Family Needs Checklist: Development of a Mobile Application for Parents with Children to Assess the Risk for Child Maltreatment

Abstract

Child maltreatment (CM) has been enormously studied. However, a preventive practice still requires comprehensive and effective instruments to assess the risks for CM in a family context. The aim of this study is to describe the development process of an evidence-based CM risk assessment instrument (Family Needs Checklist, FNC) for primary prevention online utilization. This article reports the development process of the checklist and its mobile application, consisting of a systematic literature review, identification of known risk factors using the content analysis method, and generation of the checklist, including a multidisciplinary group in the design and feedback. As a result, a comprehensive and compact checklist was developed to be used by parents or caregivers as a self-referral instrument with an option to be used with professionals as a basis for joint conversations. The FNC consists of parental, family-, and child-related risk factors. Based on the international evidence, the online application consists of knowledge about different CM types, information about risk factors and protective factors as well as recommendations and guidance to support services. The FNC is based on robust evidence on known risk factors causing CM in families. It can be used for primary prevention utilization in the general population.

“Going Forward like a Grandmother in the Snow”: Personal Survival Strategies, Motherhood, and Nature as Resources for Mothers Who Have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence

“…Several women described that their children had indeed witnessed violence and suffered negative consequences as a result of IPV. Similar to those children, several participants reported childhood trauma of their own (see Table 1 ), which also aligns with past findings on the intergenerational transmission of violence and abuse [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. In general, our participants described how their childhoods and experiences as young adults had impacted their lives as adults, as Norman et al have additionally identified [ 19 ].…”

“…IPV is one of the risks of intergenerational transmission of violence and/or maltreatment [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. All forms of violence can be expected to severely impact children and their lives as adults [ 19 ].…”

Families of four‐year‐old children experiencing violence: A national survey of parents and public health nurses on help and support

“…However, they reported families' support needs related to other issues, such as coping and intimate partnership. Problems in these issues are risk factors of FV, especially CM (Rantanen, Nieminen, et al, 2022). Public health nurses in our study noticed more of these support needs in families with FV compared to other families.…”

“…Moreover, FNC can be used for primary prevention among the general population. Above all, there is a need to discuss any worries parents have systematically and in dialogue with families, and also ask clients and families about violence, whenever needed (Rantanen, Nieminen, et al, 2022).…”

“…Moreover, there is evidence that an instrument like BCAP (Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory) could serve as a valid tool to detect child abuse in the general population (Ellonen et al, 2019) although further analysis is also needed. Another tool developed for risk assessment is a research-based mobile application (Family Needs Checklist, FNC), which parents can fill in before an appointment (Rantanen, Nieminen, et al, 2022). Self-reporting has been found more reliable than evaluations carried out by an outsider (Rantanen, Paavilainen, et al, 2022).…”