Hundreds of thousands of children are identified each year in the United States as victims of child abuse and neglect (USDHHS, 2017). While this number staggering, even more concerning is that the true magnitude of the problem is much larger. Many children suffer each day in silence as they experience purposeful negligence or physical, emotional, or sexual violence. Calls to action have been made to improve our identification systems for those who already have experienced maltreatment and to work with communities to ensure that no child ever experiences abuse or neglect in the first place (Klika, Lee, & Lee, 2017).

Since the writing of “The Battered-Child Syndrome” (Kempe, Sliverman, Steele, Droegemueller, & Silver, 1962), researchers, practitioners, and communities have developed and implemented strategies to protect children from and mitigate the consequences of child abuse and neglect. Complex problems demand comprehensive solutions, focusing on more than one layer of the ecological system. Most of the strategies designed to prevent maltreatment have focused on working directly with child victims and, at times, with their families. Early intervention strategies such as home visitation have been used to intervene early in the life of new and expecting families in an effort to prevent abuse and neglect (Klika et al., 2017). These strategies move beyond the parent–child dyad and recognize that understanding families in the context of their environment is critical to producing lasting behavioral change. Beginning with the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and more recently the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visitation Program (MIECHV), there is a growing recognition that changing the conditions and opportunities for families through social policy provide promise in preventing abuse and neglect (Adirim & Supplee, 2013, Fortson, Klevens, Merrick, Gilbert, & Alexander, 2016).

In addition to practice and policy solutions to mitigate child maltreatment, some researchers have begun to explore the ways in which the prevailing societal beliefs and expectations, or social norms, can enhance or hinder our progress towards the prevention of child maltreatment (Fortson et al., 2016; Linkenbach & Otto, 2014; World Health Organization [WHO], 2016; Klika et al., 2017; Linkenbach, Klika, Jones, & Roche, 2017). For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies social norms change as one of the four pillars of their “Essentials for Childhood” child maltreatment prevention strategy (Fortson et al., 2016). By gaining an accurate picture of what people believe, value, and do (actual norms) and their perceptions of societal beliefs, values, and actions (perceived norms), awareness campaigns can be created to enhance norms that promote healthy relationships, shift misperceptions between actual and perceived norms when they exist, and to promote new or different norms when necessary (Linkenbach et al., 2017).

In this paper, data from a national survey and one state survey (Nevada) are analyzed to highlight social norms associated with child abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. The findings from these two surveys point to key areas for social norms messaging campaigns to prevent the abuse and neglect of children.

Social Norms

Despite varying definitions, social norms are thought of as the mainstream attitudes, expectations, and behaviors of a group (Perkins, 2002; Linkenbach & Otto, 2014) or what Xenitidou and Edmonds (2014) refer to as “standards of acceptability” (p. 1) within a given group or society. Social norms influence the way people think, and ultimately act, in given situations and cannot be understood outside of the cultural context from which they emerge and from the historical timeframe during which they are surveyed (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Researchers who study norms and their corresponding influence on behavior discuss a couple types of norms: actual norms and perceived norms. Actual norms refer to those behaviors and attitudes held by a majority of people in a community or group. To assess actual norms, a researcher may ask a study participant to rate his or her level of agreement with the following statement: child abuse is a problem in my community. If over 50% of people surveyed agreed with this statement, researchers would say that the actual norm is one of concern for the problem of child abuse. Perceived norms on the other hand, refer to the perceptions of beliefs, values, attitudes, and/or behaviors that one assumes his or her peer/reference group endorses or engages in (Perkins, 2014; Perkins & Berkowitz, 1986). Perceived norms are further broken down into descriptive and injunctive norms (Cialdini, Reno, & Kallgren, 1990). Descriptive norms refer to the perceived behaviors or actions of a reference group while injunctive norms refer to the perceived opinions or beliefs of a reference group. To assess a perceived injunctive norm, a researcher may ask a study participant to rate his or her level of agreement with the following statement: most adults believe that child abuse is a problem in my community and should be addressed. To understand a perceived descriptive norm, the following question may be posed: most adults intervene in cases of child abuse and neglect. To summarize, actual norms refer to what people think, believe, and do, while perceived norms refer to what people assume that other people think, believe, and do.

