What was missed in child protection responses during COVID-19? Perceptions of professionals from various countries.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic increased the likelihood of child maltreatment and made already difficult circumstances for children and their families much worse. This increased the significance of the child protection system's role in responding to child maltreatment and ensuring children's rights, including their right to a safe life without violence. Unfortunately, accumulating evidence has indicated that the rates of child maltreatment increased during the pandemic. OBJECTIVE: The current study sought to identify the gaps within child protection responses in various countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and to discover how we can respond to crises in the future while preserving children's rights, including their right to protection from maltreatment. METHOD: Five focus groups with a total of 47 professionals working with children from various countries were conducted via Zoom and analyzed using a thematic approach. RESULTS: Three main themes were identified: 1) gaps in policies, 2) gaps in practice, and 3) professionals' messages to improve policy and practice. CONCLUSIONS: This study emphasizes what was missed in child protection policy and practice, highlighting the continuous neglect of children's needs and voices within policies, practices and guidelines worldwide during the pandemic. Professionals' recommendations for policy and practice are also discussed.

Experiences and responses of child protection professionals during COVID-19: Lessons learned from professionals around the globe.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 significantly worsened already challenging circumstances for children and their families and globally increased the likelihood of child maltreatment. This risk heightened the urgency of child protection professionals in preventing child maltreatment and defending children's rights. The vast and growing body of research on protecting children from child maltreatment during COVID-19 has emphasized practitioners' tremendous difficulty in this arena. OBJECTIVE: The current international study sought to identify the experiences and responses of child protection professionals to child maltreatment during COVID-19. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Five real-time, virtual focus groups were conducted among professionals who work with children from countries around the globe. METHOD: Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to analyze the focus group transcripts. RESULTS: The participants identified their experiences and challenges in performing their role of protecting children. Additionally, they shared context-adapted and innovative responses to child maltreatment, while emphasizing self-care and their mental health. CONCLUSIONS: The results highlighted that child protection was significantly more challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, they underlined the importance of establishing practices and policies for child protection in crisis times as well as ensuring both children's and professionals' well-being and mental health.

Child protective services and out-of-home Care for Children during COVID-19: A scoping review and thematic analysis.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic challenged child protection and posed new risks for child maltreatment (CM). Moreover, governmental efforts worldwide prioritized mitigating the spread of the virus over ensuring the welfare and protection of families and children. This neglect caused hardship for many vulnerable children, including those in out-of-home care (OOHC), and challenged the functionality of child protective services (CPS). However, only limited research has investigated the impact of COVID-19 on OOHC and CPS and explored how CPS overcame the challenges of helping children in OOHC. OBJECTIVE: This review aims to address this gap in the research to unveil the 'positive legacy' left by CPS in their work with children in OOHC during COVID-19. METHOD: This review utilized three stages of analysis, including a scoping review followed by two rounds of thematic analysis. The scoping review was carried out in six languages: English, Hebrew, Arabic, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The first round of thematic analysis found eight relevant articles for this review. The second round of thematic analysis found three themes related to this paper's aim in the context of COVID-19. RESULTS: Three main themes were identified: 1) decision-making and OOHC, 2) difficulties in procedures related to OOHC placement, and 3) handling challenges of OOHC. CONCLUSIONS: The discussion emphasizes the crucial role of preserving children's rights, hearing their voices and needs, and considering their safety and well-being when planning policies and practices to protect them. It also emphasizes society's responsibility to acknowledge contextual factors in child protection.

The global impact of COVID-19 on child protection professionals: A scoping review and thematic analysis.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic triggered new risks for child maltreatment (CM) and exacerbated existing challenges for families and children, elevating the importance of child protection professionals (CPPs) while also adding barriers to their work. During the pandemic, many CPPs experienced increased workloads, a disrupted work environment, and personal pandemic-related hardships. However, the scope of how COVID-19 impacted CPPs globally, as well as their adopted coping strategies, have not been well explored. OBJECTIVE: This study addresses these gaps in the research by conducting an international scoping review to explore and analyze these topics. METHOD: The scoping review was performed in six languages: English, Hebrew, Arabic, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, across 16 databases. Sixteen manuscripts were included in the final thematic analysis of this review. RESULTS: Two main themes were identified: 1) the impact of COVID-19 on CPPs, and 2) the coping and adaptation strategies employed by CPPs during COVID-19. This review revealed and emphasized the importance of CPPs' resilience during COVID-19, underpinned by the theoretical framework of the social ecology of resilience. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the responsibility of social ecologies and organizational structures to create readiness for a rapid response in times of crisis as well as valuable evidence to inform how CPPs, children, and families may be better supported in the event of a future crisis.

Meaning Making Mechanisms in Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Scoping Review.

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a complex and prevalent problem with devastating long-term consequences for survivors. Despite these consequences, some survivors seem to find a source of meaning and fulfillment throughout their recovery process, which may facilitate resilience and posttraumatic growth (PTG). However, little is known from the literature about the specific meaning making mechanisms that CSA survivors experience. A scoping review was conducted by searching relevant journals and several online databases such as EbscoHost, Scopus, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. Studies published in English and that discussed meaning making as a topic of recovery from CSA in the context of women survivors' experiences were included, where a total of 57 articles were selected including qualitative (n = 32), quantitative (n = 9), mixed method (n = 9), and review (n = 7) articles. Using thematic analysis, the results of the scoping review found four mechanisms of meaning making and seven sources of meaning describing the meaning making processes of women survivors of CSA. The mechanisms were identified as being benevolent; restoring and empowering the inner self; mobilizing external and social resources; and lastly actively integrating the trauma narrative. This study contributes toward the global knowledge base on meaning making mechanisms of women survivors of CSA by providing the first known summary of studies to date. Future research is recommended to further confirm these findings to inform treatment interventions for women survivors of CSA.

