The Development of a Screening Tool for Childcare Professionals to Detect and Refer Infant and Toddler Maltreatment and Trauma: A Tale of Four Countries
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Screening Protocol Development: Design and Procedure
2.1.1. The Living Labs
- LL meetings 1 and 2, exploration stage: assessment needed concerning screening, discussion, and brainstorming about results of a previous inventory of the good practices and the insights from expert focus groups [20].
- LL meetings 3–6, co-construction stage: joint development of the screening tool
- LL meetings 7–8, piloting stage: meetings 7 and 8 took place one month after one another, during which the LLs’ childcare professionals practiced the use of the screening tool within their facilities and shared it with colleagues. Based on their experiences, both professionals and parents offered feedback on the LLs. Modifications were implemented by the researchers and led to the finalizing of the protocol.
2.1.2. Education and Testing
2.2. Measures and Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Outcome Co-Creation Process
3.1.1. First Layer: The Five “Red Flags”
3.1.2. Second Layer: The “Quick Screener”
3.1.3. Third Layer: The “In-Depth Questionnaire”
3.1.4. Referral Flowchart
3.2. Outcome Training and Testing
4. Discussion
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A. ECLIPS Screening Tool Evaluation Questionnaire
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Completely Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Completely agree | ||||
1. Trauma symptoms are visible in babies and toddlers. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
2. Trauma is not only related to physical and sexual abuse but also to psychological maltreatment and neglect. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
3. Domestic violence during infancy can have long-term effects on physical, emotional and mental health later in life. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
4. I have enough knowledge to detect signs of trauma in young children. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
5. I have enough knowledge to understand the effects of trauma on infants. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
6. I am aware of the referral procedures to follow in case of suspected abuse. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
7. Childcare professionals can play an important role in screening and referring child abuse. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
8. I found the Screening Tool to be useful. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
9. I found the Screening Tool to be user-friendly. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
10. I intend to use the Screening Tool in the future. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
11. The content of the program aligned with my expectations. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
12. I am satisfied with the content of the program. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
13. I am satisfied with the way of teaching. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
14. I am satisfied with the learning material. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
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PP | T0 | T1 | T2 |
---|---|---|---|
UCLL (Belgium) | 17 | 12 | 17 |
UNIMORE (Italy) | 30 | 26 | 30 |
Pressley Ridge (Hungary) | 27 | 27 | 27 |
Centrs Dardedze (Latvia) | 26 | 30 | 22 |
Total sample | 100 | 95 | 74 |
Country | Time | Knowledge | Attitude | Screening | Training | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
M | SD | M | SD | M | SD | M | SD | ||
Belgium | T0 | 3.59 | 0.37 | 4.59 | 0.51 | - | - | - | - |
T1 | 3.90 | 0.39 | 4.83 | 0.39 | 3.83 | 1.14 | 4.13 | 0.58 | |
T2 | 4.24 | 0.24 | 4.82 | 0.39 | 4.50 | 0.54 | 4.423 | 0.38 | |
Italy | T0 | 3.01 | 0.56 | 4.70 | 0.47 | - | - | - | - |
T1 | 3.83 | 0.37 | 4.88 | 0.33 | 4.31 | 0.60 | 4.80 | 0.35 | |
T2 | 4.08 | 0.37 | 4.83 | 0.38 | 4.50 | 0.58 | 4.68 | 0.53 | |
Hungary | T0 | 3.96 | 0.44 | 4.85 | 0.36 | - | - | - | - |
T1 | 4.27 | 0.44 | 4.76 | 0.53 | 4.28 | 0.61 | 4.42 | 0.56 | |
T2 | 4.62 | 0.29 | 5.00 | 0.00 | 4.74 | 0.60 | 4.82 | 0.36 | |
Latvia | T0 | 3.76 | 0.51 | 4.46 | 0.51 | - | - | - | - |
T1 | 4.32 | 0.44 | 4.37 | 0.45 | 4.39 | 0.51 | 4.73 | 0.40 | |
T2 | 4.46 | 0.30 | 4.73 | 0.55 | 4.43 | 0.59 | 4.74 | 0.44 |
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Bisagno, E.; Cadamuro, A.; Serafine, D.; Dima, B.M.; Anne, G.; Zane, L.-O.; Annija, K.; Dóra, V.-S.; Dorottya, M.; Noémi, L.; et al. The Development of a Screening Tool for Childcare Professionals to Detect and Refer Infant and Toddler Maltreatment and Trauma: A Tale of Four Countries. Children 2023, 10, 858. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10050858
Bisagno E, Cadamuro A, Serafine D, Dima BM, Anne G, Zane L-O, Annija K, Dóra V-S, Dorottya M, Noémi L, et al. The Development of a Screening Tool for Childcare Professionals to Detect and Refer Infant and Toddler Maltreatment and Trauma: A Tale of Four Countries. Children. 2023; 10(5):858. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10050858
Chicago/Turabian StyleBisagno, Elisa, Alessia Cadamuro, Dierickx Serafine, Bou Mosleh Dima, Groenen Anne, Linde-Ozola Zane, Kandāte Annija, Varga-Sabján Dóra, Morva Dorottya, László Noémi, and et al. 2023. "The Development of a Screening Tool for Childcare Professionals to Detect and Refer Infant and Toddler Maltreatment and Trauma: A Tale of Four Countries" Children 10, no. 5: 858. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10050858