TRANSFORM: Translational Research that Adapts New Science FOR Maltreatment prevention

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ABSTRACT - OVERALL CORE Each year millions of young children and adolescents in the U.S. are reported to Child Protective agencies for maltreatment (neglect, physical, sexual, or emotional abuse), and experience additional forms of trauma such as exposure to domestic abuse, community violence, life-threatening illness or injury, or sudden loss. A diverse multidisciplinary team of investigators from the Universities of Rochester and Minnesota will partner with the NICHD to create the TRANSFORM Center (Translational Research that Adapts New Science FOR Maltreatment Prevention) to prevent child maltreatment and to address its sequelae. The unique combined capacity of this multi-investigator Center, i.e., the expertise, infrastructure support, human/fiscal resources, and research/intervention strategies would not be feasible for a single investigator working alone in one laboratory. Building on current state-of-the-science research methodologies and clinical practices that address the personal and societal burden associated with child abuse and neglect, TRANSFORM will leverage theoretically-grounded evidence-based research and preventive interventions to optimize outcomes in children. In doing so, the Center will apply the most advanced concepts and methods derived from child maltreatment research, and leverage numerous longstanding relationships within the child welfare community to make its impact. TRANSFORM will use a multidisciplinary translational approach embedded in a developmental psychopathology framework that builds upon discoveries in genetics, neuroscience, prevention and intervention science, child welfare, and court systems to develop an innovative national resource for diverse disciplines and professional arenas. To achieve its objectives, TRANSFORM will utilize two Research Projects and two mutually-informative and integrated Cores: a Community Engagement Core, and an Administrative Core. This `team science' model brings together professionals with different backgrounds including basic and applied scientists who provide the theoretical grounding for project hypotheses, program developers who are the architects of evidence-based programs, research methodologists who advise on the appropriate experimental designs for testing the models, including the constructs and measures that will map onto the mediators and moderators, the analytical methods for evaluating results, attorneys who can translate results into legal and judicial systems, and child-serving professionals and governmental stakeholders who will participate in dissemination activities. TRANSFORM will be led by Drs. Sheree Toth and Dante Cicchetti, internationally-recognized leaders in the field of child maltreatment, whose collaborative work spans almost four decades and provides a solid foundation for conducting groundbreaking longitudinal and prevention research that will contribute to widespread engagement across multiple child-serving systems.