Understanding the role of perceived norms (descriptive and injunctive) is important because perceptions of norms have a strong influence over individual thoughts and ultimately, behavior (Schultz, Nolan, Cialdini, Goldstein, & Griskevicius, 2007). If one perceives that others in their community think, believe, and act in a particular way, they are inclined to bring their thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors in-line with that perception as to not violate the norm. However, norms are often misperceived and people begin to act on faulty perceptions of norms. For example, in their seminal study, Perkins and Berkowitz (1986) examined actual and perceived norms of attitudes and behaviors related to drinking alcohol among a college sample. The authors found that while most students endorsed what was considered “moderate” attitudes towards the permissiveness of alcohol consumption (actual norm), an overwhelming majority of those students perceived that their peers held very permissive attitudes on the same topic (perceived norm). Here, there is a large gap between the actual norm and the perceived norm of alcohol use. Research suggests that people often misperceive norms in the direction of over-estimating rates of health risk behaviors and under-estimating rates of health promoting behavior (Schultz et al., 2007; Linkenbach, 2015). In the college drinking example, it is evident how a misperception of a norm could create a situation where a college student may engage in health-risk behavior (i.e., drinking) despite having personal beliefs that run counter to the behavior.

Very little work has been conducted with a primary focus directly on social norms as they relate to the topic of child maltreatment and its prevention. The next section reviews the scholarship on public opinions associated with child abuse and neglect and highlight the historic lack of examination of perceived norms in this body of work.

Public Opinion Research on Child Maltreatment

To date, a small body of research has examined public opinions (actual norms) associated with the topic of child maltreatment. Starting in the 1980s researchers became interested in tracking norms and opinions related to child abuse, namely child physical abuse. The National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse (NCPCA, now Prevent Child Abuse America) commissioned a series of nationally representative public opinion polls to take the national pulse on attitudes and behaviors related to child abuse and general child rearing practices (Daro & Gelles, 1992). These surveys were conducted across multiple years (1987–1992) so trends in national opinions could be monitored in relation to the implementation of child abuse prevention campaigns during the same timeframe. Questions were asked regarding behaviors categorized as emotionally (e.g., screaming/yelling at child) and physically abusive (e.g., spanking or corporal punishment). While self-reported instances of these behaviors decreased over the survey period, over 50% of respondents continued to endorse corporal punishment.

A later review of the published and grey literature by the Frameworks Institute and Prevent Child Abuse America (Bostrom, 2003) examined social norms through public opinion research and concluded that the general public, across surveys, viewed child abuse as a serious problem and believed that intervention was required to address it. Further, a large majority of people (i.e., the social norm) across surveys reported a commitment to taking action, in the form of reporting, if child abuse was ever suspected. Similar to the NCPC surveys, approximately 53% of parents believed in the use of corporal punishment (sometimes) as a form of discipline indicating an actual norm in support of these practices.

To date, little research has been conducted on social norms specifically related to child sexual abuse. There are long standing values beliefs held by society regarding child sexual abuse that unfortunately often drive the behaviors of a child or an adult victim, including their willingness or ability to report the abuse as well as their access to appropriate services (Broussard, Wagner, & Kazelskis, 1991). Some of the issues specific to sexuality that persist in U.S. society include feelings of shame around sexual acts, taboos and modesty that prevent the discussion of sexuality and sexual development, and societal gender roles (Fontes & Plummer, 2010). In addition, the normalization of violence contributes to the difficulty in preventing child sexual abuse. Violence portrayed in the media and the sexualization of youth leave society desensitized an unable to be cognizant of inappropriate interactions occurring in society (Ciarlante, 2007). With child sexual abuse, research has shown that the public tends to perceive that the victim is partially responsible for the sexual crime. Common perceptions include that the child should have protected themselves, they should have fought harder to stop the sexual act, or that the victim should not have behaved in a certain manner to instigate the sexual response from the perpetrator (Broussard et al., 1991). When there are social beliefs that the victim has the capability to prevent or stop a crime, society does not prioritize preventing that crime or offering services to those impacted. Fortunately, common beliefs—even normative ones that are held by society can change.

Tracking public opinion, or actual norms, has yielded a general understanding about the pulse of the general public on the topic of child abuse and neglect yet little work has been done to understand perceptions of norms as they relate to child maltreatment. Further, almost no empirical survey data exists to document norms associated with child sexual abuse. The simultaneous tracking of actual and perceived norms, including norms associated with child sexual abuse, represent a gap in the current child maltreatment literature. The purpose of the current paper was to review data from one national survey and one state survey to increase understanding of norms (actual and perceived) associated with child maltreatment, including child sexual abuse.

