NCJ Number
215706
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 30 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2006 Pages: 771-787
Date Published
July 2006
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study describes the background characteristics of community practitioners who serve families in which child physical abuse has occurred, documents the practitioners' most common intervention techniques, determines their attitudes toward following a treatment manual, and examines the organizational climate of their community agencies.
Abstract
The practitioners reported that they most often focused on family issues and used family therapy. Although they consider treatment manuals to be important in their work, it was not clear how they used or planned to use these materials in their work with families. The community agencies that employed the practitioners generally did not emphasize the use of treatment manuals, and the practitioners did not regularly use or read treatment manuals. There was a moderate amount of similarity in how practitioners perceived their work environments. Age and attainment of a graduate degree were positively related to greater caring and job satisfaction, respectively. The length of time employed at an agency was positively related to reports of emotional exhaustion on a measure of organizational climate. The authors are concerned about the lack of agencies' and practitioners' exposure to evidence-based treatment methods for child abuse usually reflected in treatment manuals. This suggests that evaluators of child abuse intervention programs should form partnerships with community agencies that will improve the dissemination and evaluation of treatment strategies. The study involved practitioners (n=77) from 9 agencies who had worked with cases of child physical abuse. Data were obtained from focus group discussions and three self-report questionnaires. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted. 4 tables, 1 figure, and 51 references