Academic Research Fellowship Report - Susan Flynn
Dr Susan Flynn is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work Social Policy, she was a recipient of a TRiSS Academic Research Fellowships 2023/24.
The title of her project is: Coping with complex intersections of child protection risk, the internet and disability: Towards informing and understanding professional responses
Introduction
The purpose of the funding application was to support Susan to make a theoretically orientated presentation of qualitative research findings at an internationally renowned conference, with specific reference to a topical debate that is on-going in academia, policy and practice. Specifically, this refers to the protection-versus-empowerment debate, which attends to the nexus of risk and opportunity in internet use.
To permit this presentation to be made, an abstract had previously been developed and submitted to the Conference Committee for the Edinburgh Congress of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN). This Congress was scheduled to take place from September 24th to 27th, 2023.
Context
The presentation of research findings was timely and opportune as there are unprecedented surges in internet usage among children and young people over previous decades. As a result, the vast majority of children in Europe are immensely embedded in virtual worlds through internet usage (Smahel et al., 2020). Despite the benefits of the internet, the web also presents serious and rapidly evolving child protection risks (Good and Fang, 2015). Moreover, it is already known that disability presents a complicating factor, associated with enhanced child protection risk (Jones et al., 2012). It is a big problem therefore, that there is virtually no research investigation into how child protection and disability intersect online. This is the context to the research project which was funded under the Fellowship Award.
The presentation of findings of this project considered what effective professional responses should entail moving forward. The presentation outlined qualitative data analysed through a framework method from ten plus semi-structured research interviews from Ireland, with key policing, social care, youth justice, disability, mental health as well as social work professionals. TRiSS funding enabled this oral presentation to happen as whilst the abstract was accepted to the conference, there was not funding available to pay for travel, accommodation and other costs to permit the presentation to be made.
Report on Actions Completed
All actions agreed in the funding application were successfully achieved. Susan registered for the conference and travelled to Edinburgh as agreed. She delivered the presentation of findings to a packed room of research colleagues and peers from around the world. Not only did the presentation invoke a lot of interest and attention, but valuable research connections were made at the conference. Dr Flynn made links to Jennifer Martin and Jennifer Stanton who are establishing the first Masters Degree program to examine a topic of high relevance to the project (online child exploitation). Moreover, Ms Sarah Goff and Professor Anitra Franklin are setting up a dedicated research centre on disability and child protection and Dr Flynn was able to make strategic connections to this. Overall, the presentation was a success as a result of the TRiSS funding provided.