The effects of COVID-19 on the development of reported incidents of child maltreatment over time: A systematic literature review.

The effects of COVID-19 on the development of reported incidents of child maltreatment over time: A systematic literature review.

Publication date: Oct 10, 2024

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the life of families all over the world changed unprecedentedly, risks and vulnerabilities for child maltreatment might have altered. While several studies and reviews look at altered reports to child protective services and other organizations in the child protection system, particularly during the first lockdown in spring 2020, there is a gap in research on trends of reported child maltreatment incidents over time. To bridge the gap on mid- to long-term developments and trends of changes over time, we aimed at summarizing findings on monthly breakdowns of CM reports over time during the pandemic. In systematic searches of academic literature databases, we have identified 11 articles that adhere to the inclusion criteria of monthly breakdown data from child protective services during the COVID-19 pandemic with a pre-pandemic comparison period. Three additional grey literature reports haven been identified. Both studies and reports had to be published in either English, Arabic, French, German, Portuguese, or Spanish. Notably, overall, the level of reported incidents has decreased compared to the years before the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, no clear and reliable picture emerges in developments by different types of reporters. If the number of reports decreases overall, consequently, the overall number or responses to reports does. Some studies, however, report an altered proportion of responses that increased. There is still a lot to be investigated and understood when it comes to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on CM. Policy-makers are called to not only invest into more research on the topic, but, first and foremost, to anticipate a potentially surging need in improved responses to a vulnerable group.

Concepts Keywords
Academic Administrative data
German Child maltreatment
Monthly Child Protective Services
Pandemic Epidemiology
Spanish Reports
Trends

Semantics

Type Source Name
disease MESH COVID-19
disease MESH child maltreatment

Original Article

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