April 2010Vol. 11, No. 3Print issueSpotlight on National Child Abuse Prevention Month

Issue Spotlight

• Parenting Programs Improve Child Outcomes

  Parenting Programs Improve Child Outcomes

  Intended to provide caregivers with the information, skills, support, and services they need to address the developmental needs of their children and prepare them for adulthood, parenting programs play an important role in child well-being. In fact, according to a recent report from Partnership for America’s Economic Success (PAES), parenting education can potentially break the intergenerational transmission of negative social problems such as poverty, violence, and family instability. Effective parenting education has also shown promise for financial benefits to society by stemming child maltreatment, school failure, and criminal activity.
  
  The PAES report, which seeks to understand the economic benefits to society of investing in effective parenting education programs, reviewed 10 rigorously evaluated programs shown to be effective in improving parenting and/or child outcomes. The programs showed that parenting education programs can affect parenting attitudes, knowledge, skills, and disciplinary practices, as well as children's health, safety, behavioral, and academic outcomes. Unfortunately, there was insufficient data on longer-term impacts and limited data on cost-effectiveness. However, the report does provide estimates for cost-effectiveness for the two programs that showed reductions in child maltreatment (Nurse Family Partnership and Parent Education Program for Teen Mothers). In the cases of these programs, reducing maltreatment among adolescents could lead to annual crime-related savings between $9.9 million and $16.2 million and an estimated cost savings of between $506 and $1.65 billion in lost future productivity.
  
  The report's authors make recommendations about future research on parenting programs, focusing on the need to gather long-term impact data and cost savings data.
  
  The PAES report, Developmental and Economic Effects of Parenting Programs for Expectant Parents and Parents of Preschool-age Children, by Sharon M. McGroder and Allison Hyra, is available online:
  
  www.partnershipforsuccess.org/docs/researchproject_mcgroder_200903_paper.pdf (1,088 KB)
  
  Related Item
  
  Casey Family Programs and the Louisiana Department of Social Services, Office of Community Services, conducted a study to evaluate the effectiveness of Louisiana's Nurturing Parenting Program, a 16-week group and home-based program that targets parents and other caregivers of infants, toddlers, and preschool children involved in the child welfare system. Researchers assessed the changes in parental attitudes of 564 participants involved in the child welfare system following an allegation of abuse or neglect of one or more children in their care. The study found that the program was successful in retaining clients, improving parental attitudes toward childrearing, and reducing repeat maltreatment.
  
  Evaluation of the Statewide Implementation of a Parent Education Program in Louisiana’s Child Welfare Agency: The Nurturing Parenting Program for Infants, Toddlers, and Pre-School Children, by Rhenda H. Hodnett, Karen Faulk, Amy Dellinger, and Erin Maher, is available on the Casey Family Programs website:
  
  www.casey.org/Resources/Publications/pdf/EvaluationParentEdLA_FR.pdf (967 KB)

• Promoting Optimal Development and Preventing Child Maltreatment: The QIC on Early Childhood

  Promoting Optimal Development and Preventing Child Maltreatment: The QIC on Early Childhood

  The National Quality Improvement Center on Early Childhood (QIC-EC) is hard at work studying how collaborative interventions increase protective factors and decrease risk factors to achieve optimal child development, increased family strengths, and decreased likelihood of child maltreatment within families of young children at high-risk for child maltreatment. The focus of the QIC-EC underscores the nation's urgent need to find innovative, effective approaches to maltreatment prevention for children 0-5. Current research indicates that children in this age group are subject to the highest rates of child maltreatment and are at the greatest risk of lifelong harm from trauma. Research also reveals that the early years of life can be a very important period for influencing a child's developmental trajectory and the parent-child relationship, including parental behavior patterns, before neglectful or abusive patterns are established.

  The QIC-EC Projects
  Following a year of intensive study and deliberations with a distinguished national advisory committee, it was clear that reducing maltreatment was not sufficient. Increasing family strengths and promoting optimal development are equally important to ensuring the best outcomes for very vulnerable young children.

  Four research and demonstration (R&D) projects were selected from more than 40 highly competitive proposals from across the country to study effective ways to achieve these goals. The focus of the QIC-EC is primary prevention, so the R&D projects will target infants and young children who are at high risk for abuse and neglect but for whom there is no substantiated child protective services report. Children will be 0-24 months old when they are accepted into the project. The R&D projects will employ randomized control or quasi-experimental designs that implement a range of collaborative interventions with families.

