Are you supported in your work with migrant families by your colleagues’; (g) ‘Do you use practice guidelines to safeguard migrant families’; and (h) ‘Do you read professional publications related to multicultural practice’. The culturally sensitive services in question (d), (‘hjelpetiltak’ in Norwegian) refers to services social workers provide to families e.g. parenting support or referrals to specialised support institutions. The Children Act 2023 states: ‘When a child is considered in need due to his/her care situation or behavioural needs, the child protection service must offer and implement support services for the child and parents [author’s translation]’ (Barne- og familiedepartementet, 2023).

Items were rated using a 4-point Likert-type scale with responses ranging from never (1) to often (4). Experience working with migrant families was measured on a scale ranging from no experience (1), little experience (2), moderate (3), to a lot of experience (4). The training variable had two options: undertook multicultural training (1) and did not have training (2). The access to translation services was coded as no = ‘0’ and yes = ‘1’, all respondents reported having access to translation services, thus this item was removed from further analysis.

Data analysis

Descriptive statistics were used to illustrate the participant’s demographic characteristics and to analyse study variables. Pearson’s correlations were used to assess the relationship between the study variables: self-efficacy, experience, training, services, management support, colleagues’ support, guidelines, and publications.

Multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine how the explained variance of self-efficacy was distributed among predictors. The dependent variable in the regression models is an ordinal variable that measures self-efficacy beliefs in the delivery of culturally sensitive services. The dependent variable includes factors assessing confidence in delivering different tasks in work with migrant families, i.e. relationship building factor. The independent variables in the regression models are both binary variables and ordinal variables.

Results

Sample

The study population consists of social workers employed in child protection in Norway. The sample (N = 251) includes 83% women and 17% men, which is consistent with the national gender distribution among social workers (Dahle, 2010). The average age of the participant in this sample was 41 years (SD = 11.3). There is little variation in the ethnic background of child protection workers in the study, with participants predominantly describing their background as Norwegian (83%) and the rest (17%) considered themselves non-Norwegians. The majority (79%) of the participants had a bachelor’s degree and 17% of the participants reported having a master’s degree in social work or another discipline. On average, participants had 9 years of experience in the profession (Table 2).

Table 2. Sample characteristics (N = 251).

Variable	Total N	Percentage	Mean	Std. Deviation
Age	241	96	41	11.3
Gender
Woman	214	87
Men	32	13
Educational level
Bachelor’s social work	170	72
Bachelor’s other	16	7
Master’s social work	27	11
Master’s other	11	5
PhD	6	2
Ethnicity
Norwegian	209	83
Non-Norwegian	42	17

Social worker’s self-efficacy beliefs

The mean score on the self-efficacy scale was 5.1 (SE = 0.8). This result indicates that social workers perceive their efficacy to be high.

Relationship between self-efficacy beliefs and resources

Statistical assumptions were tested before performing multiple regression. The sample size of 251 social workers was accepted as adequate in reference to the number of independent variables (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2013). Examination of the intercorrelations self-efficacy and resources (Table 3 and Table 4) indicates significant positive low to medium correlations between the variables.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics of the variables.

Variables	N	Mean	SD	Range
Self-efficacy	208	5.1	0.8	1–7
Resources
Experience^a	226	3.2	0.6	1–4
Training^b	225	1.4	0.4	1–2
Services^c	221	2.8	0.6	1–4
Management support	219	3.6	0.5	1–4
Colleagues support	218	3.7	0.4	1–4
Guidelines	217	2.5	0.8	1–4
Publications	217	2.7	0.6	1–4

^a Experience scales: (1) no experience; (2) a little experience; (3) moderate experience; (4) a lot of experience.

^b Completed multicultural training scales: (1) no; (2) yes.

^c Services–Publications scales: (1) never; (2) sikeldom; (3) sometimes; (4) most of the time.

Table 4. Pearson correlations between independent and dependent variables (N = 208).

