Risk and Prevention of Violence Against Children – Designing Useful Studies

Author: troelsgk

Created: 2025-08-27 09:41pm

Edited: 2025-11-22 02:37am

Keywords: child maltreatment, research design, epidemiology, statistics, violence against children

Description:

I aspire to create a summer course in risk and prevention of violence against children. Current options (International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) yearly conference, International Course on Child Abuse Paediatrics (InterCAP)) are either not in the form of a coherent curriculum, or strongly focused on medical doctors’ approach to diagnosis and clinical management.

Overarching aim: To euip participants to design and reflect on relevant and impactful research projects on violence against children.

The current draft target ILOs 1 and 6.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

Participants will be able to categorise, and reflect on the choice of, definitions of and subcategories within violence against children.
Participants will be aware of and able to draw on research on early intervention in violence against children, including tools for early detection, legislative framework, detection biases, and system
Participants will be able to categorise and contrast different operationalisations of risk, including child- and perpetrator-focused risk models, cumulative and ecological approaches.
Participants will be able to describe and contrast different operationalisations of prevention of violence against children, and describe the underlying evidence base, including the connections betwee
Participants will be able to describe and contrast methodological approaches to evaluation of interventions and evaluation of risk factors, and consider their applicability to specific hypotheses.
Participants will be able to contrast and discuss the applicability of their acquired skills to specific hypotheses within the field.

	Resources		Tasks		Supports
	Online video by us (or others if better)	→	Acquisition: Understand course structure and purpose, understand expected workload ahead of course (minimum of 10 hours expected), iisten to basic concept of hypotheses and hypothesis testing ↓	←	Course teachers availability by email
	Introductory video with an example (the problem is this, existing research says this but lacks this - introducing your niche/idea/solution) Student self-directed learning from existing research (look for relevant articles, perhaps use research librarian)	→	In writing: Place research idea within context of existing research ↓	←	Course teachers availability by email
←	Useful resource on writing a scientific problem statement and hypothesis: https://studypedia.au.dk/en/written-assignments-and-the-exam/problem-statement-and-hypothesis Results in: Abstract and presentation to be used during the course and on the first day of the course	←	Creating: Make an abstract and a 5-minute presentation of project idea ↓	←	Course teachers availability by email

	DAY 1
		→	Acquisition: listen to teachers' welcome, understand structure and purpose of processes on day 1 ↓	←	Course teachers present
			Social activity: ice-breaker, making the students comfortable with sharing among each other ↓	←	Teachers facilitate and participate
→	Abstract and presentation from pre-workshop work	→	Presentations: students present two-and-two for 15 minutes, getting initial feedback on presentation, aim is to gain confidence in presenting ↓	←	Teachers facilitate
→	Abstract and presentation from pre-workshop work	→	Students are split into approx. two groups and present to each other and teachers ↓	←	Teachers facilitate split, feedback is given from peers and teachers, for written feedback there is a concurrent chat open
			Acquisition: listen to whole-class feedback from teachers (overarching themes, subjects of interest that has emerged during presentations) ↓	←	Teachers present
			Break ↓
	Ryan RM, Deci EL. Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being (optional)		Acquisition: Listen to introduction of motivation, and its importance in projects, and in taking the project in a motivating direction - this will include competence (needed knowledge to conduct research), relatedness (in- and out-of-work supporting networks around the research) and autonomy (need for self-ownership, and the interplay with supervisors) ↓	←	Teachers present
	Excerpts from thesis introductions curated by teachers A slide with competence, relatedness and autonomy		Reflection on own motivation, individually or in pairs - optionally, competence, relatedness and autonomy can be used for the analysis ↓	←	Teachers facilitate
			Student presentation: only those who volunteer - 2-3 minutes on their motivation, and ask for feedback from other students and teachers if that is needed for better alignment of motivation and project ↓	←	Teachers and other students
	Dare to Care course Expectations in Supervision, Oxford Learning Institute Your feedback activities (Dawson P, 2024)		Acquisition: presentation on relatedness and autonomy and related tools (Dare to Care course which touch upon needed support structures for those working with violence against children, the Expectations in Supervision by Oxford Learning Institute as a tool to discuss autonomy with supervisors, and the feedback literacy questionnaire as a tool to reflect on one's practice in feedback) ↓	←	Teachers present
			Acquisition: Listen to wrap up and discuss the program for coming days ↓	←	Teachers present
	Protocol template is made available online		Students have time to elaborate their ideas in writing, initiating or updating their draft protocol ↓	←	Teachers, peers and supportive AI models (if we can get access to a model that keeps discussions confidential)

	DAY 2
	Definition from World Health Organisation Cowley et al. Defining child maltreatment for research and surveillance: an international, multi-sectoral, Delphi consensus study in 34 countries in Europe... Laajasalo et al. Current issues and challenges in the definition and operationalization of child maltreatment... https://data.unicef.org/resources/international-classification-of-violence-against-children/		Acquisition and discussion: Teachers lecture on various definitions of violence against children. An initial broad definition is used as the basis of a discussion on how to operationalise it - and this is used as a basis for arguing the need for subdefinitions/operationalisations of categories. Teachers use cases to illustrate strengths and limitations with various definitions, for example unwanted sexual solicitation vs. lethal parental violence ↓
←	National, subcategory and research idea definition of violence against children	←	Two-and-two: find national definition of violence against children and subcategories, identify definition used in your own draft. This is done in the framework of a roleplay, where students are asked to imagine the request coming from the minister of social affairs in their respective countries. ↓	←	Teachers, peers, AI
→	Definition of violence against children in own draft	→	Group work: students present definition used in their own draft, students, peers and teachers discuss alternatives and consequences of these for the research project and its scope ↓	←	Teachers, peers, for written feedback there is a concurrent chat open
	Stoltenborgh M, Bakermans-Kranenburg MJ, Alink LRA, van IJzendoorn MH. The Prevalence of Child Maltreatment across the Globe: Review of a Series of Meta-Analyses. Child Abuse Rev. 2015;24(1):37-50. doi:10.1002/car.2353	→	Acquisition: international and national epidemiology of violence against children, including incidence and prevalence. Illustrate the importance of these through costs estimations, and illustrations - for example how many bridges, or tanks, or operas you can buy for this and that definition, depending on what's important in the press. ↓	←	Teachers present
			Two-and-two: (role play continued) find national prevalence and incidence for violence against children, and what definitions and populations they are measured from ↓	←	Teachers, peers, AI
			Group work: students present prevalence and incidence of violence against children (choose concept most relevant to own draft) and discuss what information, or high-quality information, might be lacking and what this means for own research idea ↓	←	Teachers, peers, for written feedback there is a concurrent chat open
			Acquisition: Listen to wrap up and discuss the program for coming days ↓	←	Teachers present
			Students have time to elaborate their ideas	←	Teachers, peers and supportive AI models (if we can get access to a model that keeps discussions confidential)