  The main activities of the R&D projects illustrate the range of families, communities, service systems, and interventions that will be studied over the next 3 years:  

  • Denver, CO: This project will study the impact of collaboration among Part C case managers, wraparound services, leveraging the family's natural supports, and substance abuse treatment for pregnant women.
  • Columbia, SC: Stepping Stones Triple P parent education training plus adapted Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect training for Part C early intervention coordinators will be tested for effectiveness with families of children with disabilities in 12 counties.
  • Boston, MA: Families in an isolated, high poverty urban neighborhood who seek medical services through a community health center will test a combination of Healthy Steps home visiting, legal assistance, and other family support.
  • Salem, OR: This study will measure the impact of a multifaceted neighborhood mobilization, led by residents and including businesses, faith communities, and human services on reductions in child maltreatment and promotion of optimal development.

  In addition to the rigorous evaluation conducted by each individual project, the QIC-EC will also conduct a cross-site evaluation that includes both outcomes and processes.

  The QIC-EC Learning Network
  The QIC-EC will provide ongoing information from these creative interventions over the next 3 years via its information-sharing Learning Network. The QIC-EC's Learning Network (LN) serves as an active mechanism for exchange of information between the QIC-EC and a multidisciplinary group of organizations and individuals who share the commitment to maltreatment prevention in very young children. The QIC-EC has convened quarterly LN webinars, including:

  • Current Research on the Adult Outcomes of Child Maltreatment
  • Promoting Optimal Development in Young Children and Families Affected by Substance Abuse and/or HIV/AIDS
  • Prevention: A Dialogue between Research and Practice

  Webinar slides can be downloaded from the QIC-EC website: 

  www.qic-ec.org

  The QIC-EC Award
  The Children's Bureau awarded a 5-year cooperative agreement in 2008 to the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) to establish the QIC-EC to promote the development, dissemination, and integration of new knowledge about maltreatment prevention among infants and young children (0-5) who are at high risk for abuse, neglect, and abandonment. CSSP's partner organizations are ZERO to THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families and the National Alliance of Children's Trust and Prevention Funds. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation provided matching funds.
  
  For more information about the work of the QIC-EC, including detailed grantee profiles and information from previous LN webinars, visit the website:  

  www.qic-ec.org
  
  For more information, contact:
  Charlyn Harper Browne, Project Director
  charlyn.harperbrowne@cssp.org
  
  Contributed by Charlyn Harper Browne

• April Is National Child Abuse Prevention Month

  April Is National Child Abuse Prevention Month

  "Strengthening Families and Communities" is the ongoing theme for National Child Abuse Prevention Month. The theme conveys the message that service providers and concerned individuals can help families and communities identify their strengths and build on those strengths to provide a safe, loving environment for their children.

  Strengthening Families and Communities: 2010 Resource Guide is a free resource that supports service providers who work with parents, other caregivers, and their children. The guide highlights strategies to strengthen families by promoting five key protective factors that prevent child abuse and neglect:

  • Nurturing and attachment
  • Knowledge of parenting and of child and youth development
  • Parental resilience
  • Social connections
  • Concrete supports for parents

  This year's guide also includes additional resources for working with families and communities, including:

  • New information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the "Safe, Stable and Nurturing Relationships Strategies"
  • A revision of the "levers" for effecting broad-based community change
  • Evidence-based strategies to strengthen families
  • Tools to help build community awareness and support the development of community partnerships with specific groups
  • A sample press release and public service announcements
  • Tip sheets to share with parents and caregivers

  The guide was developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Children's Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, its Child Welfare Information Gateway, the FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention, and numerous national organizations and parents.
  
