Authors: Maram Abu Libdeh
The study aimed to investigate the services provided by the Ministry of Social Development for children exposed to domestic violence from the perspectives of a sample of social workers in the Northern West Bank Governorates. The study approached the literature as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, which addressed both theoretical and applied research. The significance of this recent study is the first, which dealt with this theme, to the author knowledge, which in turn encourages other researchers to work on further research on this important issue.
To achieve this end, the study adopted the quantitative research approach using the sampling survey method. The questionnaire is appropriate for the exploratory nature of the research. A 60-item questionnaire was formulated which was divided into five sub-scales as follows: the general information of the participants; the second section dealt with the counseling and awareness (15 items); the third section included the protection services (15 items), the fourth has the social services (15 items), and the fifth included the psychological counseling services sub-scale (15 items). The convenience sample method was utilized which comprised of a sample size of (216) male and female respondents from social workers in the Northern West Bank Governorates. The collected data was statistically analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS).
The findings revealed that the social workers confirmed the high value of the protection services provided by the Ministry of Social Development to the children exposed to family domestic violence (M 4.17, SD 0.91). The study revealed the determinant impact of the protection services sub-scales in decreasing domestic violence among children as perceived by the social workers in the Northern West Bank Governorates. The mean scores and standard deviation for the protection services, counseling and awareness, psychological counseling and social services were (M 4.40, SD 0.96; M 4.29, SD 0.97; M 4.26, SD 0.99; M 3.90, SD 0.99) respectively.
Findings showed that, there are statistically significant differences in the level of protection services provided by the Ministry of Social Development to children exposed to domestic violence from the perspective of the sampled according to gender, marital status, Governorates, workplace, and years of experience. However, no statistically significant differences were found attributed to the age.
These findings confirm the value of protection services provided by Ministry of Social Development in decreasing family domestic violence among children in the Palestinian society in general, and among children at Northern West Bank Governorates in particular. and recommend the need of improving the protection services provided by the Ministry of Social Development, through integrated coordination between all protection networks, to provide effective strategies that contribute to providing full care for children exposed to family domestic violence, providing effective legal legislation to protect children from family domestic violence, in cooperation with child protection institutions, and further research is essential in the area of protection services and domestic violence among children in the Palestinian society using the qualitative research design.
Keywords: Protection services, Ministry of Social Development, domestic violence, social workers, children, Palestine.
Maram Abu Libdeh, MA. Social Worker, Faculty of Social Sciences, Al-Quds Open University, Ramallah, Palestine. Independent Researcher, Qalqeliya, Palestine. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
