Defining and categorizing the child welfare target group in Iran according to experts, laws, and policies

Abstract Introduction: Nowadays the concept of the child welfare system is defined in different countries due to the role of government and society in providing an appropriate context for the comprehensive development of children. The main role of the child welfare system is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and adolescents whose families do not meet or protect their needs. Also, in a more preventive and universal approach, child welfare includes the development of social facilities and contexts in which all children are given a fair and sufficient opportunity to develop their potential abilities. Given the historical trend of child welfare systems in various countries, their main mission is to respond specifically to the needs of children who have been reported as abused or neglected. In recent decades, this limited view has faced many criticisms, so as a result, more and more varied groups of at-risk children have been addressed by child welfare services in different countries. Which groups of children in what severity, need, and harm should be covered by child welfare systems, are defined specifically in each country according to its laws and policies. In Iran, there is no structured and defined child welfare system, and one of the first steps to establish the system is to identify and define its target group. Therefore, this study seeks to identify different types of at-risk or in-need children in which government and public agencies should provide them with special services rather than a general population of children.   Method: This qualitative study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, conventional qualitative content analysis was applied to in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with child welfare experts in Iran. Purposeful and theoretical sampling was used until data saturation was gained by 56 qualitative interviews. The interviews were analyzed simultaneously using MAXQDA 2018 software.  In the second phase, conventional qualitative content analysis was utilized to analyze the laws, regulations, and policies in addition to documents relating to children's services to determine and categorized the existing target groups. The sample included all of the valid laws, regulations, policies (184 ones), and also all the formal documents relating to children's services provided by the government(327 ones) were analyzed using MAXQDA 2018 software.   Findings: This study, defined and categorized current and proposed target groups of the child welfare system in Iran. Currently, 22 categories and 96 subcategories of at-risk or in need children are given special attention in laws and policies or by various government agencies, in other words, they are the current target groups of the child welfare system of Iran. In addition to identifying and classifying the existing target groups of the child welfare system in Iran, as a result of analyzing in-depth interviews with experts and also reviewing the experiences of other countries, the proposed target groups should be addressed by child welfare services in Iran were defined and classified. The proposed children who should be considered at risk or in need and consequently should benefit from the special attention and services of the child welfare system were categorized in 23 categories and 123 subcategories. Both of these target groups were analyzed in the context of the socio-ecological perspective and classified into three types of risky situations: risky situations related to individual factors; risky situations related to family factors, and risky situations related to structural social, economic, and cultural factors. The main categories of proposed target groups in these three classifications are reported in the following table.   Table: The main categories of proposed target groups of the child welfare system in Iran Main Categories the risky situations related to individual factors 1-orphaned children or children with inappropriate caregivers 2- sick or disabled children or children with physical, mental, and behavioral disorders 3- children with educational problems 4- abused and neglected children 5- child labors and street children 6- children without identity  7- children in contact with the justice system  8- children with at-risk behavior 9- children at risk of cyber and online crimes the risky situations related to family factors 10- children in poor and low-income families 11- children in families with disabled or sick members or with members who have physical, mental, and behavioral disorders 12- children in families involved in  social problems  13- children in families with single parent 14- children in families with members in conflict with the law 15- children in troubled, broken, or rebuilt families the risky situations related to structural social, economic, and cultural factors 16- children in disadvantaged, slums, at-risk, or isolated regions 17- children in rural eras and children of nomads 18- children at risk or confronting natural and man-made accidents and disasters 19- Immigrant or refugee children 20- children subject to racial, sex, religious, or language discrimination 21- children at risk or involved in child marriage 22- children at risk of harmful cultural practices 23- other kinds of at-risk children   Discussion: Defining and classifying the target groups of child welfare systems, the children need special attention and services, could lead to an integrated and coordinated structure and framework for policy and service planning in the organizational and inter-organizational levels to cover comprehensively all of the at-risk or in-need children by the responsible agencies, specifically the State Welfare Organization of Iran. This framework by the optimal management of the available resources not only could prevent the parallel and non-integrated services to some of these children, but also could prevent ignoring and neglecting some of these groups. However, it is noteworthy that due to the multiple and various groups of defined at-risk or in-need children in Iran, the role of preventive and universal measures and policies, especially establishing a comprehensive and efficient public welfare and social security system is increasingly emphasized.