Child Protection Policy and its Impact on Child Defense Management in a Municipal Ombudsman's Office, La Libertad 2025

Abstract

This study examines the impact of the child protection policy on child defense management in the La Libertad Municipal Ombudsman's Office in 2025. It identifies the policy's strengths and weaknesses, as well as the causal factors, and proposes empirical improvements to promote inter-institutional coordination, prevent violations, and create safe environments for children and adolescents. This non-experimental, cross-sectional, quantitative, correlational study analyzed a non-probabilistic sample of 162 key actors (out of 281 total) using validated Likert surveys (Aiken's V and Cronbach's α > 0.96), ordinal regressions, and structural equation models. The structural model revealed strong causality (β = 0.88) with excellent indices (χ²/df = 2.033, RMSEA = 0.080, and CFI = 0.977), explaining 78% of the variance in management. The results show adequate levels of management (59.9%) and politics (54.3%), with strengths in the legal framework (67.3%) and governance (61.7%) and weaknesses in awareness (21% deficient). Politics explains 56.6% of the variability in management (R²_(Nagelkerke)). The study recommends annual training of 80 hybrid hours, an exclusive budget of at least 5%, and raising management to 70% within two years. These recommendations are aligned with the PNMNNA, the Children's Code, and SDG 16.