Defining Well-Being In Child Welfare: A Qualitative Study of Lived and Professional Perspectives across the Child Welfare System

Background and Purpose: Well-being represents one of the central goals of the U.S child welfare system. Historically, however, child welfare efforts have prioritized safety and permanency, with less clarity around how well-being should be conceptualized, measured, and promoted both in research and practice. The absence of a shared and comprehensive understanding of well-being limits the field’s ability to design effective interventions, evaluate program outcomes, and synthesize findings across research studies. Given the complexity and subjective nature of well-being, a qualitative approach is particularly well-suited to capturing the depth and nuance of multiple perspectives from those with lived experiences and other involved parties. To inform more comprehensive child welfare policy, practice, research, and evaluation, this study aimed to explore how diverse child welfare partners define and make meaning of child well-being in the child welfare context.

Method: Focus group data were gathered from five key groups involved in the child welfare system. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 28 participants: 7 kinship caregivers, 5 foster parents, 3 child welfare caseworkers, 3 biological parents, and 10 young adults with lived experience with child welfare. Participants were recruited through community and agency partnerships. Semi-structured focus groups were conducted separately for the groups to elicit perspectives on what well-being means for children involved in child welfare. All focus groups were conducted via Zoom and lasted approximately 90 minutes. Data management and analysis were conducted using ATLAS.ti qualitative data analysis software. Coding was conducted by four members of the research team to enhance analytic rigor, with discrepancies resolved through regular meetings. Data were analyzed using a team-based, inductive thematic analysis approach.

Results: Overall, participants across groups conceptualized well-being as a construct that encompasses multiple, interrelated domains. While participants emphasized different aspects of well-being based on their roles and experiences, there was a broad consensus that “child well-being” was a complex, multifaceted construct that extends beyond the absence of harm or maltreatment. Specifically, five themes emerged: (1) Basic Foundations of Care, highlighting the importance of safety, stability, and access to essential resources; (2) Emotional Safety and Psychological Well-being, emphasizing the need for children to feel secure, valued, and supported; (3) Relationships, Belonging, and Social Connectedness, underscoring meaningful interpersonal relationships; (4) Growth, Autonomy, and Preparation for the Future, highlighting the importance of developmental opportunities and skill-building; and (5) Multidimensional and Holistic Conceptualizations of Well-being, emphasizing the dynamic, multifaceted, and context-dependent nature of well-being.

Conclusion: By capitalizing on diverse perspectives, this study highlights the need for policies and practices that move beyond risk reduction to actively foster conditions that support thriving for children involved in child welfare. Findings underscore the importance of adopting a holistic, strengths-based framework to understand and promote child well-being in the context of child welfare. Specific implications include the development of multidimensional measures of well-being, increased attention to relational and developmental domains in service delivery, and the integration of informed definitions into system design and program development, evaluation, and research.