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1. Self-efficacy
2. Experience	.378**
3. Training	.277**	.288**
4. Services	.343**	.077	.033
5. Management Support	.137	.04	–.054	.126
6. Colleague Support	.201**	.021	.097	.135*	.400**
7. Practice Guidelines	.177*	.118	.175**	.123	.109	.187**
8. Research Publications	.095	.214**	.263**	.023	-.028	.039	.309**

Notes: **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05.

Significant correlation was observed between experience with migrant families, training, services, colleague support, practice guidelines, and self-efficacy. Patterns provided initial support for links between areas of interest, although the magnitude of those associations was relatively small. The strongest correlation was observed between management support and colleagues support (r = .40, p = .001). The correlation coefficients are low to medium (Cohen, 1988, p. 79) and indicate that the confidence of social workers in working with migrant families is associated with experience, external support, training, and to a lesser degree with the support of colleagues and the use of practice guidelines.

Multiple Regression Analysis of resources variables on self-efficacy

Before conducting the regression analyses, the background variables (gender, education, and ethnicity) were carefully observed due to the little variance in the sample. A Mann–Whitney U Test revealed no significant difference in the self – efficacy levels of males (Md = 93.5, n = 22) and females (Md = 94, n = 153), U = 1778, p = .66. The test shown no significant difference for Norwegians (Md = 94, n = 143) and non – Norwegians (Md = 96, n = 33), U = 2337, p = .93. A Kruskal – Wallis test revealed no significant differences in self-efficacy levels between education groups χ2 (6, n = 172) = 9.49, P = .14. Therefore, background variables were not included in further analysis.

Preliminary analyses were performed to ensure that there was no violation of the assumption of normality, linearity, multicollinearity, and homoscedasticity for variables before regression analysis. For multicollinearity the values of tolerance and VIF were checked, the tolerance values for each independent variable were not less than .831 and VIF values were not exceeding 1.204, therefore, the multicollinearity assumption was not violated. Normality was checked by inspecting the normal probability plot as a part of the analysis; the analysis confirmed that there were no major deviations. In the analysis of the scatterplot of the standardised residuals, there were no major deviations from a centralised rectangular distribution. The data also met the assumption of homoscedasticity, as no patterns were observed in the scatterplot. Casewise Diagnostics detected a participant with a standardised residual value of −3.1 with maximum value for Cook’s Distance .045, suggesting that this case would not excessively influence the results of the model as a whole (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2013, p. 75).

A 4-step multiple hierarchical regression was conducted with self-efficacy as dependent variable. Demographic variables were not included in the analysis due to the little variance shown in previous tests. Model 1 included experience; Model 2 training and Model 3 services, whereas Model 4 adjusted for the rest of the covariates. A forced entry method was used to allow examination of the unique and independent contribution of each variable after adjusting for the effects of the other variables (Table 5).

Table 5. Summary of regression analysis for variables predicting self-efficacy (N = 206).

	1		2		3		4
Resources	B	β	B	Β	B	β	B	β
Experience	.50	.38**	.43	.33**	.38	.29**	.39	.30**
Training			.30	.18*	.29	.17*	.27	.16*
Services					.36	.29**	.32	.26**
Support from colleagues							.20	.12
Support from manager							.01	.01
Practice guides							.06	.06
Publications							–.05	–.04
Constant	3.560		3.345		2.497		1.735
Δ R²	.14		.17		.25		.26
R²							.022
F for change in R²							12.08**

Notes: Standardised beta coefficients are reported, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.

Dependent variable: self – efficacy beliefs.

Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that at step one, the variable contributed significantly to the regression model (F [1,205] = 34.677, p < .001). The introduction of the training variable produced a significant change in R² (F [2,206] = 21.505, p < .001). Adding the service variable in the next step increased the explanatory value of the model to 25% (F [3,203] = 25.783, p < .001). Adding the four measures in the last step increased the explanatory value of the model to 26% (F [7,199] = 12.085, p < .001).

In other words, social workers with more experience, access to services, and who undertook training in multicultural work reported a higher level of self-efficacy. The ANOVA (F (7,199) = 12.085, p < .001) suggest that this was a statistically significant model indicating that these results were unlikely to have arisen by chance. However, since the explained variance of the models ranged from 14% to 26%, this indicates that there are additional factors that explain variations in the beliefs of self-efficacy of social workers, which are discussed in the current study.

