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Funding: Funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme of the European Commission (European Commission 2019–2021). Child maltreatment has detrimental social and health effects for individuals, families and communities. The ERICA project is a pan-European training programme that equips non-specialist threshold practitioners with knowledge and skills to prevent and detect child maltreatment. This paper describes and presents the findings of a rapid review of good practice examples across seven participating countries including local services, programmes and risk assessment tools used in the detection and prevention of child maltreatment in the family. Learning was applied to the development of the generic training project. A template for mapping the good practice examples was collaboratively developed by the seven participating partner countries. A descriptive data analysis was undertaken organised by an a priori analysis framework. Examples were organised into three areas: programmes tackling child abuse and neglect, local practices in assessment and referral, risk assessment tools. Key findings were identified using a thematic approach. Seventy-two good practice examples were identified and categorised according to area, subcategory and number. A typology was developed as follows: legislative frameworks, child health promotion programmes, national guidance on child maltreatment, local practice guidance, risk assessment tools, local support services, early intervention programmes, telephone or internet-based support services, COVID-19 related good practices. Improved integration of guidance into practice and professional training in child development were highlighted as overarching needs. The impact of COVID-19 on safeguarding issues was apparent. The ERICA training programme formally responded to the learning identified in this international good practice review. Publisher PDF

Community construction in an online setting has been researched to some extent before, using discourse analysis, and this thesis takes inspiration from the previous studies conducted in this field. Advertising has developed in modern era, with advertisers moving increasingly to social media and using different ways to advertise, and podcasting has offered a good medium for marketing. This thesis provides a new research medium, as the advertisements present in social media have not previously been examined as a way to construct a community, connecting advertising to community construction. This thesis examines how the in-podcast advertisements of the Tiny Meat Gang (TMG) podcast construct the community of its listeners. This is done using discourse analysis, utilizing Pietikäinen and Mäntynen (2019) as the guideline for the discourse analytic examination of the data. The concepts of authenticity and sense of community (McMillan & Chavis, 1986) are applied in the analysis. Different studies on constructing communities as well as advertising and authenticity in media are also consulted in the process. The data for the thesis was collected from episodes 161–172 of the freely available episodes of the TMG podcast, constructing a corpus of 38 advertisements of 19 different brands. In addition to this every episode had a sign-on and sign-off advertisement, promoting the podcast’s Patreon account. The advertisements were transcribed, focusing on the level of word choices. The results indicate that the advertisements in this podcast construct the community, some of this in purpose but otherwise it might be accidental. The data shows certain reoccurring elements in the advertisements, in terms of community construction. Although this thesis has certain limitations, it offers a lot of interesting findings. This field of researching community construction in connection to modern advertising offers a great deal of research possibilities for the future.Tiivistelmä. Yhteisön luomista internetissä on tutkittu jonkin verran, käyttäen diskurssianalyysia, ja tämä tutkielma ammentaakin inspiraatiota aihepiirin aiemmista tutkimuksista. Mainostaminen on myös kehittynyt modernina aikana ja siirtynyt enenevässä määrin sosiaaliseen mediaan ja käyttäen erilaisia mainostamisen tapoja. Podcastit ovat antaneet mainostajille hyvän vaihtoehdon mainostaa tuotteitaan. Tämä tutkielma tarjoaa uuden tutkimussuunnan, sillä mainoksia ei ole ennen tutkittu yhteisön rakentamisen keinoina. Tämä tutkielma tutkii sitä, miten Tiny Meat Gang (TMG) -podcast rakentaa podcastin kuuntelijoiden yhteisöä siinä esiintyvissä mainoksissa. Tämä tehdään diskurssianalyysin avulla, käyttäen Pietikäistä ja Mäntystä (2019) ohjenuorana analyysissä. Autenttisuuden sekä yhteisöllisyyden tunteen (McMillan & Chavis, 1986) määritelmiä hyödynnetään myös analyysia tehdessä. Erilaisia tutkimuksia yhteisön rakentamisesta käytetään myös hyödyksi analyysissä, kuten myös tutkimuksia markkinoinnista, sekä autenttisuudesta mediassa. Tutkielman aineisto sisältää TMG-podcastin ilmaisten jaksojen 161–172 mainokset, joita on yhteensä 38. Näiden mainosten lisäksi jokaisessa tutkitussa jaksossa oli podcastin oman Patreon-tilin mainos jakson alussa sekä lopussa. Mainokset litteroitiin, keskittyen tutkielman kannalta tärkeisiin elementteihin, kuten sanavalintoihin. Tulokset osoittavat sen, että podcastissa esiintyvät mainokset rakentavat yhteisöä, osa tarkoituksella, mutta osa saattaa tehdä tätä tahattomasti. Aineistosta paljastuu joitain toistuvia elementtejä, jotka rakentavat yhteisöä. Vaikka tällä tutkielmalla on tiettyjä rajoitteita, voidaan tuloksia pitää mielenkiintoisina. Yhteisön rakentuminen ja sen liittyminen moderniin mainostamiseen tarjoaa paljon mahdollisuuksia tutkimuksille tulevaisuudessa.

Funding: This research is part of the ERICA project funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014–2020). GA 856760. Child maltreatment (CM) has been enormously studied. However, a preventive practice still requires comprehensive and effective instruments to assess the risks for CM in a family context. The aim of this study is to describe the development process of an evidence-based CM risk assessment instrument (Family Needs Checklist, FNC) for primary prevention online utilization. This article reports the development process of the checklist and its mobile application, consisting of a systematic literature review, identification of known risk factors using the content analysis method, and generation of the checklist, including a multidisciplinary group in the design and feedback. As a result, a comprehensive and compact checklist was developed to be used by parents or caregivers as a self-referral instrument with an option to be used with professionals as a basis for joint conversations. The FNC consists of parental, family-, and child-related risk factors. Based on the international evidence, the online application consists of knowledge about different CM types, information about risk factors and protective factors as well as recommendations and guidance to support services. The FNC is based on robust evidence on known risk factors causing CM in families. It can be used for primary prevention utilization in the general population. Publisher PDF

Funding: This study is part of the ERICA project funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014–2020). GA 856760. The responsiveness of professionals working with children and families is of key importance for child maltreatment early identification. However, this might be undermined when multifaceted circumstances, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, reduce interdisciplinary educational activities. Thanks to technological developments, digital platforms seem promising in dealing with 30 new challenges for professionals’ trainings. We examined a digital approach to child maltreatment training through the ERICA project experience (Stopping Child Maltreatment through Pan-European Multiprofessional Training Programme). ERICA has been piloted during the pandemic in seven European centers involving interconnected sectors of professionals working with children and families. The training consisted of interactive modules embedded in a digital learning frame-work. Different aspects (i.e., technology, interaction, and organization) were evaluated and trainers’ feedback on digital features was sought. Technical issues were the main barrier. However, these did not significantly disrupt the training. The trainers perceived reduced interaction between participants although distinct factors were uncovered as potential favorable mediators. Based on participants’ subjective experiences and perspectives, digital learning frameworks for professionals working with children and families, like the ERICA model nested in its indispensable adaptation to an e-learning mode, can represent a novel interactive approach to empower trainers and trainees to tackle child maltreatment during critical times like a pandemic and as an alternative to more traditional learning frameworks. Publisher PDF