Piia Seppälä

Piia Seppälä is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Eastern Finland's Department of Social Sciences, within the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from the same institution (2019). Her research focuses on child protection systems, child maltreatment, and the intersection of disability with violence and health outcomes. She explores systemic factors such as economic insecurity, social welfare policies, and service quality affecting child protection demand.

Her work emphasizes macro-level analyses, such as how social welfare benefits and family support services buffer emergency child removals, and how socioeconomic factors influence child welfare interventions. She is part of the Social Work Research and Education team, contributing to interdisciplinary studies on child well-being and policy.

Key research interests include child maltreatment mechanisms, disability and polyvictimization, and the role of preventive social services. She has published extensively on topics like violence against children with disabilities, child protection system efficiency, and the impact of income support on welfare demand. Her studies combine quantitative analyses with policy evaluations to inform social work practices and systemic reforms.