Shifting the Needle on Child Maltreatment
Evidence-based parenting and family support can play a major role in the prevention of child maltreatment. This chapter provides a basis for the adoption and refinement of a population approach to child maltreatment prevention; the approach is built on a parenting intervention strategy, with the Triple P system of interventions serving as a useful example. The chapter discusses parenting risk for child maltreatment, the rationales for taking a population approach to child maltreatment prevention, the emerging evidence for evidence-based parenting and family support in a population context, measurement and design issues, and factors associated with quality of implementation. Community-wide application of an evidence-based parenting and family support intervention system like Triple P has the potential to address multiple problems concurrently, including but not limited to the prevention of child maltreatment, thereby capitalizing on the efficiency and utility of this public health strategy.