PREDICTING AND PREVENTING CHILD NEGLECT

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Over 2 million cases of child maltreatment are reported each year. Of these, child neglect is the largest single category. Despite lack of a common, agreed upon definition, neglect is a significant and much understudied threat to the normal and devlopment and well-being of young children. In this proposal, we view neglect from a social-contextual perspectove. We identify neflect as a parent's failure to provide the child with apropriate and adequate nuturance, including support for social-emotional development and intellectual and langauge stimulation, as well as arrention to physical needs and health care. We propose to conduct a 4-site, 5 year prospective study of a population-based representative sample of 560 pregnant adolescents and their children, along with an ethnically matched sample of adult mothers. The overall objectives are to develop sensitive measures of early neglect, to establish a strong empirical basis for identifying the conditions that increase or decrease neglect among teen parents, and to refine a conceptual framework that will inform strategic interventions to prevent neglect and its negative consequences for chidlren, families, and society.