Baker Amy J L, LeBlanc Stacie, Adebayo Trinae, Mathews Ben
Fontana Center for Child Protection of the New York Foundling, 590 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10014, United States.
The Up Institute, United States.
Child Abuse Negl. 2021 Mar;113:104932. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.104932. Epub 2021 Jan 20.
Child abuse and neglect is a public health concern around the world, with well-established impacts and costs to children, families, and society. While mandated reporters make the majority of reports, child abuse is still under-reported and many mandated reporters fail to report known and suspected cases.
This study was designed to evaluate the content of US state-sponsored online mandated reporter training in order to identify gaps and need for improvement in mandated reporter training.
A deductive qualitative content analysis of the publicly available curricula was conducted. Variables coded were identified through a literature review and consultation with experts.
Numerous gaps were identified in the curricula including: few trainings identified reasons why reports should be made, only about one fourth included a definition, indicators, and examples of each type of maltreatment, the average number of suggestions for responding to a disclosure made by a child was 3, and few curricula addressed barriers to reporting or the impact of reporting on the reporter.
The trainings as a whole are not providing mandated reporters with comprehensive information about definitions, examples, and indicators of the major types of childhood maltreatment. In addition, the trainings contain only limited information to motivate reporters to see their role as part of a collective endeavor to protect children, and they are failing to adequately address reluctance about reporting. However, improvements are readily achievable. A partnership approach to curriculum design and delivery is recommended to develop effective training that will promote sound reporting.
虐待和忽视儿童是一个全球性的公共卫生问题，对儿童、家庭和社会有着既定的影响和成本。虽然法定报告人提交了大多数报告，但虐待儿童事件仍报告不足，许多法定报告人未能报告已知和疑似案件。
本研究旨在评估美国州政府资助的在线法定报告人培训内容，以确定法定报告人培训中的差距和改进需求。
对公开可用的课程进行了演绎性定性内容分析。通过文献综述和专家咨询确定编码变量。
课程中发现了许多差距，包括：很少有培训指出报告的原因，只有约四分之一的培训包含每种虐待类型的定义、指标和示例，针对儿童披露情况的应对建议平均数量为3条，很少有课程涉及报告的障碍或报告对报告人的影响。
总体而言，培训并未向法定报告人提供关于儿童期主要虐待类型的定义、示例和指标的全面信息。此外，培训中激励报告人将自己的角色视为保护儿童集体努力一部分的信息有限，且未能充分解决报告方面的抵触情绪。然而，改进很容易实现。建议采用合作方式进行课程设计和交付，以开发有效的培训，促进合理报告。
