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Home > Glossary - P
Glossary - P
Many child welfare terms are subject to interpretation. The Glossary identifies commonly held definitions for terms that can be found on the Child Welfare Information Gateway website. It defines common acronyms and includes links to information on major Federal legislation and related child welfare terms. The Glossary will be updated as new terminology emerges in the field, as new legislation is enacted, and as child welfare terms take on new meaning.
paraprofessional
One who has specialized knowledge and technical training and performs under the supervision of a trained and/or certified professional.
parens patriae
A legal term referring to the State's power to act for or on behalf of children who cannot act on their own behalf, in their best interest.
parent education
Community-based services that support parents in their roles as caregivers. The goal of parent education is to promote parental competency and strengthen family life and to enhance healthy child and family development.
parent leadership
Opportunities for parents to provide input and leadership in designing, implementing, and/or evaluating programs.
parental rights
The legal rights and corresponding legal obligations that go along with being the parent of a child.
paternity establishment
The legal procedure to determine if a man is the biological father of a particular child and to establish his rights and responsibilities in regard to that child.
permanency
A legally permanent, nurturing family for every child and youth. As defined in the Child and Family Services Reviews, a child in foster care is determined to have achieved permanency when any of the following occurs: (1) The child is discharged from foster care to reunification with his or her family, either a parent or other relative; (2) the child is discharged from foster care to a legally finalized adoption; or (3) the child is discharged from foster care to the care of a legal guardian.
permanency planning
A process through which planned and systematic efforts are made to ensure that children and youth are in safe and nurturing relationships expected to last a lifetime. Permanency planning involves time-limited, goal-oriented activities to maintain children within their families of origin, including kin, or to place them with other permanent families through adoption or guardianship.
perpetrator
In child welfare, the person who has been determined to have caused or knowingly allowed the maltreatment of a child.
photolisting
A publication (print or online) that contains photos and descriptions of children who are available for adoption. Photolisting is used by agencies and adoption exchanges to recruit prospective adoptive parents for children awaiting permanency.
physical abuse
Child abuse that results in physical injury to a child. This may include, burning, hitting, punching, shaking, kicking, beating, or otherwise harming a child. Although an injury resulting from physical abuse is not accidental, the parent or caregiver may not have intended to hurt the child. The injury may have resulted from severe discipline, including injurious spanking, or physical punishment that is inappropriate to the child's age or condition. The injury may be the result of a single episode or of repeated episodes and can range in severity from minor marks and bruising to death.
physical neglect
Failure to provide for a child's basic survival needs, such as nutrition, clothing, shelter, hygiene, and medical care. Physical neglect may also involve inadequate supervision of a child and other forms of reckless disregard of the child's safety and welfare.
PIP (see Program Improvement Plan)
placement stability
Ensuring that children remain in stable out-of-home care, avoiding disruption, removal, and repeated placements that have harmful effects on child development and well-being. In the Federal Child and Family Services Reviews, placement stability is one of the four composites used as the basis for national standards for Permanency Outcome 1: Children have permanency and stability in their living situations.
postadoption services
Services provided after an adoptive placement to the adopted person, the adoptive family, and/or the birth parents.
postinstitutionalized child
A child adopted from an institutional, hospital, or orphanage setting. The term arises when describing an array of emotional and psychological disturbances, developmental delays, learning disabilities, and/or medical problems in children resulting from their stay in institutions. These may include difficulties with feeding, sleeping, and speech, as well as difficulties in forming healthy attachments.
postpermanency services
Services to birth families, kinship families, and adoptive families to support child safety, permanency, and well-being. Services may include educational and informational services, clinical and treatment services, material services such as financial support, and support networks.
postplacement supervision
The range of counseling and agency services provided to adoptive parents and adopted children after adoptive placement, before the adoption is legally finalized in court. The primary purpose of postplacement supervision is to assure, inasmuch as possible, that the child is safe in the home, that his or her well-being needs are met, and that the adoptive family remains committed to and is able to provide a permanent home for the child.
prenatal substance exposure
Fetal exposure to maternal drug and alcohol use that can significantly increase the risk for developmental and neurological disabilities in the child. The effects can cause severe neurological damage and growth retardation in the substance-exposed newborn. Also see alcohol-related birth defects and fetal alcohol syndrome.
prevention of child abuse and neglect
Prevention services aimed at supporting and strengthening families in order to prevent child abuse and neglect from occurring. Prevention typically consists of methods or activities that seek to reduce or deter specific or predictable problems, protect the current state of well-being, or promote desired outcomes or behaviors.
privatization
The increasing reliance upon market forces, competition, and the private sector to provide services formerly provided by public or governmental agencies. Privatization may involve performance contracting with private agencies for services that involve a payment structure for contracted agencies based on the achievement of set outcomes. Under these purchase-of-service contracts, the role of the public social worker often becomes one of referral of individual cases and monitoring of service contracts. Also see purchase-of-service agreement.
Program Improvement Plan (PIP)
The plan that States are required to submit to the Federal Government if found out of conformity on any of the seven outcomes or seven systemic factors subject to review in the Federal Child and Family Services Reviews.
Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program (see Major Federal Legislation Concerned With Child Protection, Child Welfare, and Adoption)
protective custody
A form of custody required to remove a child from his or her home and place in out-of-home care. Law enforcement may place a child in protective custody based on an independent determination that the child's health, safety, and welfare is jeopardized. A child can also be placed in protective custody via court order.
protective/promotive factor
Strengths and resources that appear to mediate or serve as a buffer against risk factors that contribute to maltreatment. These factors may strengthen the parent-child relationships, ability to cope with stress, and capacity to provide for children. Protective factors include nurturing and attachment, knowledge of parenting and of child and youth development, parental resilience, social connections, and concrete supports for parents.
psychological maltreatment
A pattern of caregiver behavior or extreme incidents that convey to children that they are worthless, flawed, unloved, unwanted, endangered, or only of value in meeting another's needs. This maltreatment may be perpetrated by parents or caretakers using extreme or bizarre forms of punishment or threatening or terrorizing a child. The term "psychological maltreatment" is also known as emotional abuse or neglect, verbal abuse, or mental abuse.
psychological parent
An adult who, on a continuing day-to-day basis, fulfills a child's emotional needs for nurturance through interaction, companionship, and mutuality. It may be the biological parent or another person who fulfills these functions.
purchase-of-service agreement
Fiscal arrangement or contract between two or more organizations by which one organization agrees in advance to pay a specified amount to the other for providing a predetermined number of services within a specified period. Such agreements are often between government entities as the purchaser and social agencies as providers. Also see privatization.
putative father
Legal term for a man who is not married to the child's mother and who is alleged or claims to be the biological father of a child.
putative father registry
Registry system that serves to ensure that birth fathers' rights are protected. Some States require that birth fathers register, while other States presume that the father does not wish to pursue paternity rights if he does not initiate any legal action.
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