Methods

National Norms Survey for Child Abuse and Neglect

In 2014 the national organization Prevent Child Abuse America, in collaboration with the Montana Institute, conducted a national survey to better understand norms (actual and perceived) associated with child maltreatment and its prevention (see Sege et al., 2017 for a brief summary of findings). The telephone survey was conducted in the U.S. with 1000 adults over the age of 18. Participants were asked to respond “yes” or “no” to questions regarding actual norms (i.e., what people believe themselves) and perceived norms (i.e., what people perceive that other adults believe) associated with child abuse and neglect (see Table 2 for example questions). The sample of phone numbers (including cell phone numbers) for the survey was purchased through a random digit dialing telephone sample. The survey was approximately 10 min in length and was available for administration in both English and Spanish.

Data analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS version 24 (IBM Corp., 2015). Chi square tests were used to examine group differences in norms across the following categories: gender (male/female), abuse history (history of abuse before age 18), parent status (yes/no), race (White, Hispanic/Latino, African American, Other), and age (18–29, 30–49, 50–64, 65+). The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1% at the 95% confidence level.

Statewide Norms Survey for Child Sexual Abuse Prevention

In 2015, Prevent Child Abuse Nevada, in collaboration with the Rape Crisis Center of Las Vegas and MassKids, developed a brief opinion poll to gauge perceptions of child maltreatment from a random sample of adults in the state of Nevada. Using random digit dialing techniques, the survey was administered in both English and Spanish to a selection of 384 adults (over the age of 18). The list of telephone numbers (including both land line and cell phone numbers) was purchased from Survey Sampling Inc., (SSI). Sample weights were calculated to adjust for unequal probabilities of selection and non-response bias resulting from differential response rates across a variety of demographic groups. Post-stratification variables included county, gender, race, and ethnicity. Individuals that did not provide all of the above information (n = 23) were not included in the final analyses which resulted in a final sample of 361 adults. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.2% at the 95% confidence level. Chi square tests were used to examine the relationship of the survey questions with the following variables: gender (male/female), race (White, Hispanic/Latino, African American/Black, Other), a person under 18 lives in the home (yes/no), and age (18–29, 30–49, 50–69, 70+). Data analyses for this survey were conducted utilizing IBM SPSS version 23 (IBM Corp., 2015).

Results

National Norms Survey for Child Abuse and Neglect

Descriptive statistics for the sample can be found in Table 1. Table 2 examines the actual and perceived norms associated with the seriousness and preventability of child abuse and neglect as well as indication as to whether people would and should intervene if they suspected abuse or neglect. Across all areas, a vast majority of U.S. adults believe (actual norm) that child abuse is a serious problem (87%), is preventable (87%), and that they would (97%), and should (98%) take action if abuse was suspected. Respondents were asked the same questions about whether they believe that “most adults” would agree with the statements (perceived norm). Again, the overwhelming majority of respondents accurately perceive these norms that most adults (75%) believe child abuse as a serious problem; most (74%) accurately perceive that most other adults believe that it is preventable; and that most adults (87%) perceive that the majority of adults report that they would intervene; - and that most (91%) perceive that the majority of others also agree that they should intervene in suspected cases of child abuse and neglect.

Table 1 Demographic data for Prevent Child Abuse America national survey
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Table 2 Questions to assess actual and perceived norms
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Comparing the actual and perceived norms across these questions, we did not find large gaps, or misperception of norms Put another way, results of this survey indicate that nationally, the general public accurately perceives norms regarding the seriousness and preventability of child abuse and neglect and about intentions and beliefs regarding intervention on behalf of abused and neglected children.

When asked about potential barriers to intervening on behalf of an abused or neglected child (actual norms), 65% of US adults indicated a fear of making the situation worse for the child. Not normative but still important are data showing that about one-third had other related concerns ie: 37% had fear for personal safety, 36% were concerned about retaliation by the perpetrator, and 32% indicated that they did not know what to say or do in such a situation (see Table 3).

