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广泛的、长期的负面影响。大多数遭受虐待并通过儿童福利系统接受服务的儿童仍留在家中与其照顾者在一起。虽然对父母服务的需求是广泛的，但很少有干预计划被证明在减少CWS人口中的虐待和忽视儿童方面是有效的，特别是对婴儿和幼儿。至关重要的是，CWS提供系统内的社会服务从业人员有能力为虐待父母提供简短的干预。这R 01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培训计划的评估，该计划旨在对儿童保护服务机构调查虐待和忽视儿童的家庭实施基于依恋理论的简短干预。该计划（促进第一关系[PFR];凯利，Buehlman，和考德威尔，2000年）将在两个层面上进行测试：通过社会福利实践和儿童和家庭的结果。社会服务提供者将接受培训，向华盛顿州斯诺霍米什县社会和卫生服务部调查虐待的家庭提供PFR。随后，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（接受资源和转介）。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，检验培训社区社会福利服务提供者使用依恋干预的有效性;（2）检验以关系和依恋为基础的干预对婴儿的影响。通过将父母确定为虐待的幼儿与对照组的再转介到CPS的比率，转介的严重程度和寄养安置进行比较;通过比较实验组和对照组的重要结果，检验依恋干预对儿童幸福感的有效性（依恋安全，情绪调节，行为和发展功能）。虐待儿童是一个严重的公共卫生问题，每年影响全国近100万儿童。为高危家庭制定有效的循证干预措施，对于减少虐待的长期破坏性影响至关重要。拟议的研究测试的可行性和有效性的一个有据可查的关系为基础的干预（促进第一关系），在改善家庭转介到CPS虐待的结果。

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.