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Scientific article DEC 2024
  • Children, Adolescents and Families
  • The Social Sector
  • Children, Adolescents and Families, The Social Sector

Interventions to Reduce Child Maltreatment: A Systematic Review with a Narrative Synthesis

Authors:

  • Ira Malmberg-Heimonen
  • Joakim Finne
  • Anne Grete Tøge
  • Maiken Pontoppidan
  • Truls Tømmerås
  • Jacinthe Dion
  • Eirin Pedersen
  • Children, Adolescents and Families
  • The Social Sector
  • Children, Adolescents and Families, The Social Sector
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Child maltreatment has been a prominent topic on the political agenda for the past decade. However, while there are several types of interventions that can potentially benefit the prevention of child maltreatment, uncertainties remain regarding the transferability of these interventions to different contexts and their overall impact. Consequently, we conducted a systematic review of intervention studies aimed at preventing child maltreatment. We searched for studies published between 2016 and 2021, using predefined keywords from various bibliographical databases including PsycINFO, SocINDEX, Social Care Online, Web of Science, and ASSIA. The initial literature search yielded 3221 studies based on titles and abstracts, after removing duplicates. Out of these, 251 studies were screened based on full texts, resulting in the selection of 56 studies that met our inclusion criteria and were retained for extraction and analysis. The screening and data extraction processes were conducted by at least two independent reviewers. Given the heterogeneity of the included studies, we performed a narrative synthesis and categorized the 56 studies based on intervention type, control condition, outcomes, effects and quality. The results indicated that most of the studies employed individual randomization, with the control group most often receiving treatment as usual. Home visiting programs and educational interventions emerged as the most prevalent types of interventions. The review also demonstrated that a significant number of the included studies reported positive effects on one or more outcomes, such as indicators of maltreatment, suboptimal parenting practices, and problematic child behaviors. While nearly one-third of the studies did not report an effect size, those that did reported varying types of effect sizes. Additionally, only a few studies met the assessed quality criteria.

Authors

  • Ira Malmberg-HeimonenJoakim FinneAnne Grete TøgeMaiken PontoppidanTruls TømmeråsJacinthe DionEirin Pedersen

About this publication

  • Published in

    International Journal on Child Maltreatment
VIVE – The Danish Centre for Social Science Research provides knowledge that contributes to developing the welfare society and strengthening quality development, efficiency enhancement and governance in the public sector, both in municipalities, regions and nationally.
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