Thesis Portfolio - Supporting Families at Risk: Social Workers Experiences of a Family Safeguarding Model and the Effectiveness of Parent-Infant Psychotherapy

Sep 1, 2026

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Thesis portfolio examining how social workers experience the Family Safeguarding Model and evaluating the effectiveness of parent-infant psychotherapy for infant development. The work includes a structured literature review focused on parenting, parental mental health, and attachment relationships, alongside an overview of methods, search strategy, quality assessment, synthesis, and critical appraisal. Findings are discussed with implications for clinical practice, limitations, and research directions relevant to safeguarding and early relational intervention.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPaper Templates

FormatDOCX

Pages238

Reading Time1 h 23 min

AccessFree to download

Thesis abstract

Paper 1: Literature Review

Introduction

Method

Results

Discussion

Clinical implications

Conclusion

References

Appendices

Supporting families at risk: social workers experiences of a Family Safeguarding Model and the effectiveness of parent infant psychotherapy Charlotte Cucciniello Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Staffordshire University for the degree of Doctorate in Clinical Psychology April 2023 Total word count: 18823 THESIS PORTFOLIO: CANDIDATE DECLARATION Acknowledgements Thank you to the social workers who gave up their valuable time to speak with me and share your experiences. Without you, this research would not have been possible. I would like to acknowledge and thank my clinical supervisors Dr Clare Norris and Dr Jade Weston who were extremely helpful in supporting with recruitment and who initially inspired my passion of the Family Safeguarding Model. I would like to thank Dr Yvonne Melia, my research supervisor, who provided invaluable guidance and support throughout the project. Most importantly, thank you for being human, listening and showing understanding when things got tricky personally and professionally. I would like to give a shout out to the ‘Covid cohort’ of 2020, who have struggled through this journey with me but who I have always managed to have a laugh (or cry) with. I truly value the friendships I have made on this journey. Thank you to my family for continuously encouraging me to pursue my dreams, I could not have been where I am now without you. Thank you, Mum, for pushing me to keep applying for the doctorate (I got there eventually) & Dad for your continuous unconditional encouragement. To my partner Lamar, thank you for believing in me and sharing in my joy, tears, (and extremely low tolerance) along the way! Good luck to Jake my brother who decided to pursue a psychology degree during my time on this course, you will smash it. Finally, I want to extend my thanks to all my friends, you have shown me endless support and given me much needed laughs beyond these past three years. Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250106" Thesis abstract PAGEREF _Toc140250106 \h 8 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250107" Paper 1: Literature Review PAGEREF _Toc140250107 \h 9 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250108" Effectiveness of parent-infant psychotherapy for infant development, parenting, parental mental health and the attachment relationship: A review of the literature PAGEREF _Toc140250108 \h 9 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250109" Abstract PAGEREF _Toc140250109 \h 10 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250110" Introduction PAGEREF _Toc140250110 \h 11 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250111" Rationale for review PAGEREF _Toc140250111 \h 13 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250112" Method PAGEREF _Toc140250112 \h 14 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250113" Scoping searches PAGEREF _Toc140250113 \h 14 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250114" Search Strategy PAGEREF _Toc140250114 \h 14 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250115" Publication Bias PAGEREF _Toc140250115 \h 16 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250116" Overview of the search PAGEREF _Toc140250116 \h 16 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250117" Quality Assessment PAGEREF _Toc140250117 \h 18 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250118" Results PAGEREF _Toc140250118 \h 18 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250119" Overview of the studies PAGEREF _Toc140250119 \h 18 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250120" Aims PAGEREF _Toc140250120 \h 28 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250121" Sample PAGEREF _Toc140250121 \h 28 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250122" Caregivers PAGEREF _Toc140250122 \h 29 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250123" Infants PAGEREF _Toc140250123 \h 29 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250124" Recruitment PAGEREF _Toc140250124 \h 29 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250125" Study designs PAGEREF _Toc140250125 \h 30 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250126" Control and comparison groups PAGEREF _Toc140250126 \h 30 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250127" Intervention PAGEREF _Toc140250127 \h 30 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250128" Fidelity PAGEREF _Toc140250128 \h 31 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc140250129

FAQs

What is the main focus on social work experience in this thesis portfolio?

The portfolio explores social workers’ experiences of the Family Safeguarding Model and how it supports families at risk.

Which areas does the literature review evaluate for parent-infant psychotherapy?

It reviews effects on infant development, parenting, parental mental health, and the attachment relationship.

How is the evidence in the review assessed and synthesized?

The review includes scoping searches, a search strategy, publication bias considerations, quality assessment, results synthesis, and critical appraisal before discussion.

Sep 1, 2026

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