Table 3 Barriers to intervening on behalf of an abused or neglected child
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Table 4 shows results of the Chi square tests indicating group differences across the assessed national norms. There are a few noteworthy differences observed across groupings. Males were more pessimistic about the seriousness of the problem, whether they would intervene, and both the actual and perceived norms around whether they should intervene in cases of abuse and neglect. Those respondents who reported a history of abuse, also reported a lower level of agreement about the preventability of abuse and neglect, perceptions about whether other people would intervene in cases of abuse and neglect, both the actual and perceived norms around whether they/others should intervene in cases of abuse and neglect, and reported significantly lower rates of “not knowing what to say or do” as a barrier to intervention. In regards to parenting status, only one significant difference emerged. Those who reported being a parent cited “not knowing what to say or do” as less of a barrier to intervening than those who were not parents. Across racial/ethnic groups, African Americans responded lowest to the actual norm regarding the preventability of abuse and neglect. White participants responded highest to “not knowing what to say or do” as a potential barrier to intervening in a case of abuse or neglect. Finally, across the age groupings, those 65 years and older responded lowest across actual and perceived norms for all questions (seriousness, preventability, would intervene, should intervene). Examining barriers to intervention, those 65 years and older reported the highest concern for their personal safety and fear of retaliation compared to the other age groupings.

Table 4 Results of Chi square difference test of norms by demographic group
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Statewide Norms Survey for Child Sexual Abuse Prevention

Strong norms with small gaps of misperceiving these norms for child abuse prevention were also seen in a statewide study in Nevada (Descriptive statistics for the sample can be found in Table 5 and frequencies for those who agreed with each question related to child abuse can be found in Table 6). Nevadans indicated that child abuse (85%) and child sexual abuse (83%) are serious problems in Nevada and the vast majority agree that both child abuse (95%) and child sexual abuse (92%) are preventable. Almost all Nevadans reported that they agree or strongly agree that child maltreatment can be significantly reduced in their community (94%) and that community wide awareness efforts would be an effective approach (95%). Many respondents also believe that adults that abuse (71%) and or neglect (80%) children can change their behavior. In addition, over 74% of Nevadans reported that adults should take the most responsibility in preventing child physical and sexual abuse by identifying possible abusers and taking appropriate action. Further, almost all Nevada residents reported that they agreed that adults should do everything they can to ensure that all children in their community are safe (97%), and that there is a role for every person, neighborhood, group, organization, business and entity to prevent child abuse and neglect (92%).

Table 5 Demographics for Nevada Sample
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Table 6 Results of Chi square difference test of norms by demographic group for the Nevada sample
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With regard to responding to child maltreatment, most (63%) of Nevadans indicated that they are very confident that they would know how to respond appropriately if they suspected or knew that someone in their family or an acquaintance was physically or sexually abusing a child or teen. However, only 38% of respondents were very confident that if they contacted the police, the police would appropriately handle allegations of child maltreatment and only 29% were very confident about the capabilities of child protective services.

Chi Square analyses conducted to examine variances in responses by age, gender, race, and presence of children in the home revealed that differences were only detected on five of the survey questions. First, individuals aged 30–39 and those over 60 reported that they know less about child abuse compared to individuals in the other age categories. Second, both males and individuals who did not have children in their home reported having less knowledge of child sexual abuse compared to females and individuals with children in the home. Third, when individuals were asked if they would participate in a community training about child sexual abuse, females, individuals with children in their home, and individuals under the age of 60 were all more likely to indicate they would attend a training. Next, results indicated that individuals who identified as African America/Black were less likely to believe adults should do everything they can to ensure children are safe compared to the other racial groups. Finally, individuals who identified as African America/Black and those who identified as White were less likely to have confidence in child protective services compared to the other racial groups.

Discussion

Experiencing physical abuse, sexual abuse, and/or neglect as a child can have life-long negative impacts to an individual’s mental and physical health (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013). Children deserve to be in environments that are safe and nurture their development so that every child can reach their full potential. Therefore, there is a need to prioritize the prevention of child maltreatment in society be it through programs, policies, or within the normative contexts in which children and families live.

A few key conclusions can be drawn from both the national and the state norms survey. First, there are strong norms regarding the seriousness and preventability of child abuse and neglect and the general public accurately perceives these norms. The general public does not appear to view child abuse, sexual abuse and neglect as an intractable problem but instead holds concern and hope for its seriousness and prevention. These findings further corroborate prior opinion research in suggesting that a large portion of adults view child abuse and neglect as a serious national problem (Bostrom, 2003).

