A systematic review of behavior and social change approaches to address violence against children (VAC)

Background: The Committee on the Rights of the Child defines Violence Against Children (VAC) as comprising physical or mental violence, injury, abuse, neglect, negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation. The United Nations Secretary-General's Study concludes VAC happens everywhere, in every country and society and across social groups. Attention has been focused on infrastructural barriers. However, establishing social and cultural norms supportive of child rights is critical. Behavior and social change interventions are ideally suited for this.

Objectives: To develop recommendations for future programs and research through a systematic review commissioned by UNICEF.

Methods: Peer reviewed and grey literature since 2000 was examined utilizing six search engines. Search terms included several approaches: communication campaigns, community and social mobilization, and advocacy. The review yielded 80,532 hits narrowed to a sample of 302 manuscripts.

Results: Preliminary results indicate that a majority of the interventions are from developed countries. VAC is conceptualized as a cause and outcome with linkages among different forms of VAC and VAC is related to other issues like violence against women and intimate partner violence. Conceptual models are rare and when utilized mostly individually focused. Few interventions are conducted at scale and robust impact evaluations are notably absent. There is limited but growing recent evidence of interventions moving from a place-based to a norms- based approach and emphasizing a social ecological perspective.

Conclusions: VAC is both a global and local issue. Interventions should start in early childhood, address social, emotional and behavioral competencies, be implemented at scale and invest in evaluation.