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).

Public Health 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.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD061362-04
Application #
8471739
Study Section
Community-Level Health Promotion Study Section (CLHP)
Program Officer
Maholmes, Valerie
Project Start
2010-08-20
Project End
2015-06-30
Budget Start
2013-07-01
Budget End
2014-06-30
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$430,544
Indirect Cost
$62,870
Name
University of Washington
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Schools of Nursing
DUNS #
605799469
City
Seattle
State
WA
Country
United States
Zip Code
98195
Oxford, Monica L; Spieker, Susan J; Lohr, Mary Jane et al. (2018) Ensuring Implementation Fidelity of a 10-Week Home Visiting Program in Two Randomized Clinical Trials. Matern Child Health J 22:376-383
Spieker, Susan J; Oxford, Monica L; Fleming, Charles B et al. (2018) PARENTAL CHILDHOOD ADVERSITY, DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS, AND PARENTING QUALITY: EFFECTS ON TODDLER SELF-REGULATION IN CHILD WELFARE SERVICES INVOLVED FAMILIES. Infant Ment Health J 39:5-16
Oxford, Monica L; Spieker, Susan J; Lohr, Mary Jane et al. (2016) Promoting First Relationships®: Randomized Trial of a 10-Week Home Visiting Program With Families Referred to Child Protective Services. Child Maltreat 21:267-277
Oxford, Monica L; Marcenko, Maureen; Fleming, Charles B et al. (2016) Promoting Birth Parents' Relationships with their Toddlers upon Reunification: Results from Promoting First Relationships(®) Home Visiting Program. Child Youth Serv Rev 61:109-116
Oxford, Monica L; Fleming, Charles B; Nelson, Elizabeth M et al. (2013) Randomized Trial of Promoting First Relationships: Effects on Maltreated Toddlers' Separation Distress and Sleep Regulation after Reunification. Child Youth Serv Rev 35: