The purpose of this proposal for a Scientist Development Award for Clinicians is to enable me to develop the skills to examine and improve mental health services for young neglected children and their families. There is a fundamental paradox in the field currently. Studies on the development of psychopathology in young neglected children typically ignore services-relevant issues such as out of home placement and the treatment the children receive. This limits the applicability of the information for community settings. However, research from the services perspective rarely addresses developmental issues in research design, provision of services, or assessment of outcome. This proposal will provide me with mentored research and training experiences to address these issues. Combined with my clinical child psychiatric training and my post-doctoral research fellowship in the developmental psychopathology of early childhood maltreatment, this proposed 5 year training program will enable me to contribute to the design and evaluation of mental health services research for young neglected children. The proposal will target an underserved subset of 4-5 year old neglected children and their parents. A logical sequence of three studies will: (1) examine the factors which determine what service program the county child protection agency assigns the family to; (2a) examine the competencies and deficits of the parents and children in the programs. This will provide needed information which can guide the provision of services for these families; and (2b) examine the variables which influence what mental health services the families actually receive. These studies will lead to (3) the development of a randomized controlled trial of home-based intensive family services for these families. This longitudinal study will test if these services reduce out of home placement and recurrence of maltreatment, improve parenting, enhance the children's socio-emotional competence, and facilitate their successful adaptation into school.
| Carpenter, S C; Clyman, R B; Davidson, A J et al. (2001) The association of foster care or kinship care with adolescent sexual behavior and first pregnancy. Pediatrics 108:E46 |
