What is a good measure?

Webinar presented by Gabrielle Hunt, Research Associate, Institute of Child Protection Studies, 25 March 2024

How do we know if safeguarding steps are protecting children?

With so many measures to choose from, it can be difficult to understand where to start or what to use. Practitioners and researchers have so many measures to choose from and it can be difficult to understand where to start or what to use.

How can you choose sound measures when designing research around safeguarding children and young people? Gabby Hunt conducted a comprehensive review of the measures identified in the 2023 Evidence Gap Map, and that are used to assess the achievement of safeguarding aims within institutional settings. She identified their strengths and their limitations, and analysed the reliability and validity of measures for a range of cultural settings.

Here we share a range of resources related to this body of work:

• Recording: What is a good measure?
• Presentation notes: Measuring children's safety in institutions
• Infographic of the study
• Research summary
• Full technical report of the measures analysis: Toolbox of Measures Used in Experimental Research on Institutional Child Maltreatment
• Executive summary of the technical report of the measures analysis: Toolbox of Measures Used in Experimental Research on Institutional Child Maltreatment