Maternal depression is linked with a range of child and adolescent outcomes. Prior research suggests adverse consequences for child and youth development, but less is known about the role of adverse ...parenting in the pathways from maternal depression to adolescent emotional and behavioral problems.
The present study leveraged a large, longitudinal survey of families across the U.S. to investigate whether harsh parenting mediated the links between maternal depression and adolescent delinquency and depression.
Data came from a national longitudinal survey of families with children born in large U.S. cities 1998-2000 in which mothers had at least partial custody of children (N = 2,719).
Structural equation modeling with latent variables estimated a measurement model using confirmatory factor analysis and a structural model testing direct and indirect pathways.
Maternal depression was directly associated with both physical and psychological aggression in parenting (β = 0.08, p < 0.001 and β = 0.12, p < 0.001, respectively), and psychological aggression related directly with adolescent delinquency (β = 0.24, p < 0.01). Furthermore, maternal depression was indirectly associated with adolescent delinquency via psychological aggression in parenting (β = 0.03, p < 0.05). Physical aggression in parenting did not mediate links between maternal depression and either adolescent outcome.
Findings provide insights into the parent-level drivers of adolescent emotional and behavioral outcomes. Screening for maternal depression and providing parenting support to vulnerable families offers promise for preventing adverse parenting and supporting healthy adolescent development.
The objective of this article is to frame, understand, and draw implications from existing research on families screened out by child protective services (CPS) after a referral alleging child ...maltreatment. We review descriptive and outcome data together with emerging intervention research amidst a developing consensus that the current reactive role of CPS should be supplemented by supportive and preventative services that primarily address poverty. State-level data indicate that screened-out families are at high risk of re-referral and similar to higher-risk families reported to CPS. Intervention research is scant and mixed, but there is indication that providing community-based services may reduce future CPS involvement. Considering that screened-out referrals present an opportunity to prevent future maltreatment, CPS should identify and collaboratively engage screened-out families in community-based services. More research on the outcomes of these community responses is needed to identify best practices related to engagement and service provision.
Child maltreatment (CM) is a pervasive public health problem and there is a critical need for brief, effective, scalable prevention programs. Because problematic parent-child relationships lie at the ...core of CM, interventions targeting this relationship hold promise as CM prevention strategies. Evidence-based positive parenting interventions, as discussed here, are manualized behavioral interventions that focus on teaching caregivers positive parenting skills and techniques to improve the effectiveness of their parenting and improve their relationship with their child. In this article, we describe one specific parenting intervention, Child Adult Relationship Enhancement in Primary Care (PriCARE)/Criando Niños con CARIÑO, and review the proposed mechanisms through which PriCARE may contribute to CM prevention. PriCARE is a 6-session group parenting intervention for parents of 2-to-6-year-old children. PriCARE was developed and iteratively adapted with input from racially and ethnically diverse families, including low-income families, and was designed specifically for implementation in primary care with inclusion of strategies to align with usual care workflow to increase uptake and retention. PriCARE has the potential to reduce risk of CM directly through improving parenting behaviors and indirectly through the impact of those changes in parenting behaviors on child behaviors. PriCARE has also been shown to reduce parenting-related stress. Finally, by strengthening and bringing warmth to the parent-child relationship, PriCARE may buffer against the negative health consequences associated with CM and childhood adversity.
Despite supervisory neglect being the most prevalent and fatal neglect sub-type, the most common reasons why caregivers are substantiated for this type of maltreatment remains unknown.
Our study ...describes cases substantiated for supervisory neglect in a Midwestern state in an effort to inform prevention strategies against supervisory neglect.
This study utilized state administrative data from substantiated child maltreatment investigations conducted between May 1st and October 31st, 2019 (N = 11,208).
We first identified the substantiated investigations where supervisory neglect was present and established investigation-level correlates for these cases. We then selected a random sample of investigations with a substantiated allegation of supervisory neglect (n = 150) for a qualitative review of written investigative narratives to uncover the contextual factors of supervisory neglect and identify which factors frequently co-occur.
Supervisory neglect was the most common maltreatment type, present in 71% (n = 7945) of substantiated child welfare investigations. Our qualitative review of 150 randomly selected cases identified ten distinct, non-mutually exclusive contextual factors of supervisory neglect. Child exposure to domestic violence was the most prevalent contextual factor (45%), followed by caregiver's substance-related problems (42%). Childhood exposure to domestic violence and caregiver's substance-related problems was the most common co-occurrence of factors, present in 18% of cases.
Supervisory neglect accounts for the vast majority of child maltreatment incidents. To prevent the largest share of supervisory neglect cases, policy and programs are needed to address domestic violence and substance-related problems among caregivers.
Many studies have examined the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P), yet few have considered its effectiveness during the twin challenges of the opioid crisis and COVID-19 pandemic.
This study ...examines the implementation of, and parenting outcomes associated with the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) in 13 counties in central Ohio.
The program was provided to parents who were at heightened risk for substance use. From July 2020 through June 2021, 890 parents received services from Triple P.
