Are social marketing campaigns effective in preventing child abuse and neglect?
Are social marketing campaigns effective in preventing child abuse and neglect?
Briony Horsfall, Leah Bromfield and Myfanwy McDonald
Social marketing campaigns are a common strategy for raising awareness about social problems such as child abuse and neglect. However, questions have been raised about the role social marketing campaigns could play, and their potential efficacy in the prevention of child abuse and neglect and in supporting vulnerable children and families.
In this NCPC Issues paper, evidence for the impact of media-based social marketing campaigns related to child protection, parenting and child abuse prevention are examined.
Authors and Acknowledgements
At the time of writing Briony Horsfall was a Research Officer with the National Child Protection Clearinghouse at the Australian Institute of Family Studies.
At the time of writing Dr Leah Bromfield was Manager of the National Child Protection Clearinghouse at the Australian Institute of Family Studies. Dr Bromfield is now Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection.
At the time of writing Dr Myfanwy McDonald was a Senior Research Officer at the National Child Protection Clearinghouse. Dr McDonald is now the Acting Coordinator of the Communities and Families Clearinghouse Australia.
The authors gratefully acknowledge Mr Rhys Price-Robertson for validating the coding of literature and Mr Alister Lamont for feedback and assistance with analysis. The authors would also like to acknowledge Dr Rob Donovan and Dr Danielle Zerk for reviewing this paper.
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Further reading
Overview of the use and effectiveness of program evaluation in child abuse prevention.
This paper outlines different evaluation types, identifies the key elements to developing a rigorous evaluation and highlights possible limitations
The merits of using mass media to advocate for children's rights, and raise awareness of and prevent child abuse.
Review of theoretical constructs relating to child abuse prevention, health promotion strategies and the development of healthy communities.
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