Comparing Child Maltreatment Prevention and Service Delivery at the Community Level of Practice: A Mixed-Methods Network Analysis

Child maltreatment practice has broadened in recent decades to include prevention strategies, however much remains unknown about how preventive efforts are enacted among organizations at the community level compared to service delivery. Using a mixed-methods design with 67 interviews and 80 network surveys, this study compares interactions among organizations across prevention and service domains. Data suggest that though organizations are active in prevention, and view services as preventative, prevention efforts are substantially less defined, relationships around prevention are less mutually recognized, and prevention occurs in a structure of more dispersed rather than centralized connections. Results are discussed for policy and practice relevance.