NCJ Number
166809
Journal
Child Maltreatment Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1997) Pages: 12-34
Date Published
1997
Length
23 pages
Annotation
Early intervention approaches to prevent physical child abuse and neglect hold great promise because they aim to avert child maltreatment before it occurs and to promote positive parenting from the outset.
Abstract
The empirical base on early child abuse prevention is rapidly expanding. Controlled studies paint a promising yet complex picture of various intervention designs. Several emerging trends in the studies point to the essential role of parent education, the importance of linking families with formal and/or informal supports, the importance of coupling longer-term interventions and those employing paraprofessional helpers with a moderate to high degree of service intensity, a clinical advantage for programs based on universalistic intake procedures over programs that screen for psychosocial risk, and the importance of health education to reduce medically related maltreatment risk. Significant directions for future child abuse prevention program design and study are identified, particularly with respect to the role of parental powerlessness in the makeup of physical abuse and neglect risk. Eighteen early child abuse and neglect prevention studies, designs, and outcomes are summarized in tabular form. 112 references and 1 table