Barriers and Facilitators Associated With Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Among Child Care Professionals: A Systematic Review

Hundreds of children die every year due to child abuse and/or neglect (CAN). Despite CAN reporting laws, approximately one fifth of child care professionals fail to report CAN. The current systematic review examines 37 studies on factors associated with CAN reporting and synthesizes their findings to provide in-depth insights on CAN reporting strategies. A systematic search on peer-reviewed original studies published from 2010 to 2020 was conducted with various databases. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Protocols guidelines were used to screen 266 studies retrieved from the initial search; of those, 37 were retained for review. Barriers to and facilitators of CAN reporting were categorized by the following common characteristics: system and structure (e.g., reporting system infrastructure), resources and support (e.g., funding, time), sociocultural context (e.g., CAN as a family matter), reporter traits (e.g., gender), and psychological attributes (e.g., knowledge, beliefs, mistrust). Intervention strategies tailored to the needs of professionals that can maximize their CAN reporting behaviors must be developed. [(6), 14-22.].