CompletedNot Applicable

A Randomized Controlled Study of Safer Kids: A Manualized Intervention to Prevent Child Abuse

Sweden112 participantsStarted 2019-11-15

Plain-language summary

One of the most important responsibilities for the social services is to investigate suspected child abuse and to offer suitable intervention for the families. The lack of published studies on the effect of such interventions is therefore noteworthy. Globally, few controlled studies have been published and none of them have been conducted in Sweden. To better guide the social services in the selection of interventions, the need for Swedish studies with experimental design is therefore apparent. Previous experience in using manualized interventions with families within the social services points to the importance of regarding issues of implementation and dissemination. Interventions need to be developed and adjusted to optimize the chance of engaging families that often live under strong social pressure. The interventions also need to be designed to enable implementation and sustainability in regular services. Safer Kids is a manualized intervention offered to caregivers under investigation for child abuse. The intervention was developed by the City of Stockholm in cooperation with practitioners within the social services. The content is based on the established parenting program Comet, but has been adjusted to suit the target group. Safer Kids has already been offered for a couple of years within the social services, but has not yet been evaluated. In this project, a study of intervention effects will be conducted. Caregivers will be randomized to either receive Intervention as usual (IAU), or IAU plus Safer Kids. Effects on established risk-factors for child abuse, as well as the abused childrens' experiences, will be measures. Information on additional reports to the social services on child abuse will be collected, up to 30 month after the intervention.

Who can participate

Age range2 Years – 12 Years

SexALL

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Exclusion criteria

✕. At least one adult in the family is suspected to have perpetrated an abusive act towards a child, resulting in an initiated child welfare investigation.
✕. The suspected adult lives with the child, at least part time, during the investigation
✕. At least one child in the family is between 2-12 years old.
✕. The events preceding the report does not concern the child between 2-12 years old, only a younger or older sibling
✕. The participating caregivers have participated in an intervention concerning abuse of children at the social services in the past 12 months
✕. Caregiver and focus child lack residence permit the coming 30 months
✕. The family's problem are assessed to be so severe that there is great risk of out-of-home placement of the child during the investigation.

What they're measuring

Change in Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory (B-CAP)

Timeframe: Pre (0 month), Post (4 month), Follow-up (7 month), long-term follow-up (18 and 30 month)

Change in Journal records: further reports on abuse or violence

Timeframe: 4-months, 7-months, 18-months and 30-months from baseline.

Trial details

NCT IDNCT04163367

SponsorKarolinska Institutet

Sponsor typeOTHER

Study typeINTERVENTIONAL

Primary completion2024-06-01

View on ClinicalTrials.gov More Child Abuse trials