Second, there is strong evidence of norms, and accurate perception of norms in the national survey, related to intentions to intervene on behalf of abused and neglected children. This finding is in line with survey research by Daro and Gelles (1992) who, after surveying the general public for 5 years, concluded that the general public was willing to take actions to prevention child maltreatment. Willingness or intention to intervene however, does not guarantee that people do take action when abuse or neglect is suspected. For example, in a national survey commissioned by the Children’s Institute International, 92% of adults responded that they would take action if they suspected abuse or neglect while only 34% of those who witnessed abuse actually made an official report in Bostrom (2003). Results of the national survey suggest a few reasons why the general public may not intervene despite their espoused good intentions. These reasons include fear of making the situation worse for the child, fear of personal safety, fear of retaliation by the perpetrator, and not knowing what to say or do. Bensley et al. (2004) identified similar barriers in their survey of adults in Washington State but did not find “knowing what to say or do” as a barrier to intervention. Christy and Voigt (1994) however found that among their sample of college students, certainty of how to intervene was a driving factor as to whether or not someone would intervene. Additional research is needed to understand the association between intentions to intervene and actual behavior in situations of suspected abuse or neglect.

In both the national and state surveys, a number of group differences were identified with few consistent or discernable patterns within or across surveys. The one exception lies in key differences observed across age, namely, older adults held more pessimistic views regarding child abuse and neglect. One possible explanation for this phenomena lies in the fact that the field of child abuse and neglect and therefore, public awareness of child abuse and neglect as a public health problem is a relatively new phenomena. Those 65 years and older were alive at the time of Henry Kempe’s writing of the seminal piece on the battered child which then set in motion a series of events that raised public awareness and federal investment in child abuse and neglect prevention (e.g., CAPTA, Children’s Trust Funds). While the public consciousness has been raised about the scope and seriousness of child maltreatment the problem continues to grow and be publicized through high profile cases in the media. It is possible that, despite concern for the issue, that older adults feel a sense of hopelessness as they have witnessed the rise of the prevention movement while well-intentioned efforts continue to result in meager outcomes for abused and neglected children. Qualitative interviews with older adults may illuminate the reasons for their pessimism and provide insight for how to shift these negative views.

Results of the state survey also indicate that adults feel that they know less about child sexual abuse compared to child abuse in general, especially males and individuals without children in the home. Similarly, males and individuals without children in the home, along with adults over the age of 60 are less willing to participate in programming to increase their education on child sexual abuse. However, the majority of these individuals feel that there is a role for every person to play in the prevention of child maltreatment. These findings indicate that it is crucial that targeted messaging is done so that all individuals understand how they can help prevent child maltreatment, especially groups that indicate apprehension in getting involved.

Implications

Taken together, these findings suggest a couple directions for future research. One of the implications of this research is that a readiness exists to transform social concern into promoting hope based upon positive social action. The results of the two surveys presented in this paper demonstrate widespread norms (national and statewide) showing that individuals believe that child maltreatment is a serious problem and it is a problem that can be prevented. When strong norms exist (i.e., 90%) and are also accurately perceived by most of the population (i.e., 70%) as seen with several of the issues in this study—there is likely to be relatively little push-back from the focus audience when developing messages around these norms. When most people believe prevention matters, and they also accurately perceive that most others feel the same way—a stage is set for influencing the public narrative around important prevention issues and exploring readiness for next actions such as adopting policies that can further protect children from abuse and neglect.

Second, fear of making the situation worse for the child and fear of personal safety and retaliation are consistent barriers that may get in the way of adults intervening on behalf of abused or neglected children. These fears are understandable and require further investigation. At the same time, it is important to better understand what factors may facilitate the likeliness of intervention. Bensley et al. (2004) found a number of factors such as the type and severity of abuse and relationship to the abuser or victim as potential factors that influence intervention. As noted by the authors, future research should focus on the situational factors as well as the bystander, victim, and perpetrator characteristics that increase the likelihood of intervention on behalf of abused and neglected children.

Third, if lack of knowledge or uncertainty of what to do poses a barrier to intervention, then finding ways to close this knowledge gap are imperative for the field. This can be achieved through public awareness campaigns at the national, state, and local level. Based upon the optimistic findings of our survey and prior surveys, these campaigns should focus less on trying to convince the general public that child abuse is a serious problem and more on the concrete ways in which the general public can support children and families.

