Factors influencing early childhood education and care educators’ reporting of child abuse and neglect

Abstract

Mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect is a complex yet essential responsibility tasked to many professional groups working with children, including the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce. This paper provides a narrative review synthesising the empirical literature on factors influencing ECEC educators’ reporting of child abuse and neglect, including knowledge and training, attitudes, thresholds for reporting, work experience and context, inter-organisational co-operation and self-efficacy. These factors can act as barriers and facilitators to effective reporting practice and are likely to interact in dynamic yet modifiable ways. Findings from the review may be useful for informing future education and training initiatives for the ECEC workforce. Further research is warranted in this area.

“We Need to Raise Awareness and Never Give Up”: Israeli Druze and Muslim Arab Kindergarten Teachers’ Proactivity When Facing the Sexual Abuse of Their Students

“…However, intervention processes in conservative closed communities can be challenging and complicated due to possible negative reactions from the close surroundings. Both the Druze and Muslim kindergarten teachers confirmed the complexity described in previous research [29,53]. When sharing their personal perceptions of religious values on intervention processes in cases of CSA, the Muslim kindergarten teachers emphasized the obstacles their religious community poses to CSA prevention and intervention processes among their students (e.g., [30,32]).…”

Child Maltreatment and Long-Term Physical and Mental Health Outcomes: An Exploration of Biopsychosocial Determinants and Implications for Prevention

“…Given the amount of time children and young people spend in education settings, educators have a key role to play in detection. However, studies have documented the complexities of this role with levels of selfefficacy, attitudes, knowledge, and experience of educators in this area influencing reporting behaviour [141]. Effective education and training to build the requisite professional capabilities for child maltreatment reporting have been documented [142][143][144] but it is not yet known how these translate to actual reporting outcomes, and these initiatives are yet to be widely disseminated [137,145].…”

Collaboration of Child Protective Services and Early Childhood Educators: Enhancing the Well-Being of Children in Need

“…Only then can each child's right to protection be predictably enforced (Farrell and Walsh 2010). Hence, the mandatory reporting of child maltreatment is a complex, yet essential, responsibility tasked to many professional groups working with children (Ayling et al 2020;Scannapieco et al 2019).…”