Child Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Study Group (CANE)
Convenor: Bernadette J. Madrid, M.D.
About
Child abuse is a public health problem with severe and lifelong consequences on physical, mental, and emotional health. According to the National Baseline Study on Violence Against Children and Youth in the Philippines (NBS-VAC), 80% of children and youth have experienced at least one form of violence in their lifetime. This violence may be physical, psychological, sexual, or in the form of bullying, cyber violence, and/or collective violence; it may happen at home, in school, in the workplace, in the community, or within romantic relationships.
Research and data are essential in understanding the causes and consequences of child abuse, as well as for monitoring trends and evaluating the effectiveness of response and prevention programs. Most of the evidence on the effectiveness of prevention strategies has come from high-income countries. Outcome evaluation studies from low- and middle-income countries comprise less than 1% of the evidence. Health and social services responding to child maltreatment should also be designed based on scientific evidence, but there is even less evidence for these interventions.
The Child Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Study Group (CANE) was therefore convened on October 2, 2015, to build the evidence base for child maltreatment response and prevention in the Philippines. It aims to:
Promote research in the field of child protection
Generate evidence on effective child maltreatment prevention and response programs
Disseminate information about effective interventions to the scientific community, policymakers, and program planners
Advocate for investment in evidence-based child protection programs
Executive Committee
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CONVENOR
Dr. Bernadette J. Madrid is the Founding Head of the Child Protection Unit (CPU) of the University of the Philippines Manila - Philippine General Hospital. She is the Executive Director of the Child Protection Network Foundation, Inc., an NGO that supports the establishment of Women and Children Protection Units across the country. She is a member of the Supreme Court’s Philippine Judicial Academy Department of Special Areas of Concern.
Dr. Madrid co- chaired the World Health Organization Clinical Guidelines Committee on the Health Response to Sexual Abuse of Children and Adolescents and the WHO Committee on Responding to Child Maltreatment. She is a member of the international training team on Child Abuse Pediatrics of the American Academy of Pediatrics; a member of the Parenting for Lifelong Health Board at the University of Oxford and a member of the Steering Board of Childlight Global Child Safety Institute at the University of Edinburgh. She is the recipient of several national and international awards such as The Outstanding Pediatrician for 2021 by the Philippine Pediatric Society; the Lifetime Achievement award of the UP Medical Alumni 2022 and the most prestigious award in Asia, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, 2022.
Previous Projects
2023 • Childlight Global Child Safety Institute
Dr. Bernadette Madrid is a member of the Index Technical Advisory Committee.
Dr. Sandra Hernandez and Dr. Andrea Martinez are Global Data Fellows.
Childlight is a data institute hosted by the University of Edinburgh and funded by the Human Dignity Foundation. Its mission is to gather and visualize the prevalence and nature of child sexual exploitation and abuse across the world via a global index and dashboard and to create platforms that activate and make accessible that data to inform policy and drive sustainable, coordinated action to safeguard children across the world.
Report
Unmasking exploitation: Study of Supreme Court cases reveals changing landscape of child sexual exploitation and abuse in the Philippines
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2022 • Special Issue on Child Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation in Acta Medica Philippina
Publication
Acta Media Philippina | Vol. 56 No. 15 (2022): Child Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Issue
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2020 • Safe Schools for Teens: Preventing Sexual Abuse of Urban Poor Teens, Proof-of-Concept Study–Improving Teachers’ and Students’ Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes
2018• Evidence for Better Lives Study
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Dr. Bernandette Madrid - Member, Research Consortium
Dr. Sandra Hernandez - Member, Early Career Research Network
The Evidence for Better Lives Study (EBLS) is an innovative, global birth-cohort study. It is a collaboration of 13 universities and eight study sites in four different continents. In the Philippines, the pilot study was conducted in Valenzuela City, the first Pathfinding City of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. With support from Foundation Botnar, Consuelo Zobel Alger Foundation and the ESRC Impact Acceleration Fund, the pilot study aimed to test the full strategy to collect, manage and analyze data across the eight sites and describe exposures to violence, maternal stress, depressive symptoms, maternal well-being and pre- and perinatal complications that may affect child development in the selected cities.
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Evidence for Better Lives Study: a comparative birth- cohort study on child exposure to violence and other adversities in eight low- and middle- income countries - foundational research (study protocol). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-034986
The Intergenerational Effects of Intimate Partner Violence in Pregnancy: Mediating Pathways and Implications for Prevention. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838018813563
What research questions should the next generation of birth cohort studies address? An International Delphi study of experts. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2020.03.011
Prenatal attachment: Using measurement invariance to test the validity of comparisons across eight culturally diverse countries. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-021-01105-8
The impact of maternal adverse childhood experiences and prenatal depressive symptoms on foetal attachment: preliminary evidence from expectant mothersacross eight middle-income countries. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/rgtq6
The Role of Maternal Depression symptoms and maternal attachment in Predicting exclusive Breastfeeding: A Multisite Prospective study. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2023.0076
Assessing Neighborhood Characteristics and Their Association with Prenatal Maternal Stress, Depressive Symptoms, and Well-Being in Eight Culturally Diverse Cities: A Cross-Sectional Study. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22030456
2016 • Systematic Literature Review of the Drivers of Violence Affecting Children: Philippines
Publication
A Systematic Literature of the Drivers of Violence Affecting Children: Philippines
Co-Investigators: Dr. Bernandette Madrid, Dr. Sandra Hernandez
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2016 • National Baseline Study on Violence Against Children
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Report
Dr. Bernadette Madrid
Member Advisory Group
Central Research Team (Head, National Response Team)
Publication
National Baseline Study on Violence against Children and Youth (NBS-VAC) in the Philippines
Co-Investigator: Dr. Bernandette Madrid
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