Finally, tracking whether campaigns are effective at raising knowledge and whether increased knowledge translates into intervention is imperative to understand whether our campaigns are effective. One example of such an evaluation is the Winds of Change campaign in the state of Florida. Evans, Falconer, Khan, and Ferris (2012) conducted a randomized controlled trial to test prevention messages and found significant increases for those exposed to the Winds of Change campaign messages in knowledge regarding child development, knowledge of community resources for parents, improved attitudes towards the prevention of child abuse and neglect, motivation for prevent child abuse and neglect, and actions or behaviors to prevent child abuse and neglect. Future campaigns should undergo similar scrutiny prior to wide-scale dissemination.

Limitations

There are a few limitations that should be considered when interpreting the results of both the national and state survey data. First, this study relied on self-report data captured via randomized telephone surveys. Given that this survey was delivered on the phone by another person, respondents may have felt compelled to answer questions about child maltreatment in a socially desirable direction. Second, the respondents who participated in the survey may have values or beliefs different from those that would not choose to participate in a telephone survey or have access to participate in a survey utilizing this data collection method which may contribute to sampling bias. Third, the sampling frame for both surveys were intended to generalize at a national and state level and therefore margins of error increase when examining results by more specific locations or to specific groups (e.g. gender, race). Finally, with regard to the state study on child sexual abuse, information regarding perceived social norms was not collected. Research suggest that injunctive norms might be more beneficial to changing socials norms therefore it would be beneficial to include questions on injunctive norms in future surveys in order to develop the most effective messages that will aid in preventing child sexual abuse.

Next Steps

The findings across these surveys provide evidence of a national concern for the well-being of children and point to a need to provide the general public with concrete strategies for how to participate in child maltreatment prevention initiatives. Studying social and community norms (actual and perceived) provides a window into the often times unspoken, yet critical drivers of public perceptions, narratives, attitudes and behavior. Data on social norms will allow us to identify gaps such as misperceptions of norms, knowledge, attitudes or intentions so that practitioners can better target messaging campaigns in an effort to increase public awareness of true norms and the and investment in child maltreatment prevention.

These data provide a platform to create social norms prevention initiatives to help reduce child maltreatment in the United States. Several studies have demonstrated that utilizing targeted social norms can reduce violence in the community (Lilleston, Goldmann, Verma, & McCleary-Sills, 2017). For instance, Perkins, Craig, and Perkins (2011) studied the effectiveness of an anti-bullying campaign that publicized actual peer belief messages about bullying behavior on posters in a middle school. This campaign was able to significantly decrease pro-bullying attitudes as well as self-reported bullying behaviors. Moreover, these changes were correlated to exposure of the norms messaging as significant changes were not seen in students that did not remember seeing the posters. It is also important to note that this campaign was likely successful because the messages were based on beliefs from peer students in middle school. In many target audiences, attitudes are more likely to be changed if the reference group were closer friends (proximal relationships) rather a reflection of a group that a person does not feel a strong connection (distal relationships) (Randazzo & Solmon, 2017). In order to change perceptions, individuals need to feel connected to the reference group or see that the messages stem from a person or group that is influential (e.g. celebrity, political leader, church leader).

Some normative frameworks such as the Positive Community Norms (PCN) Approach (Linkenbach, 2018) have been used to train prevention community and state leaders on how to strategically present data from peer and community-level interventions focused on reducing misperceptions of positive health norms by crafting messages, images, strategies, and intentional public narratives that portray health and safety norms as the expected, acceptable and current behaviors. A core focus of PCN interventions is using data to challenge misperceptions of such norms, and as a process to increase health protections and lower risk factors in shared environments. The PCN approach integrates different data-based environmental strategies to reshape the overall community context based on positive norms and operates across four key stages of change as part of a general linear logic model (Linkenbach, 2018) (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
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Positive community norms logic model

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These four phases of the PCN approach are similar to those of the Social Norms Approach to Prevention (Perkins & Berkowitz, 1986; Perkins, 2003) and other theories of change that include normative elements (Ajzen, 1991) This linear depiction is used for teaching, integration and evaluation purposes, however in practice the PCN approach is implemented in a cyclical manner based upon the Seven-Step Montana Model of Communications (Linkenbach, 2003).

Conclusion

Implementing positive community norms interventions—including norms strategies have the potential to significantly impact efforts to prevent child abuse, child sexual abuse, and neglect. Social norms messaging can impact the cultural context and extend across the social ecology by not only focusing on child maltreatment, but also on specific areas within the field of prevention such as home visitation programs, parenting classes, and early childhood education programs. Further research should be conducted to determine the most effective social norms messaging and reference group for focus populations that would alter attitudes and behaviors that would lead to the prevention of child maltreatment.