Parents completed pre- and post-test assessments of protective factors within their families and parenting behaviors. Parents also participated in qualitative interviews regarding their experiences in the program.
Overall, the results were promising, with improvements seen in family functioning/resilience, nurturing and attachment, parental laxness, and parental over-reactivity. Parents reported positive experiences participating in the program and felt that their relationship with their child had improved. Despite the profound, recent challenges to parenting and service provision, Triple P continues to show promise as an approach to reducing child maltreatment. Expansion of Triple P to other areas may improve parenting behaviors and reduce child maltreatment among parents at risk for substance use.
This paper reports follow-up findings for an Mentalization based treatment (MBT) parenting intervention delivered to a community mental health sample. Parents completed the 12-week version of the ...Lighthouse Parenting Program (LPP) and were evaluated on parenting practices, parent-child relationships, parental mental health indicators, and child problem behaviour levels. We evaluated the extent to which improvements in mentalizing at follow-up mediated changes in parenting, parental adjustment, mental health, and child outcomes. Results included a reduction in parental coercive behaviours and child problems, improved parent-child relationship, and better parental psychological adjustment and mental health. Improvement in self-focused mentalizing were observed. Self-focused mentalizing mediated the changes in most outcomes from baseline to 3-month follow-up. These results provide strong preliminary evidence that the LPP improves parent and child outcomes.
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.
Although home visiting has been used in many populations in prevention efforts, the impact of scaled-up home-visiting programs on abuse and neglect remains unclear. The objective of this study was to ...assess the impact of voluntary participation in an established statewide home-visiting program for socially high-risk families on child maltreatment as identified by Child Protective Services (CPS). Propensity score matching was used to compare socially high-risk families with a child born between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2011 who participated in Connecticut’s home-visiting program for first-time mothers and a comparison cohort of families who were eligible for the home-visiting program but did not participate. The main outcomes were child maltreatment investigations, substantiations, and out-of-home placements by CPS between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2013. In the unmatched sample, families who participated in home-visiting had significantly higher median risk scores (P < .001). After matching families on measured confounders, the percentages of families with CPS investigations (21.1% vs. 20.9%, P = .86) were similar between the two groups. However, there was a 22% decreased likelihood of CPS substantiations (hazard ratio HR 0.78, 95% confidence interval CI 0.64–0.95) for families receiving home visiting. First substantiations also occurred later in the child’s life among home-visited families. There was a trend toward decreased out-of-home placement (HR 0.73, 95% CI 0.53–1.02, P = .06). These results from a scaled-up statewide program highlight the potential of home visiting as an important approach to preventing child abuse and neglect.
Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) is a promising home-visiting intervention promoting sensitive caregiving and secure parent-child attachment in families with young children. The goal of ...this study was to examine a learning collaborative approach to disseminating ABC in a community setting. Training outcomes (e.g., trainee completion, satisfaction, effectiveness of training methods) and intervention outcomes (e.g., parent behavior, parent beliefs, child socioemotional development) were examined. Eighteen practitioners participated in the ABC learning collaborative; 13 completed training. Quantitative and qualitative measures indicated that trainees were satisfied with their experience and valued the unique collaboration opportunities offered by the learning collaborative. In addition, trainees served 67 families in the community, 37 of whom completed all sessions of ABC. The study was conducted in the United States. Racial demographics of the children in the sample included: 56.7% White, 22.4% Black/African-American, 17.9% Bi- or Multi-racial, and 3.0% unknown. Regarding ethnicity, 80.6% were Non-Hispanic/Latino, 10.4% were Hispanic/Latino, and 9.0% were unknown. Caregivers who completed ABC showed more sensitive parenting behavior and reported positive changes in their perceived self-efficacy and their beliefs around infant crying. Children who received ABC showed increased socioemotional functioning. Results demonstrate successful dissemination of ABC in the community using a learning collaborative approach.
Purpose
Home visitation program effects are generally small, which may be caused by flexible intervention content leading to inconsistent outcomes. In this study we therefore examined whether the ...effectiveness of a Dutch home visitation program (i.e., Supportive Parenting) can be improved by adding structured intervention components targeting key risk factors for child maltreatment: parental sense of competence, perceived stress, parental anger, and PTSD symptoms.
Method
Participants were randomly assigned to an experimental group (
n
= 74) that received four additional intervention components in two home visits, or a control group (
n
= 60) that received regular Supportive Parenting. Outcomes were assessed before (T1) and after (T2) the first, and before (T3) and after (T4) the second home visit. Effects were examined using ANCOVA for primary outcomes: parental sense of competence, perceived stress, parental anger, and PTSD symptoms, and secondary outcomes: risk of child maltreatment, parental warmth, and negative parenting. Moderation effects were examined for T1 scores, child temperament and life events.
Results
Mothers who received the intervention components showed less stress compared to the control group at T3 and T4. There were no differences between groups on other outcomes and no moderation effects, although parental sense of competence reduced and anger increased within the experimental group specifically.
Conclusion
The structured components may enhance the effectiveness of Supportive Parenting to reduce parenting stress. Future research into how other outcomes can be improved is needed.
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