Social work assessment of families with children at risk : similarities and differences in Italian and Swedish public services

Sammanfattning: The thesis aims at understanding and explaining social work assessment of families with children at risk, at the level of practice, considering social workers' role in their national welfare system.· The thesis embodies four articles and is informed by a comparative perspective between Sweden and Italy. The first three articles are based on a vignette study focusing on social workers' assessment of three cases of children at risk and the fourth article draws on a broad cross-national survey focusing on social workers' perception of power. The comparison shows great similarities in assessment and line of reasoning when it comes to cases involving infants and small children, while differences are more evident when it comes to adolescent behaviour. Italian social workers are in general more oriented to intervene than their Swedish counterparts. However, Swedish social workers perceive that they have greater power towards their · clients than their Italian colleagues. Differences in the assessment at level of practice are only partly explained by national welfare systems. Also local organisational structures, cultural understandings, and the role assumed by professionals in respect.to their mandate, seem to be influencing factors when it comes to soda! workers' assessment of families with children at risk.