Recent Publications
This article presents the results of a comparative analysis of online mandated reporter trainings regarding child abuse. Programs from 47 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Significant variation was identified in terms of the scope, content, didactic approach, delivery method, and outcome measures across different trainings.
These findings raise concern that not all mandated reporters are receiving comparable preparation.
iLookOut for Child Abuse (iLookOut) is an online, interactive educational program designed to help mandated reporters protect young children from harm, and in particular to become better at identifying and reporting suspected child abuse.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the conceptual foundations and practical considerations that guided the development of iLookOut.
Objective: The present study sought to compare iLookOut, an online mandated reporter training with standard training with respect to changing knowledge and attitudes.
Participants (n=1094) demonstrated significantly large gains in knowledge and attitudes compared to standard training.
Childcare providers take care of 10-12 million children in the United States each year and yet have the lowest reporting rates of suspected child abuse.
This study investigated how childcare providers interpret the threshold for reporting suspected abuse.
When asked how likely abuse had to be to reach the threshold of reasonable suspicion, 21 % of respondents indicated that ‘‘abuse’’ would need to be C > 83 % likely before reasonable suspicion existed; 40 % stated that a likelihood between 53–82 % was needed; 27 % identified the necessary likelihood between 33–52 %; and 12 % set a threshold between 1–32 %.