Protocol for developing core outcome sets for evaluation of psychosocial interventions for children and families with experience or at risk of child maltreatment or domestic abuse

Abstract

IntroductionRecognition that child maltreatment (CM) and domestic violence and abuse (DVA) are common and have serious and long-term adverse health consequences has resulted in policies and programmes to ensure that services respond to and safeguard children and their families. However, high-quality evidence about how services can effectively intervene is scant. The value of the current evidence base is limited partly because of the variety of outcomes and measures used in evaluative studies. One way of addressing this limitation is to develop a core outcome set (COS) which is measured and reported as a minimum standard in the context of trials and other types of evaluative research. The study described in this protocol aims to develop two discrete COSs for use in future evaluation of psychosocial interventions aimed at improving outcomes for children and families at risk or with experience of (1) CM or (2) DVA.Methods and analysisA two-phase mixed methods design: (1) rapid reviews of evidence, stakeholder workshops and semistructured interviews with adult survivors of CM/DVA and parents of children who have experienced CM/DVA and (2) a three panel adapted E-Delphi Study and consensus meeting. This study protocol adheres to reporting guidance for COS protocols and has been registered on the Core Outcome Measures for Effectiveness Trials (COMET) database.Ethics and disseminationWe will disseminate our findings through peer-reviewed and open access publications, the COMET website and presentations at international conferences. We will engage with research networks, journal editors and funding agencies to promote awareness of the CM-COS and DVA-COS. We will work with advisory and survivor and public involvement groups to coproduce a range of survivor, policy and practice facing outputs.Approval for this study has been granted by the Research Ethics Committee at University College London.

Child and family-focused interventions for child maltreatment and domestic abuse: development of core outcome sets

“…We registered the study with the Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET) initiative 20 and published the study protocol. 21 …”

“…We registered the study with the Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET) initiative 20 and published the study protocol. 21 Following COMET methodology, 22 we used a two-stage approach. In stage 1, we devised a long list of candidate outcomes from stakeholder consultation, qualitative interviews, trials and the wider literature.…”

“…We carried out a series of rapid reviews separately for CM and DVA, updating previous systematic reviews1 2 (see online supplemental material 3 for inclusion criteria and online supplemental material 4 for review flow charts and for the search strategies, see protocol21). For the intervention literature, we searched Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, Cochrane and Web of Science from January 2014 to May 2019.…”

Child and family-focused interventions for child maltreatment and domestic abuse: Development of core outcome sets

“…We registered the study with the Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET) initiative [22] and published the study protocol. [23] Ethics approval was provided by University College London's Research Ethics Committee for involving research participants (17893/001 & 002) and we were guided by a steering group of eight professionals. (For details see acknowledgments.)…”

“…[1,2] (See online supplement 3 for inclusion criteria, online supplement 4 for review flow charts and for the search strategies see protocol. [23]) For the intervention literature we searched Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, Cochrane and Web of Science from Jan 2014 to May 2019. For the qualitative literature, ASSIA, CINAHL, GoogleScholar, PsycInfo and SSCI were searched from October 2015 (DVA) and July 2014 (CM) until October 2019.…”