NCJ Number
73121
Date Published
1977
Length
277 pages
Annotation
This report presents a detailed discussion of the methodologies used in evaluating 11 demonstration projects providing services to deal with child abuse and neglect.
Abstract
The projects were funded by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1974 to 1977 to test alternative strategies for dealing with child abuse and neglect. Located around the U.S. and in Puerto Rico, the projects differed in size, the types of agencies in which they were housed, types of staff, and services offered. Evaluation approaches included measuring project goal attainment monitoring project resource allocation and service costs, determining the quality of the project's case management process. Additional approaches included analyzing project organization and management and their relationships with worker job satisfaction and burnout, and assessing alternative strategies' effectiveness for treating abusive and neglectful parents. Further evaluations focused on monitoring the progress of abused and neglected children while in treatment and assessing a project's impact on its local child abuse and neglect service system. Data were gathered through interviews, questionnaires, standardized tests, project's records, and site visits. No control groups were studied; thus, the findings cannot be generalized to all child abuse and neglect programs or viewed as conclusive. Findings are suggestive, however, of directions child abuse and neglect programs might take. All relevant data collection instruments and instruction manuals are included. Footnotes and tables are provided. Appendixes present project profiles, chronology of the projects' efforts, and a list of major evaluation reports and papers. For evaluations of individual project components, see NCJ 73114-20, 73122-23, and 73190. (Author abstract modified)