Social Work intervention training for Maltreating Families of Infants, Toddlers

描述（由申请人提供）：虐待儿童对儿童有着明确的、广泛的和长期的负面影响。大多数遭受虐待并通过儿童福利系统（CWS）接受服务的儿童仍留在家中与照顾者在一起。虽然对养育服务的需求是广泛的，但很少有干预方案被证明在减少CWS人群中的儿童虐待和忽视方面是有效的，特别是对婴儿和幼儿。CWS提供系统内的社会服务从业人员有能力为虐待儿童的父母提供简短的干预措施，这一点至关重要。这个R01提案，“培训社会工作提供者：对虐待婴幼儿家庭的干预”，是对社会福利提供者的一个培训计划的评估，该计划对那些被儿童保护服务机构调查过虐待和忽视儿童的家庭实施一个基于依恋理论的简短干预。该计划（促进第一关系[PFR]； Kelly, Buehlman, & Caldwell, 2000）将在两个层面进行测试：通过社会福利实践和在儿童和家庭的结果层面。社会服务提供者将接受培训，向正在接受华盛顿州斯诺霍米什县社会和卫生服务部调查的虐待家庭提供PFR。随后，接受CPS调查的家庭将被招募到研究中，并随机分配到实验组（接受PFR干预）或对照组（接受资源和转诊）。本研究的具体目的是：(1)通过测量社区社会福利服务提供者在培训前和培训后的服务提供策略以及与虐待家庭的互动，来测试他们在使用依恋干预措施方面的培训效果；(2)通过与对照组的再转介率、转介严重程度和寄养安置的比较，检验基于关系和依恋的干预对父母被认定为虐待的婴幼儿的影响；(3)通过比较实验组和对照组在依恋安全、情绪调节、行为和发展功能等重要结果上的差异，验证依恋干预对儿童幸福感的影响。虐待儿童是一个严重的公共卫生问题，每年影响到全国近100万儿童。为高风险家庭建立有效的循证干预措施对于减少虐待的破坏性长期影响至关重要。提出的研究测试的可行性和有效性的充分记录的关系为基础的干预（促进第一关系）在改善结果的家庭转到CPS虐待。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Child maltreatment has well-established, wide-ranging, and long-term negative effects on children. Most children who have experienced maltreatment and are receiving services through the Child Welfare System (CWS) remain in their homes with their caregivers. While the need for parenting services is extensive, few intervention programs have proven to be efficacious in reducing child abuse and neglect within the CWS population, especially for infants and toddlers. It is essential that social service practitioners within the CWS delivery system are equipped to provide brief interventions to maltreating parents. This R01 proposal, "Training Social Work Providers: Intervention for Maltreating Families of Infants and Toddlers," is an evaluation of a training program for social welfare providers to implement a brief attachment theory-based intervention to families who have been investigated for child abuse and neglect by Child Protective Services. The program (Promoting First Relationships [PFR]; Kelly, Buehlman, & Caldwell, 2000) will be tested at two levels: through social welfare practice and at the level of outcomes for children and families. Social service providers will be trained to deliver PFR to families under investigation for maltreatment by the Department of Social and Health Services, Snohomish County, Washington State. Subsequently, families under investigation by CPS will be recruited into the study and randomly assigned to the experimental group (receiving the PFR intervention) or to the comparison group (receiving the resource and referral). The specific aims of this study are to (1) Test the effectiveness of training community social welfare service providers in the use of attachment-based interventions by measuring their pre-training and post-training service provision strategies and interactions with maltreating families; (2) To test the effects of a relationship and attachment-based intervention with infants/toddlers of parents identified as maltreating by comparing them to a control group on rates of re-referral to CPS, severity of referral, and foster care placement; and (3) To conduct a test of the effectiveness of an attachment-based intervention on child well-being by comparing experimental and comparison groups on important outcomes (attachment security, emotional regulation, behavior, and developmental functioning). RELEVANCE Child maltreatment is a serious public health issue, affecting close to a million children nationally every year. The establishment of effective evidence-based interventions for high-risk families is essential to curtail the devastating long-term effects of maltreatment. The proposed study tests the feasibility and effectiveness of a well-documented relationship-based intervention (Promoting First Relationships) in improving outcomes for families referred to CPS for maltreatment. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Child maltreatment is a serious public health issue, affecting close to a million children nationally every year. The establishment of effective evidence-based interventions for high-risk families is essential to curtail the devastating long-term effects of maltreatment. The proposed study tests the effectiveness of a relationship-based intervention in improving outcomes for families referred to CPS for maltreatment.