Child Abuse Interventions
Behavioral Interventions
Background
Beginning in the 1970’s, there has been a great deal of
attention given to training of parents on basic skills to use in child management.
These have been developed for both parents at large as well as for high risk
parents, and have included information on parenting infants and toddlers as
well as older children and adolescents.
Review of behavioral interventions:
Author | O’Connor, 1980 |
Study design and target population | RCT with assignment of mothers
to either rooming-in or to regular nursery care
n=282
|
Intervention | Rooming-in after birth of first-born
child |
Outcomes | Follow-up at 17 months. Number
of infants hospitalized for inadequate parenting |
Results | .7% of intervention infants hospitalized
vs. 5.4% of control infants. OR for hospitalization = 0.13 |
Study quality and conclusions | Effect on subsequent hospitalizations.
No data on abuse |
Summary of behavioral interventions
There is a surprising lack of data on the effect of behavioral
interventions and parenting programs on the actual risk of abuse in high risk
families.
Recommendations on behavioral interventions
At the current time, we cannot recommend these interventions
based on the lack of data on reduction in abuse and neglect.
Recommendations for future research
There is a clear need for research which examines the immediate
and long term impact of these interventions on abuse. These should be done as
RCTs.
|