  View or order the free resource guide on the Child Welfare Information Gateway website:
  www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/res_guide_2010
  
  Just in time for National Child Abuse Prevention Month, Child Welfare Information Gateway has enhanced the selection of child abuse prevention resources on its website to support child welfare and related professionals this month and throughout the year. Enhancements to the website include:

  • An Activities Calendar that promotes the protective factors and highlights 30 ways to strengthen families during National Child Abuse Prevention Month: www.childwelfare.gov/preventing/preventionmonth/calendar_eng.cfm
  • Updated resources throughout the Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect section, including new webpages on early childhood and child care services and evaluating prevention programs
  • A new look for the National Child Abuse Prevention Month website
  • A 30-second multimedia animation for marketing outreach that was launched last year in April to promote online prevention resources

  Visit the Child Welfare Information Gateway website to find these resources and more:
  www.childwelfare.gov/preventing

• Supporting Evidence-Based Home Visiting (EBHV) Grantees: Lessons Learned From Planning Year 1

  Supporting Evidence-Based Home Visiting (EBHV) Grantees: Lessons Learned From Planning Year 1

  For home visiting interventions to have the greatest effects possible, the systems in which home visiting programs operate must be integrated, supportive, and conducive to service delivery. Knowledge is needed about how to build the infrastructure and service systems necessary to implement and sustain EBVH programs with fidelity to their models and whether and how to scale up these programs and adapt them for new target populations.

  In 2008, the Children’s Bureau (CB) funded 17 grants, through 5-year cooperative agreements, to address this knowledge gap and prevent child maltreatment. Grantees are to leverage their grant funding with other funding sources to support the implementation of, scaling up, and sustaining home visiting programs with high fidelity to their evidence-based models. In addition, grantees will contribute to the knowledge base about large-scale implementation with fidelity by conducting local implementation and outcome evaluations, along with analysis of program costs. The first year (fiscal year [FY] 2008-2009) was a planning year; grantees are to implement their plans during the remaining 4 years (FY 2009-2010 through FY 2012-2013 subject to the availability of Federal funding). The grantees, spread across 15 States, are supporting five different home visiting models:

  • Healthy Families America
  • Nurse Family Partnership
  • Parents as Teachers
  • Positive Parenting Program
  • SafeCare

  The cross-site evaluation is being conducted by Mathematica Policy Research and Chapin Hall.  The following are the lessons learned from the first year of this initiative:

  • The importance of contextual change on EBHV initiative implementation and local evaluation. All grantees have seen significant funding cuts at the Federal, State, and local levels, which will impact their ability to serve as many families as planned or in some cases may jeopardize the future of the grant. Grantees are adjusting their implementation and local evaluation plans to coincide with their current funding realities.
  • The complexity of integrating home visiting models into local service networks. Implementing home visitation models into existing local service networks requires grantees to engage with multiple partners and build capacity in key resources and functions, including planning, operations, workforce development, funding, collaboration, communication, political support, and quality assurance or program evaluation. To build infrastructure, the grantees may need to engage in even a wider array of activities than initially anticipated.  
  • The importance of establishing rigorous evaluation standards and implications for technical assistance (TA) needs and related resources. By setting high expectations, the cross-site evaluation served as a catalyst for a change process that elevated the threshold for what constituted rigorous research and identified specific areas in which greater investments in research would result in higher quality, more policy-relevant data. Although still evolving in light of the current funding situation, the process has underscored the importance of both raising expectations and articulating the types of TA and financial support required to ensure achievement of these higher standards.
  • The importance of identifying and directly addressing data ownership issues and lines of communication when implementing home visiting models. States that are implementing multiple EBHV programs, such as Illinois, New Jersey and, more recently, Utah, are already engaged in ways to integrate the various model-specific management information systems into a tool that can be used by State administrators and policymakers to better assess the combined coverage and level of effort achieved across all of the models being implemented. Creating ways in which data can be shared among State administrators, the various national models, and local researchers in a manner that addresses the diverse needs of all users will be essential.
  • The importance of creating opportunities for grantees to teach, as well as learn, from each other. The Peer Learning Network (PLN) serves as a venue for knowledge exchange among grantees. The Mathematica-Chapin Hall and FRIENDS National Resource Center team members are facilitators of the PLN and are engaging grantees and helping to identify commonalities across grantees and potential opportunities for learning.
  • Opportunities for identifying commonalities and shared learning opportunities across evidence-based models. The EBHV grant initiative offers a unique opportunity to engage multiple models around a common goal—the success of the EBHV grantees.  The Mathematica-Chapin Hall team conducted calls with the national model developers and created a forum for the national model developers to discuss the different strategies they have used to ensure high quality replication of their efforts.
  • Opportunities for identifying commonalities and shared learning opportunities across diverse Federal initiatives. There is the potential to collaborate with cross-site evaluators of other Federal initiatives, namely ECCS and Project LAUNCH, which also focus efforts on systems development and change. The effort to collaborate across Federal initiatives may produce lessons that go beyond any one initiative and can speak more broadly to the issues of infrastructure development and systems change to support high quality service provision for families and children.    
  • The importance of maintaining open and transparent communication among all partners engaged in complex initiatives. This initiative embraces a number of goals that have implications at the program, State, and Federal levels, and it addresses an array of planning and implementation concerns that impact both practice and research. Over the past year, a key implementation challenge for all of those involved has been resisting this tendency to focus on their own priorities and to embrace the need to remain fully informed of the interests, concerns, and limitations of the other partners. By requiring regular communication among all of the partners, the CB/ACF developed an environment that maximized exposure to diverse viewpoints and competing priorities.