Discussion

The purpose of this paper was to examine factors associated with social worker’s efficacy beliefs in working with migrant families. This study is the first to apply the concept of efficacy to the assessment of the CWS practitioners’ confidence in working with migrant families and provides a scale for the assessment of CWS practitioner’s self-efficacy beliefs in cultural abilities. The social workers in this sample were confident in their ability to provide services to families with migrant background, ranking their efficacy beliefs as high. The higher efficacy beliefs were attributed to a level of experience, availability of support services, and training received in multicultural approaches. Further analysis revealed that social workers are to a lesser degree dependent on management and colleague support, reading research publications and guidelines to assess their self-efficacy in working with migrant families.

The study findings imply that the perceived ability in multicultural practice appears to be higher among participants who are more experienced working with this group of service users. These results are consistent with other studies in the field of helping professions, which found that more years of cultural experience are associated with a higher sense of self-efficacy (Herrero-Hahn et al., 2019; Quine et al., 2012). The present study demonstrates that practitioners value experiential knowledge gained through practice suggesting that confidence grows through practicing the virtues. In fact, experience and exposure to different cultures indicated to play a significant role in a number of studies that analysed the quality of care provided to migrant patients by nurses (Herrero-Hahn et al., 2019). More familiarity and exposure to Hispanic and Latino communities also indicated higher self-efficacy among nurses from the USA with these groups, indicating a positive effect of immersion and familiarity with a specific culture on efficacy beliefs (Jimenez et al., 2006). In addition, the above findings conclude with Bandura’s (1997) claim that mastery experiences and vicarious experiences are the most influential on self-efficacy in completing the assigned task.

Another facilitating factor to self-efficacy beliefs in this study was access to services as a resource to provide culturally sensitive assistance. The most common support services offered to migrant families in Norway are aimed at strengthening child’s development, parenting skills, and those that involve collaboration with other services (Bufdir, 2022). One possible explanation for why access to services is so important when working with migrant families could be that social workers seek external expertise and support when trying to implement culturally sensitive approaches in their practice. However, previous research did not find evidence to suggest the need for culturally tailored intervention measures and methods to be established, recommended further development of competence in culturally sensitive approaches, and suggested recruitment of culturally diverse social work staff (Bogen & Nadim, 2009; Holm-Hansen et al., 2007). Findings from a systematic review of the literature suggest that the use of link workers employed in community or non-governmental organisations in these cases can support public services professionals in understanding family needs and choosing culturally sensitive interventions (Jardim et al., 2020). The benefits of collaborative practice have been widely discussed in the literature (Cemlyn & Allen, 2016; Payne, 2000; Willumsen, 2015) furthermore, partnership approaches promote equality and trust between social workers and local communities. The present study demonstrates that social workers value external support and expertise in their decision-making. This finding suggests a need for further evaluation of the role collaborative work with external agencies to enhance services for the diverse populations.

Similarly, increasing skills through training in cultural knowledge shows a positive relationship with self-efficacy in this study. These results align with previous research in which training and improving social work skills were associated with higher self-efficacy beliefs in the delivery of evidence-based programmes in CWS (Cheri J. Shapiro & Charest, 2020). The benefits of professional development have been extensively discussed by researchers and policymakers as a response to practice needs in Norwegian CWS (Bufdir, 2017; Thorshaug et al., 2010). Providing opportunities to support the development of cultural sensitivity and skills can support the confidence of social workers in safeguarding migrant families.

