PLoS ONE
Volume 10, Issue 11, 2015

Development of the SAFE checklist tool for assessing site-level threats to child protection: Use of delphi methods and application to two sites in India (Article) (Open Access)

Betancourt T.S. , Zuilkowski S.S. , Ravichandran A. , Einhorn H. , Arora N. , Chakravarty A.B. , Brennan R.T.
  • a Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States
  • b Learning Systems Institute, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Florida State University, University Center C4600, Tallahassee, FL 32306, United States
  • c FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States
  • d FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States
  • e Indian Institute of Public Healtha Delhi, Public Health Foundation of India, Sector 44, Institutional Area, Gurgaon, 122002, India
  • f Indian Institute of Public Healtha Delhi, Public Health Foundation of India, Sector 44, Institutional Area, Gurgaon, 122002, India
  • g Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States

Abstract

Background The child protection community is increasingly focused on developing tools to assess threats to child protection and the basic security needs and rights of children and families living in adverse circumstances. Although tremendous advances have been made to improve measurement of individual child health status or household functioning for use in lowresource settings, little attention has been paid to a more diverse array of settings in which many children in adversity spend time and how context contributes to threats to child protection. The SAFE model posits that insecurity in any of the following fundamental domains threatens security in the others: Safety/freedom from harm; Access to basic physiological needs and healthcare; Family and connection to others; Education and economic security. Site-level tools are needed in order to monitor the conditions that can dramatically undermine or support healthy child growth, development and emotional and behavioral health. From refugee camps and orphanages to schools and housing complexes, site-level threats exist that are not well captured by commonly used measures of child health and well-being or assessments of single households (e.g., SDQ, HOME). Methods The present study presents a methodology and the development of a scale for assessing site-level child protection threats in various settings of adversity. A modified Delphi panel process was enhanced with two stages of expert review in core content areas as well as review by experts in instrument development, and field pilot testing. Results Field testing in two diverse sites in Indiaâ€"a construction site and a railway stationâ€" revealed that the resulting SAFE instrument was sensitive to the differences between the sites from the standpoint of core child protection issues. © 2015 Betancourt et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

household India building industry Delphi study human wellbeing Delphi Technique railway Railroads statistics and numerical data construction industry housing Child Protective Services checklist procedures child protection child growth Humans safety refugee camp child health standards human experiment growth curve orphanage normal human Child Development Child
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84951310923&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0141222&partnerID=40&md5=dd72b86c3cf1d3733dc03b764af93d91
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141222
ISSN: 19326203
Cited by: 1
Original Language: English