Child protective services during COVID-19 and doubly marginalized children: International perspectives.

BACKGROUND: Alongside deficits in children's wellbeing, the COVID-19 pandemic has created an elevated risk for child maltreatment and challenges for child protective services worldwide. Therefore, some children might be doubly marginalized, as prior inequalities become exacerbated and new risk factors arise. OBJECTIVE: To provide initial insight into international researchers' identification of children who might have been overlooked or excluded from services during the pandemic. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: This study was part of an international collaboration involving researchers from Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Israel, South Africa, Uganda, the UK and the USA. Researchers from each country provided a written narrative in response to the three research questions in focus, which integrated the available data from their countries. METHOD: Three main questions were explored: 1) Who are the children that were doubly marginalized? 2) What possible mechanisms may be at the root? and 3) In what ways were children doubly marginalized? The international scholars provided information regarding the three questions. A thematic analysis was employed using the intersectional theoretical framework to highlight the impact of children's various identities. RESULTS: The analysis yielded three domains: (1) five categories of doubly marginalized children at increased risk of maltreatment, (2) mechanisms of neglect consisting of unplanned, discriminatory and inadequate actions, and (3) children were doubly marginalized through exclusion in policy and practice and the challenges faced by belonging to vulnerable groups. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic can be used as a case study to illustrate the protection of children from maltreatment during worldwide crises. Findings generated the understanding that child protective systems worldwide must adhere to an intersectionality framework to protect all children and promote quality child protection services.

Losses Associated With Childhood Sexual Abuse in Women Survivors: A Scoping Review.

METHOD: This article reports the findings of a scoping review designed to identify research exploring the losses associated with childhood sexual abuse in women survivors. A systematic search of databases for articles published between 1983 and 2019 were conducted using keywords related to loss and women survivors of childhood sexual abuse. FINDINGS: Twenty studies were selected for review using predefined inclusion criteria: studies that include adult women survivors of childhood sexual abuse, studies that include child/childhood sexual abuse, studies that include stigmatized loss, studies that indicate stigmatized loss in adult women survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Sources were subject to quality appraisal and data were extracted in line with the review question. DISCUSSION AND CONTRIBUTION: Findings acknowledged and extended on Bloom's model of stigmatized loss and suggested that female survivors of childhood sexual abuse may experience an overall loss of self-efficacy, presenting as a loss of personal agency, interpersonal agency, and sexual agency. The results of this research suggest that loss be considered in support interventions with women self-reporting childhood sexual abuse. It is recommended that further research be conducted to confirm these findings so that they may advocate for inclusion in childhood sexual abuse treatment interventions.

Experiences of Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse in Relation to Nonsupportive Significant Adults: A Scoping Review.

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a complex trauma with devastating long-term, negative effects on survivors. This study extended the understanding of experiences of women survivors of CSA in relation to nonsupportive significant adults documented in literature, as to date, there exists no summary in literature on this particular topic. As such, a scoping review was conducted on publications between 1980 and January 2020. A total of 26 733 were selected for analysis in accordance with the search terms. After duplicates were removed and the exclusion criteria were applied, a total of 58 articles were selected for inclusion in the review. Thematic analysis was conducted on the studies included, and three themes were developed pertaining to the experiences of women survivors of CSA in relation to nonsupportive significant adults. Theme 1 identified nonsupportive behaviors experienced before disclosure or discovery of abuse. Theme 2 identified nonsupportive behaviors experienced during or after disclosure or discovery of abuse. Theme 3 identified the long-term negative consequences of nonsupportive experiences. These three themes support the findings of Freyd's betrayal trauma theory and Bowlby's attachment theory, extend on the global knowledge base of this topic, and identify gaps for further exploration.

Resilience enabling processes and posttraumatic growth outcomes in a group of women survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

BACKGROUND: This study forms part of a pilot project, aiming to evaluate the benefits of a programme entitled S2T denoting from Survivor to Thriver, which is a collaborative strengths-based group intervention programme for women survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The objective of the S2T is to enable resilience processes and facilitate posttraumatic growth outcomes. A theory of change was developed to explain how these objectives are met, it outlines the theoretical approach, mediators, primary and secondary outcomes. AIM: To explore emerging resilience processes and posttraumatic growth outcomes in women survivors of childhood sexual abuse after attending the S2T. SETTING: Data was collected during group treatment sessions of the S2T group intervention programme with women survivors of childhood sexual abuse. METHODS: A quasi-experimental, one group, pretest, posttest, time-delay design was used with eight purposively selected women with a history of childhood sexual abuse, using qualitative methods to evaluate the benefit of this intervention. Nine group treatment sessions and a delayed follow-up session were conducted. A visual participatory technique and transcriptions of group sessions were used to collect qualitative data. RESULTS: Qualitative thematic analysis revealed the following enabling resilience processes: group as healing vehicle of change; changing destructive to constructive rumination; coping strengths and meaning-making. Posttraumatic growth outcomes which evolved were: transforming wounded to healer; a changed life philosophy; excavated spirituality and re-briefing strengths through a posttrauma thriver identity. CONCLUSIONS: The themes suggest resilience processes and posttraumatic growth outcomes; a longitudinal study is recommended to establish effectiveness and inform treatment practice.