Although experience, services and training were found to be associated with self-efficacy in the current study, there were no significant associations found between several other factors examined. For instance, the management support did not show a significant relationship with self-efficacy in the current study, which contrasts with previous research (Chen & Scannapieco, 2010; Collins-Camargo & Royse, 2010). This contrary finding might suggest that Norwegian social workers potentially exhibit a higher sense of professional autonomy in decision-making (Ekeland et al., 2019; Jessen & Tufte, 2014; Samsonsen & Willumsen, 2014), however, this relationship has not been explored in this study. The study participants expressed high satisfaction with both the support from colleagues and the management, which may also partially explain the lack of significance in relation to self-efficacy. Furthermore, no significant relationship was found between practice guides and self-efficacy beliefs. It should be noted that there are no national multicultural practice guidelines or manuals available in the Norwegian child welfare system, and only some municipalities use internal practice manuals, which may partially explain the lack of association between the two variables. Furthermore, reading the research literature was not associated with self-efficacy. Recent research findings on the main sources of knowledge in Norwegian CWS implied that due to a heavy workload and a lack of time that characterise child protection work, professionals do not prioritise the research literature as a source of knowledge (Finne et al., 2020; Iversen & Heggen, 2016).

Given the limited research exploring the efficacy of social work with migrant families, the findings in the current study call for certain considerations. This study adds to existing research that training and experience contribute to efficacy beliefs and, in addition, identifies that the cultural expertise offered by external services plays a significant role in the efficacy beliefs. In line with social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1997, 2001), suggesting that higher self-efficacy beliefs are associated with better professional outcomes such as job performance (Stajkovic & Luthans, 1998) and culturally sensitive communication skills (Quine et al., 2012), this study shows that access to services adds to mastery feelings.

Working in partnership with services such as, e.g. community centres, non-governmental organisations, and cultural brokers, can enable more diverse approaches to develop culturally competent workforce in CWS. In addition, more attention should be paid to the developmental needs of social workers, especially the form and context of the training provided. A more transformative approach to training and new methods to increase social worker cultural competency should be explored, for example, through collaborative work, mentoring, culturally sensitive supervision, and experiential development opportunities.

Although the development of culturally sensitive services is at the core of the principles and policy of the child welfare service, its effectiveness not only depends on the reflexivity and creativity of practitioners, but also integrates with the availability of resources and enabling support networks created by organisations. This study contributes to the emerging body of literature on self-efficacy as a measure of provider confidence in delivering services. The results suggest that (a) experience; (b) providing training and mentoring opportunities; and (c) developing support networks offering cultural expertise can contribute to higher self-efficacy beliefs in providing culturally sensitive practice and hence better services to migrant families.

Limitations

This study had some limitations that may be addressed in future research. One of the major limitations is the difficulty of calculating the response rate because the sample was recruited through senior management with a request to distribute a survey link within their local offices. The problem with non-response is that those who agree to part take may differ in various way from those who do not agree or cannot be contacted to participate.

The data collected are the result of self-reporting, which may skew the results in the direction of socially acceptable replies. Self-efficacy in multicultural work is probably a skill that most professionals would like to achieve a high score, suggesting that social desirability could be a factor influencing survey responses. The self-efficacy rating was based on beliefs about confidence in performing the task. Although this is a common approach to measure efficacy, it needs to be noted that self-efficacy is a more complex construct. Hence, more research is needed with regard to understanding self-efficacy construct especially in migration context and its relationship with other factors in delivering services to children and families. One of the main limitations of the self-designed questionnaire is the reliability and validity of the instrument. The non-standardised instrument, however, is customised and can serve for an individual measure purpose, which was used in this study to investigate perceptions of the social worker’s practice. The sampling in this study also provided significant limitations for conclusions to be drawn for a larger population of social workers. In future research, it would be beneficial to collect nationally representative survey data and further extend enquiries into the beliefs of social workers about their abilities in the migration context.

However, the results of this study show that self-efficacy is a vital component of the preparedness of social workers for their role as culturally sensitive practitioners. By identifying personal and workplace resources that contribute to the efficacy of social workers, this study provides valuable information to organisations on what assistance is needed to support the field of practice.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University of Agder.

Notes on contributors

Justyna Mroczkowska

Justyna Mroczkowska is a PhD candidate in sociology and social work, her research interests include profession of social work and professional development needs, migrant families’ involvement with CWS and child protection. Her background in social work in child protection, fostering and adoption teams was a start up point and inspiration into research in the field.