Informational & Practice Publications, Resources, & Tools

• Preventing Child Maltreatment and Promoting Well-Being: A Network for Action 2013 Resource Guide
  This guide for service providers was developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, the Child Welfare Information Gateway, the FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention, and the Center for the Study of Social Policy—Strengthening Families. This resource supports service providers in their work with parents, caregivers, and their children to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect. It focuses on the six protective factors, which have been proven to reduce the risk of abuse and neglect, and provides tools and strategies to integrate the protective factors into existing programs and systems. It is available in an online format or can be downloaded as a pdf. (2013)

• Working Together to Prevent Child Fatalities: Collaboration Among Review Teams, Child Welfare Agencies, and Communities
  This PowerPoint Presentation from the National Resource Center for Child Protective Services provides an overview and summary a year-long study conducted by the Children’s Bureau with the aim of increasing the efficacy of child fatality prevention efforts through examination of best strategies for collaboration among fatality review teams.  (September 2012)

• Child Maltreatment Prevention: Past, Present, and Future 
  This Child Welfare Information Gateway Issue Brief discusses the importance of prevention as a critical component of the nation's child protection system and examines the history of child abuse prevention, the scope of the problem today, ways in which quality programs are identified and implemented, promising prevention strategies, and issues for future prevention efforts. It outlines programs and strategies that are proving beneficial in reducing the likelihood of child maltreatment, such as public awareness efforts, parent education, home visitation, and community prevention efforts. (2011)

• Children’s Bureau Express (CBX): December 2010/January 2011 Edition 
  This issue of CBX spotlights in-home services, which refer to all the services provided in the home and elsewhere that support families with children living at home. In-home services include early prevention services as well as post-reunification services. Read about the new National Resource Center for In-Home Services and about promising practices in in-home services. (December 2010/January 2011)

• Don’t Wait: Everyday Actions to Keep Kids Safe
  The most effective prevention happens before a child is harmed. Kids are immediately safer when parents and caregivers take the time to learn about sexual abuse and its warning signs. Parents and caregivers can play a crucial role in a child’s safety by making a commitment to speak up as soon as they have a concern, instead of waiting for certain evidence of harm. This tip sheet by Stop it Now! offers some things that families can do to protect children from sexual abuse.

• Hmong Cultural Guide: Building Capacity to Strengthen the Well-Being of Immigrant Families and Their Children: A Prevention Strategy 
  This resource, from the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare, provides an overview of the culture of the Hmong to assist professionals in strengthening the well-being of Hmong families. It reviews Hmong parenting practices, parent and child nurturing and attachment styles, expectations of child development, parental attitudes in seeking health care for their children, and parental attitudes toward emotional behavior and mental health.

   

		Research & Reports

• The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare: Prevention and Early Intervention 
  The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC) provides child welfare professionals with easy access to vital information about selected child welfare related programs. The primary task of the CEBC is to inform the child welfare community about the research evidence for programs being used or marketed in California. The CEBC also lists programs that may be less well-known in California, but were recommended by the Topic Expert for that Topic Area. One of the Topic Areas addressed is Prevention and Early Intervention.

CEBC Prevention and Early Intervention Webpages:
Home Visiting for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect 
Home Visiting for Child Well-Being 
Interventions for Neglect 
Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (Secondary)

• Hard Times Made Harder: Struggling Caregivers and Child Neglect 
  Analyzing data from a nationally representative sample of children with a report of child neglect, this study from the Carsey Institute finds that children whose caregivers struggle with drug abuse, mental health problems, alcohol abuse, or to pay for basic necessities were more likely to be placed in out-of-home care than families without such struggles, even after controlling for other risk factors. Their struggles suggest that intervention and prevention must not only integrate substance abuse and mental health services but must also address the needs and effects of long-term poverty, such as apathy, loss of hope, and indifference. The brief, which is authored by Wendy A. Walsh, recommends that government funding for child welfare be directed at more preventive programs that help combat poverty and provide family support services. (Fall 2010)

• Population-Based Prevention of Child Maltreatment: The U.S. Triple P System Population Trial
  This study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), shows when parents have access to proven parenting interventions designed to address problems all families face—from tantrums to encouraging good behavior — key measures of child maltreatment fall. Support for families enrolled in the study came through the Triple P—Positive Parenting Program. The program uses a multi-level, parenting, and family support strategy that aims to prevent behavioral, emotional and developmental problems in children by enhancing the knowledge, skills and confidence of parents. Triple P incorporates a wide range of support mechanisms for parents including local media, brief public seminars, and parent consultation by specially trained providers in clinics, schools, churches, and community centers. Researchers estimate for an area containing 100,000 children under age eight that the results found in the study could translate annually into 688 fewer cases of child maltreatment, 240 fewer out-of-home placements, and 60 fewer children with injuries requiring hospitalization or emergency room treatment. (March 2009)

Click here for information on the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program.

• Parent Training Programs: Insight for Practitioners
  The United States Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury and Control recently published Parent Training Programs: Insight for Practitioners. Parent training programs are widely used to improve parenting practices and prevent child maltreatment. Although many programs have been evaluated for their effectiveness, the various components of the programs have rarely been examined. CDC behavioral scientists recently conducted a meta-analysis of the current research literature on parent training programs to identify components associated with more effective and less effective programs. This document summarizes the findings of this meta-analysis and provides practitioners who work with parents and families guidance in making evidence-based program decisions to improve parenting skills and prevent child maltreatment. (2009)

• Primary Prevention Programs for Child Maltreatment
  This paper by Naomi Weisel, PhD candidate at the Hunter College School of Social Work, discusses primary prevention, offers a literature review on risks associated with abuse and maltreatment, universal primary prevention programs, and targeted primary prevention programs, and explores implications for future research. (December 2009)