Community and informal social support for recipients of child protective services

A qualitative study of parents receiving child protective services (CPS) was conducted to understand their experience with CPS involvement. Sixty-one parents from two CPS agencies in Ontario, Canada, participated in semistructured interviews lasting 1.5 to 2 h. A grounded theory approach was used to find emergent themes in the rich data, which included the role of formal and informal supports in parents' lives. The findings indicate that social service organizations, places of belonging in the community, friends, and family are critical factors in mitigating the difficult life circumstances of parents involved with CPS.