Child Maltreatment Prevention Service Cases are Significantly Reduced During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Investigation Into Unintended Consequences of Quarantine

Unprecedented financial and emotional stress, paired with measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 (e.g., school closures), place youth at risk for experiencing increased rates of abuse. We analyzed data from New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services to investigate the frequency of child maltreatment prevention service case openings during this time. Longitudinal counts of case openings were compiled for January through June of the years 2014–2020. An independent samples Kruskal–Wallis H-test suggested that pre-quarantine case openings were significantly larger than case openings during quarantine. To account for the possible influence of other historical events impacting data, a secondary Kruskal–Wallis H-test was conducted comparing only the 4 months of quarantine data available to the 4 months immediately preceding quarantine orders. The second independent samples Kruskal–Wallis H-test again suggested that pre-quarantine case openings were significantly larger than case openings during quarantine. A Poisson regression model further supported these findings, estimating that the odds of opening a new child maltreatment prevention case during quarantine declined by 49.17%. These findings highlight the severity of COVID-19 impacts on child maltreatment services and the gap between demand for services and service accessibility. We conclude with recommendations for local governments, community members, and practitioners.

Public Opinions About Child Maltreatment in South Carolina: Salience, Relevance, Prevention, and Support for Government Intervention

Substantial evidence demonstrates that child maltreatment is preventable through approaches that address the socio-environmental contexts that shape attitudes and behaviors. Understanding opinions about child maltreatment can inform efforts to influence policy and practice changes that promote child health and well-being. This study examined public opinions about child maltreatment in South Carolina. A telephone survey was conducted in Fall 2019 with a random sample of adults ( N = 1,145) in the state. Respondents rated the extent to which they agreed that child maltreatment is an important issue (salience), whether it is a problem in their community (relevance), whether it is preventable (prevention orientation), whether child maltreatment prevention is a good use of their tax dollars, and whether child maltreatment can be prevented through government intervention. Stronger issue salience was significantly associated with stronger beliefs about government intervention to prevent child maltreatment after adjustment for demographics ( B = 0.69, p < .0001). Stronger issue relevance ( B = 0.05, p = .08) and stronger prevention orientation ( B = 0.19, p < .001) were also significantly associated with stronger beliefs about government intervention to prevent child maltreatment after adjustment for demographics. Results indicate that changing public opinions about child maltreatment—specifically around issue salience, relevance, and prevention orientation—could have implications for communications interventions that seek to generate support for government intervention to prevent child maltreatment.

A mixed-methods study to understand the impact of practitioner and organizational factors on fidelity of a child maltreatment prevention intervention in community-based settings

It has been well-documented that the degree to which interventions are implemented with fidelity in typical service settings has varied. Frequently, interventions are developed and tested in highly controlled or early adopter settings. Less attention has been given to what implementation looks like in usual care, and which factors promote practitioners' ability to implement with fidelity. Individuals and organizations implementing interventions in the real world receive varying levels of external supports and may apply a new intervention unaided. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore factors that support implementation as intended in local community agencies. In the quantitative phase of this study, 32 case planners implementing Family Connections (FC), a child maltreatment preventive intervention, completed a survey about their perceptions of practitioner and organizational factors related to fidelity. The survey data were connected to case-level fidelity scores to understand the relationship between perceptions and fidelity. The qualitative phase of this study involved further exploration with nine case planner interviews and two separate focus groups with supervisors and agency leadership. The results of this study suggest that supervision is a key contributor to a practitioner's ability to implement an intervention in usual care. The quantitative and qualitative results suggest supervision, including supervisors’ perseverance, proactiveness, knowledge, availability, and skill reinforcement are important components of enhancing a practitioners' ability to learn and use FC. The quantitative results suggest that the level of education was positively associated with fidelity and perceptions of the intervention's limitations may be negatively related to implementation. Additional components that influence implementation for future research emerged from the qualitative phase related to system expectations and policies, individual practitioner attributes, and characteristics of the intervention. Plain Language Abstract This mixed-methods study sought to understand the impact of practitioner and organizational factors on fidelity of a child maltreatment prevention intervention in community-based settings. The study first asked case planners about their perceptions of practitioner and organizational factors related to fidelity through an online survey. This survey was connected to case-level fidelity scores to understand the relationship between perceptions and fidelity. The qualitative phase of this study involved further exploration with nine case planner interviews and two separate focus groups with supervisors and agency leadership. The results of this study suggest that supervision is a key contributor to a practitioner’s ability to implement a maltreatment prevention intervention. Both methods of the study suggest that various aspects of supervision, including supervisors’ perseverance, proactiveness, knowledge, availability, and skill reinforcement are important components of enhancing a practitioner's ability to learn and use the intervention. Additional components that influence the implementation for future research emerged from the qualitative phase related to system expectations and policies, individual practitioner attributes, and characteristics of the intervention.