The Role of Home-Visiting Programs in Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
The Role of Home-Visiting Programs in Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
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DOI：
10.1353/foc.0.0032
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发表时间：
2009-09-01
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Howard, Kimberly S.;Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
金伯利·霍华德和珍妮·布鲁克斯-冈恩研究了家访，这是一种越来越受欢迎的为家庭提供服务的方法，作为防止虐待和忽视儿童的一种战略。他们把重点放在早期干预上，因为婴儿比年龄较大的孩子更容易受到虐待和忽视。在他们的文章中，Howard和Brooks-Gunn仔细研究了九个家访项目的评估：护士-家庭伙伴关系、夏威夷健康开始、健康家庭美国、综合儿童发展计划、早期Head Start、婴儿健康和发展计划、新西兰的早期开始计划、澳大利亚昆士兰的示范计划，以及荷兰为抑郁的婴儿母亲提供的计划。他们调查了与育儿和儿童幸福相关的结果，包括虐待和忽视。霍华德和布鲁克斯-冈恩总结说，总的来说，研究人员几乎没有发现家访计划直接防止虐待和忽视儿童的证据。但是，家访可以通过影响母亲的育儿做法、孩子的家庭环境质量和孩子的发展，为家庭带来积极的好处。作者说，随着时间的推移，育儿技能的提高很可能与儿童幸福感的改善和虐待的相应减少有关。霍华德和布鲁克斯-冈恩还报告说，这些计划对低收入、首次怀孕的青少年母亲有最大的好处。理论家和政策制定者都坚信，家访可以是一种为家庭和儿童提供服务的有益且成本效益高的策略。如果家访计划要产生最大影响，服务提供商必须认真遵守各自计划规定的指导方针，使用资历与计划目标一致的专业人员，对高危人群进行产前干预，并忠实于其理论模型执行计划。
Kimberly Howard and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn examine home visiting, an increasingly popular method for delivering services for families, as a strategy for preventing child abuse and neglect. They focus on early interventions because infants are at greater risk for child abuse and neglect than are older children.In their article, Howard and Brooks-Gunn take a close look at evaluations of nine home-visiting programs: the Nurse-Family Partnership, Hawaii Healthy Start, Healthy Families America, the Comprehensive Child Development Program, Early Head Start, the Infant Health and Development Program, the Early Start Program in New Zealand, a demonstration program in Queensland, Australia, and a program for depressed mothers of infants in the Netherlands. They examine outcomes related to parenting and child well-being, including abuse and neglect.Howard and Brooks-Gunn conclude that, overall, researchers have found little evidence that home-visiting programs directly prevent child abuse and neglect. But home visits can impart positive benefits to families by way of influencing maternal parenting practices, the quality of the child's home environment, and children's development. And improved parenting skills, say the authors, would likely be associated with improved child well-being and corresponding decreases in maltreatment over time. Howard and Brooks-Gunn also report that the programs have their greatest benefits for low-income, first-time adolescent mothers.Theorists and policy makers alike believe strongly that home visiting can be a beneficial and cost-effective strategy for providing services to families and children. If home-visiting programs are to have their maximum impact, service providers must follow carefully the guidelines mandated by the respective programs, use professional staff whose credentials are consistent with program goals, intervene prenatally with at-risk populations, and carry out the programs with fidelity to their theoretical models.