NCJ Number
211725
Date Published
2005
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This Research Brief presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) summarizes current research addressing the prevention of child maltreatment.
Abstract
Child maltreatment is a serious public health threat that involves short- and long-term deleterious outcomes for children. In order to most effectively combat child maltreatment, the CDC convened a group of child maltreatment experts to advise the CDC on where it should focus its research activities in terms of child maltreatment prevention. The experts advised the CDC to focus much of its efforts on parenting interventions and to develop and evaluate a "universal" parenting program for use in the early parenting stages. In response, the CDC provided funding to the University of South Carolina to implement and evaluate a 5-year trial of an existing universal parenting intervention known as the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P), which had already been used and evaluated in Australia during the 1980s and 1990s. The University of South Carolina plans to evaluate its Triple P program using two primary data sources: child protective services records and hospital emergency room data. The expert panel also recommended an examination of attrition in parenting programs; Purdue University is currently exploring the impact of program enhancements on the participation and engagement of parents at risk for child maltreatment. Other current CDC-funded research includes an evaluation of group motivational enhancements on parent attrition, which is being conducted at the University of Oklahoma Health Services Center's Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. References