Developing an Intervention to Prevent Child Maltreatment Using Systematic Identification of Common Elements and Co-Creation.

Introduction: Register data from Statistics Norway (2018) show that 54 620 children and youth received some form of intervention from Child Protective Services (CPS) in 2016. The importance of providing effective services for this population cannot be underestimated: youths in CPS are at risk of experiencing maltreatment and many suffer from mental health problems. Despite this fact, only a very small portion of families receive evidence-based intervention (EBI) in CPS in Norway. Our aim is therefore to co-create and test a common element-based intervention. Common elements (or core components) are theorized to represent particularly active ingredients of EBIs. By facilitating the development and implementation of a locally tailored and flexible intervention, the goal is to increase and optimize the use of evidence-based strategies to prevent child maltreatment in CPS in Norway.

Methods: First, a systematic method of identifying common practice (or content)-, process-, and implementation elements, and their common combinations, will be presented. Second, procedures for facilitating co-creation with stakeholders and users to develop locally tailored and flexible intervention strategies based on the common elements will be discussed.

Results: First, preliminary findings of common elements-profiles describing practice elements most frequently included in effective interventions for prevention of child maltreatment will be presented. Second, the presentation will detail the process- and implementation elements that are most frequently associated with specific practice elements when used in effective interventions. Third, the structure and implementation strategies for the intervention will be discussed.

Conclusions: The systematic identification of common elements, co-creation with stakeholders and users, and rigorous optimization research (e.g., time series designs and factorial experiments) has the potential to increase the implementability, reach and effectiveness of preventive intervention of child maltreatment in CPS.