Quantitative evaluation of a pan-European multi-professional digital training programme for stopping child maltreatment (ERICA)

Abstract

Child maltreatment is a global public health problem affecting individuals, families, and societies. Although there are a number of programmes aimed at preventing child maltreatment, there is limited information available on their effectiveness or impact. This study aims to quantitively evaluate a recently developed pan-European digital training programme for the identification and prevention of child maltreatment within families—ERICA. Professionals working with children and families who have limited experience in child protection (e.g. healthcare workers, teachers) were recruited for the ERICA training in the seven collaborator countries (England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Scotland). Participants were 303 professionals who completed online self-evaluation questionnaires. In each collaborator country, trainee skills and knowledge were self-assessed twice via an anonymous online questionnaire, pre- and post-ERICA training. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to summarise questionnaire items into latent components in self-assessed skills and knowledge across all participants (n = 303), and then we compared pre- and post-training factor scores for participants with both pre- and post-responses (n = 185) using mixed-effect regression. For all 52 questionnaire items, we found statistically significant improvements (p < 0.001) between self-evaluated skills and knowledge comparing pre- and post-training. Exploratory analysis using PCA derived eight summary scales based on latent components, which addressed overall expertise, competence, skills, communication with children, engagement with the family, early signs, support, and intervention. The factor scores for the eight summary scales also showed consistent pre–post-training improvements. The findings suggest a likely improvement in trainees’ self-assessed skills and knowledge of child maltreatment after taking the ERICA digital training. Improvement was found across all seven countries, suggesting the training’s transferability across different settings and their unique cultural, legislative, and healthcare contexts.