Consensus building on definitions and types of child maltreatment to improve recording and surveillance in Europe: protocol for a multi-sectoral, European, electronic Delphi study
Alison Mary Kemp,
Lisa Hurt,
Ulugbek Nurmatov,
Laura Elizabeth Cowley,
Aideen Naughton,
Geoff Debelle,
Luciana Caenazzo,
Gabriel Otterman,
Andreas Jud,
Leonor Bettencourt Rodrigues,
Ravit Alfandari,
Diogo Lamela,
Athanasios Ntinapogias,
Taina Laajasalo,
Virginia Soldino,
Vaska Stancheva,
Rachael Vaughan,
Cindy W Christian,
Katarzyna Drabarek
Affiliations
Alison Mary Kemp
Division of Population Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
Lisa Hurt
Division of Population Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
Ulugbek Nurmatov
Division of Population Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
Laura Elizabeth Cowley
Population Data Science, Swansea University Medical School, Swansea, UK
Aideen Naughton
Public Health Wales NHS Trust, Cardiff, UK
Geoff Debelle
Birmingham Children`s Hospital, Birmingham, UK
Luciana Caenazzo
Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Sciences and Public Health, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
Gabriel Otterman
Barnafrid and Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linkoping, Sweden
Andreas Jud
University Hospital Ulm, Ulm, Germany
Leonor Bettencourt Rodrigues
ProChild CoLAB Against Child Poverty and Social Exclusion, Guimaraes, Braga, Portugal
Ravit Alfandari
School of Social Work, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
Diogo Lamela
Digital Human-Environment Interaction Lab (HEI-LAB), Lusófona University, Porto, Portugal
Athanasios Ntinapogias
Department of Mental Health and Social Welfare, Institute of Child Health, Athens, Greece
Taina Laajasalo
Competence Cluster for Violence Prevention Work, Special Services Unit, Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
Virginia Soldino
University Research Institute of Criminology and Criminal Science, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Vaska Stancheva
Department of Medical Social Sciences, South-West University Neofit Rilski, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
Rachael Vaughan
Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre (CASCADE), Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
Cindy W Christian
Department of Pediatrics, Children`s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Introduction Child maltreatment (CM) is a complex global public health issue with potentially devastating effects on individuals’ physical and mental health and well-being throughout the life course. A lack of uniform definitions hinders attempts to identify, measure, respond to, and prevent CM. The aim of this electronic Delphi (e-Delphi) study is to build consensus on definitions and types of CM for use in surveillance and multi-sectoral research in the 34 countries in the Euro-CAN (Multi-Sectoral Responses to Child Abuse and Neglect in Europe) project (COST Action CA19106).Methods and analysis The e-Delphi study will consist of a maximum of three rounds conducted using an online data collection platform. A multi-disciplinary expert panel consisting of researchers, child protection professionals (health and social care), police, legal professionals and adult survivors of CM will be purposefully recruited. We will approach approximately 100 experts, with between 50 and 60 of these anticipated to take part. Participants will rate their agreement with a range of statements relating to operational definitions and types of CM, and free-text comments on each of the statements to give further detail about their responses and areas of uncertainty. Consensus has been defined a priori as ≥70% of the panel agreeing or disagreeing with the statement after the final round. The responses to the open-ended questions will be analysed using a ‘codebook’ approach to thematic analysis, and used to refine the statements between rounds where no consensus is reached.Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval has been granted from the Cardiff University School of Medicine ethics committee (reference number SMREC22/96). Results will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at workshops (including for the participants) and international academic conferences. The Euro-CAN network will also be used to disseminate the results, with results briefings and presentations to key public health and other relevant organisations in the field.
