Early childhood educators: Perspectives on maltreatment and mandated reporting

This study examined knowledge of maltreatment issues of 141 early care and education (ECE) providers who are mandated reporters. Participants rated the importance of factors for determining maltreatment, indicated whether a hypothetical act was maltreatment, and whether they would report that incident. Participants emphasized the importance of actual harm and sexual acts for determining child maltreatment, but rated potential for harm as less important relative to studies of other mandated reporters. The results also suggested that participants hold similar beliefs about what constitutes maltreatment (neglect) as K-8 teachers. Unlike their K-8 counterparts, participants placed more emphasis on sexual abuse and less emphasis on physical abuse. Finally, consistent with findings from studies of K-8 teachers, participants were more likely to say they would report an incident when they were personally more certain the act was abuse.