The Child Maltreatment Prevention Landscape: Where Are We Now, and Where Should We Go?

2020 ◽  
Vol 692 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-118
Author(s):  
Brenda Jones Harden ◽  
Cassandra Simons ◽  
Michelle Johnson-Motoyama ◽  
Richard Barth
Keyword(s):  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Prevention Strategies ◽  
Government Responsibility ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Child Maltreatment Prevention ◽  
Governmental Funding

Child maltreatment calls for a broad range of preventative policies and practices, but limited governmental funding and leadership has been devoted to the problem. Effective strategies to prevent maltreatment exist, but they have had limited uptake in the child welfare system. In this article, we trace how government responsibility for the prevention of child maltreatment became centered within the nation’s child protection response. Further, we discuss developments in prevention science, review the existing literature on the effectiveness of a range of prevention strategies, and present a public health approach to prevention. The article concludes with a set of recommendations to inform future efforts to prevent child maltreatment through approaches that seek to expand capacity for the implementation of evidence-based prevention programs, while addressing the adverse community experiences that exacerbate risk for child maltreatment.

Who Is and Is Not Served by Child Protective Services Systems? Implications for a Prevention Infrastructure to Reduce Child Maltreatment

2020 ◽  
Vol 692 (1) ◽  
pp. 182-202
Author(s):  
Kristen S. Slack ◽  
Lawrence M. Berger
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Child Protective Services ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Child Safety ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
Child Maltreatment Prevention

The majority of alleged abuse or neglect reports to the U.S. child welfare system are either screened out prior to an investigation (i.e., at the “hotline” stage) or investigated only to be closed with no finding of immediate child safety concerns. Yet while many of these children and families are at risk of subsequent incidents of child maltreatment or child welfare system involvement, they are not systematically offered services or benefits intended to reduce this risk at the point that child protective services (CPS) ends its involvement. This article provides an overview of the “front end” of the child welfare system, commonly referred to as CPS, highlighting which families are served and which are not. We then argue for a systematic and coordinated child maltreatment prevention infrastructure that incorporates elements of “community response” programs that several U.S. states have implemented in recent years. Such programs are focused on families that have been reported to, and sometimes investigated by, CPS, but no ongoing CPS case is opened. We further argue that such programs need to pay particular attention to economic issues that these families face.

A Technology-Mediated Approach to the Implementation of an Evidence-Based Child Maltreatment Prevention Program

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 344-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon R. Self-Brown ◽  
Melissa C. Osborne ◽  
Whitney Rostad ◽  
Ed Feil
Keyword(s):  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Prevention Program ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Child Maltreatment Prevention

scholarly journals Child maltreatment prevention strategies: Saudi youth perspectives

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 92-98
Author(s):  
Majid A. Al-Eissa ◽  
Nathalie ElChoueiry ◽  
Fadia AlBuhairan ◽  
Hassan N. Saleheen ◽  
Maha A. Almuneef
Keyword(s):  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Prevention Strategies ◽  
Child Maltreatment Prevention

scholarly journals Examining the Prospects for Developing a National Child Maltreatment Surveillance System in Ireland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Leary ◽  
Olive M. Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Surveillance System ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Surveillance Programme ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Policy Context ◽  
Irish Government ◽  
Irish Data ◽  
Regional Committee

AbstractThe Irish Government pledged to reducing the prevalence of child maltreatment under the WHO Regional Committee for Europe plan on reducing child maltreatment. As a first step towards a rights-based and public health approach to maltreatment prevention, the WHO plan recommends making child maltreatment more visible across the region, with better surveillance through the use of national surveys that use standardized, validated instruments. We review the policy context, present current Irish data holdings, and outline some of the complexities reported in the literature concerning various surveillance methods in the context of the proposal to establish and maintain a surveillance system for CM in Ireland. Conclusions highlight the need for Ireland to adopting an approach to surveillance as soon as it is feasible. The paper outlines how such a programme is necessary to address the current absence of evidence on which prevention policies can be developed and to compliment the current child protection system. Drawing on a review of current methods in use internationally, we outline options for an Irish child maltreatment surveillance programme.

Child Maltreatment Prevention Strategies and Needs

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (11) ◽  
pp. 3572-3584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Maguire-Jack ◽  
Tori Negash ◽  
Kenneth J. Steinman
Keyword(s):  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Prevention Strategies ◽  
Child Maltreatment Prevention

scholarly journals Child Maltreatment Prevention

Social Work ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Johnson-Motoyama ◽  
Starr Davis
Keyword(s):  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Complex Problem ◽  
World Health ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Vast Number ◽  
Physically Abused ◽  
Child Maltreatment Prevention ◽  
Emotionally Abused ◽  
Health Organization

Child maltreatment is a costly, dynamically complex problem of global significance with serious consequences for children, families, and communities. The World Health Organization defines child maltreatment as abuse and neglect that results in actual or potential harm to a child’s health, survival, development, or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust, or power. While estimates vary by country, the most recent global estimates suggest that over the course of childhood 23 percent of adults are physically abused, 36 percent are emotionally abused, and 16 percent are physically neglected. Approximately one in five girls are sexually abused, a rate 2.5 times higher than that of boys. Overviews of the nature and scope of child maltreatment are provided in separate Oxford Bibliographies articles “Child Maltreatment,” “Child Maltreatment,” and “Intergenerational Transmission of Maltreatment.” In depth entries addressing systems of response to child maltreatment are provided in “Child Protection” and Child Welfare. This article focuses on universal and targeted strategies to prevent child maltreatment before it occurs. Whereas universal strategies seek to reach all children and families with prevention programming in a given community, targeted strategies are designed to reach specific families with identified needs. This entry provides general overviews on the topic of child maltreatment prevention from interdisciplinary perspectives. It directs readers to scientific journals that disseminate peer-reviewed research, scholarship on universal and targeted child maltreatment prevention strategies, and clearinghouses that provide timely evidence regarding the effectiveness of specific programs. The vast number of international and US agencies and organizations engaged in child maltreatment prevention efforts are highlighted. A growing body of established and emerging research evidence demonstrates that the prevention of child maltreatment is possible within our lifetimes through public and private investments in effective universal and targeted strategies; interdisciplinary and cross-systems collaboration; innovation; and political will.

Compassion-Focused Parenting

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James N. Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Behavioral Problems ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Emotional And Behavioral Problems ◽  
Parenting Programs ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Brain Functioning ◽  
Wide Scale

The parenting a child receives has profound long-term impacts on that child’s life. The rates of child maltreatment globally are high. Evidence-based parenting programs have been demonstrated to have positive impacts on improving parenting style, whilst reducing childhood social, emotional, and behavioral problems. However, uptake in parenting interventions remains low, and governments have been reluctant to provide evidence-based parenting on a wide scale. This chapter aims, first, to show how the adoption of a public health approach to parenting can be considered wide-scale compassionate action, one that will reduce rates of child maltreatment (suffering), which is also cost-effective. Second, I argue that the next generation of evidence-based parenting programs need to be grounded in evolved, caring motivational systems and affiliative emotion processing, which requires an understanding of the evolved processes involved in parent–offspring caring and brain functioning. This new approach to parenting, “compassion-focused parenting,” will be described.

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