The relationship between child protection training and teachers' self-reported contact with authorities

Research shows that teachers often lack the required knowledge and skills to consistently identify child abuse, but that in-service training can increase teachers' knowledge, awareness, and preventative behaviours. However, little research exists about the relationship between training and teachers' subsequent self-reported actions in contacting authorities.

This study examined 1) whether receiving child protection training predicts an increase in the likelihood that teachers will contact authorities and 2) whether in-person training predicts an increase in the likelihood that teachers will contact authorities.

647 Designated Liaison Persons (DLPs), typically the school principal, from Irish primary schools completed an online questionnaire.

Chi-squares of independence and binomial regression analysis were conducted on variables related to training and to contacting child protection authorities.

We detected statistically significant associations between receiving training and three subsequent self-reported actions: seeking advice; making a referral; and making a referral without advice. Statistically significant associations were also found between training modality and these actions with the lowest levels of advice-seeking and referring amongst those who received online training only. Binomial logistic regression results show that attending multiple modes of training was a statistically significant predictor of all three actions whilst attending in-person training was a statistically significant predictor of making a referral.

When controlling for gender and experience, training is not a significant predictor of reporting. Attending in-person training and multiple modes of training were significant predictors of reporting, compared to the those who received online training only.