Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on a Child Maltreatment Prevention Network.

Abstract

Objective: Child maltreatment is a complex and preventable public health problem that cannot be effectively addressed by a single organization or sector. We examined a network of organizations working to prevent childhood maltreatment before and during COVID-19, including members of the Parents and Children Together-St. Louis Collaborative. The Collaborative is an initiative with the purpose of strengthening ties among service agencies and was new when the COVID-19 shutdowns began.

Design and participants: In September 2020, we surveyed 62 agencies working on childhood maltreatment prevention in the public health, health, or social service sectors. We asked about frequency of contact between organizations before (pre-COVID) and during COVID (in-COVID). We used descriptive and inferential network methods to examine network properties and changes.

Results: There were 360 ties among organizations in the pre-COVID network (density = 0.19) and 321 ties among organizations (density = 0.17) during COVID. The median number of ties per organization decreased from pre- to in-COVID for most organizations and most notably for smaller and newer organizations and mental health care organizations. The only organization type that increased connections was substance abuse organizations. Pre- and in-COVID odds of connection were significantly higher for mental health care, substance abuse, health care, child welfare, and legal-advocacy organizations compared to multisector organizations. Odds of a connection between 2 organizations were significantly higher pre-COVID and in-COVID if one or both organizations were Collaborative members.

Conclusions: Disruptions during COVID-19 coincided with fewer connections among organizations. Collaborative members had higher odds of connection before and during COVID-19, suggesting a potential strategy for building and maintaining a cross-sector service network. Understanding network structure and change in the early stages of COVID-19 provides an opportunity to work on building and sustaining inter-organizational connections essential in violence prevention and child well-being and other areas of public health.