Interventions for Expectant and New Parents Designed to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect in at-risk Families: Protocol for a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background: The prevention of child abuse and neglect is an urgent matter, as abuse and neglect are associated with serious effects even into adulthood, and as there is an increased risk of the offspring of abused children being abused themselves. Intervening as early as possible may prevent abuse that can begin in infancy. Although several systematic reviews and meta-analyses have investigated the effects of interventions on populations at risk for child abuse and neglect, few studies have focused on at-risk women or interventions that start during perinatal periods. This study aims to describe a systematic review to examine the effects of interventions to prevent child abuse and neglect that begin during pregnancy and just after childbirth (less than one year). The study will involve performing a systematic review and meta-analysis based on the latest research articles up to and including November 2020 and a broader literature search.Methods: The protocol was prepared using the 2015 statement of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols. The review will follow Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis guidelines/statements. The literature search will be performed using the MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases from inception onward. Randomized controlled trials of interventions that begin during pregnancy or the first year postpartum and are designed to prevent child abuse and neglect in at-risk families will be included. Data collection, quality assessment, and statistical syntheses will be conducted by following methods in the protocol that are defined in advance.Discussion: The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis will be important in clinical and political settings for the prevention of child abuse and neglect. The results of this study will provide a basis for the development of evidence-based intervention programs for expectant and new parents and child abuse prevention policies. Additionally, this study will encourage future studies to conduct more evidence-based intervention programs and illuminate the direction of research on the prevention of child abuse and neglect.Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42021266462

Schools That ‘Open Doors’ to Prevent Child Abuse in Confinement by COVID-19

Background: Due to the expected increase in child abuse during the period of COVID-19 confinement, it is essential that social researchers and other professionals work together very quickly to provide alternatives that protect children. To respond to this extremely urgent demand, evidence-based actions are presented that are being carried out in nine schools in the autonomous communities of Valencia and Murcia, Spain, during the confinement with the goal of “opening doors” to foster supportive relationships and a safe environment to prevent child abuse. Methods: The research was conducted through the inclusion of teachers who are implementing these actions in dialogue with the researchers to define the study design, analysis, and discussion of the results. Results: Knowledge regarding six evidence-based actions is provided: (1) dialogic workspaces, (2) dialogic gatherings, (3) class assemblies, (4) dialogic pedagogical gatherings with teachers, (5) mixed committees, and (6) dynamisation of social networks with preventive messages and the creation of a sense of community, which are being implemented virtually.

Why Invest to Prevent Child Abuse? The Budgetary Impact of Direct, Indirect and Collateral Derived Costs

Violence, and neglect in childhood, present innumerable economic costs to nations, whose impact on spending the public budget fluctuates between 15% and 25% of the annual government budget, as shown by several studies carried out in the United States, the European Union, and Mexico. The Center of Developing Child, of Harvard, emphazises that during the first years of life, the development of the brain can be physiologically altered by the prolonged and severe abuse of a child, over time, the brain of a 3 year old child, grows disproportionately large and heavy [1], reaching nearly 90% of the size of an adult brain. This alteration in the development of the brain can negatively impact the physical, cognitive, emotional and social development, whose consequences will always be present, even 30, 40 or 50 years later. International studies with significant data, are herein in summary presented. All in unison insists not only on preventing but on eradicating child maltreatment, considering this scourge as the determining element that havoc in government budgets. With an encourage exhortatory that by investing in preventing children from violence, a significant reduction in gross domestic product from 20 to 25% would be achieved