  Information about each of the 17 programs, the cross-site evaluation design, and resources on home visiting is now available through the Supporting EBHV website. The website was developed and is maintained by the FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention:

  www.supportingebhv.org

  The project has also produced an online newsletter, the EBHV Connector, which can be accessed through the website and includes articles on each grantee's work:

  www.supportingebhv.org/newsletter

  Reference:

  DelGrosso, P., & Daro, D. (2009). Cross-site evaluation of the supporting Evidence-Based Home Visiting grantees: Summary of the planning year. Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services. Contract No. GS10F-0050L/HHSP233200800065W. Available from Mathematica Policy Research, Princeton, NJ.

  Contributed by Melissa Brodowski, the Children's Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect

  
  

• Family Strengthening Programs Around the Country

  Family Strengthening Programs Around the Country

  A new report from the Center for the Study of Social Policy takes a broad look at the impact of the Strengthening Families initiative across the country as reflected in States' efforts to implement new strategies for the prevention of child abuse and neglect. In particular, A Look at Strengthening Families in the States examines the evolution of the family strengthening approach—from the establishment of an advisory committee and introduction of seven State pilot projects to the launch of the Strengthening Families National Network (SFNN), a forum for sharing and disseminating information among States, territories, and Tribes.

  Based on the results of a 2009 structured study of Strengthening Families work, the report describes the progress of the initiative and its responsiveness to the needs of the child welfare field. Some of the key elements to successful implementation include:

  • Use of cross-systems planning for comprehensive early childhood services
  • Enhanced prevention approaches in many States
  • Dissemination of new knowledge and tools
  • Parents' engagement around protective factors and family strengthening

  To support the continued improvement and expansion of the Strengthening Families initiative, the authors identify three critical approaches that need further growth and attention. They include:

  • Enhancing State-level implementation
  • Establishing more effective methods for evaluating impact
  • Working on a deeper implementation of programs and practices

  Appendices offer detailed looks at the Strengthening Families efforts in Minnesota, Kansas, Georgia, and Washington.
  
  A Look at Strengthening Families in the States is available on the Strengthening Families' website: 

  http://strengtheningfamilies.net/images/uploads/pdf_uploads/(2.1_.1)_A_Look_at_Strengthening_Families_in_the_States_.pdf (584 KB)

• Tribal and Migrant Prevention Programs

  Tribal and Migrant Prevention Programs

  Tribal and Migrant Prevention Programs

  The Children's Bureau is committed to supporting programs and activities that prevent the occurrence and reoccurrence of child abuse and neglect within Tribal and migrant populations. Title II of The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (Community Based Child Abuse Prevention Program) specifies that 1 percent of the available funding from Title II is reserved to fund Tribes, Tribal Organizations, and Migrant Programs for child abuse and neglect prevention efforts. In 2007, the Children's Bureau funded two Tribal programs and one migrant program to carry out their proposed child abuse prevention activities. These activities are consistent with the goals outlined in the legislation.
  
  Funded projects include:

  • • Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic
      Location: Toppenish, Washington
      This grantee is implementing the "Spanish-Language Parenting Education Program," using the Los Ninos Bien Educados curriculum to target low-income, Spanish-speaking migrant families in east Yakima. In addition, the program builds community capacity to provide parent-led support groups. The parenting education is culturally specific to meet the needs of Spanish-speaking migrant families. 

  
  

  • • Grand Traverse Band (GTB) of Ottawa & Chippewa Indians
      Location:  Suttons Bay, Michigan
      This grantee is implementing the GTB Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention and Intervention Program, creating a parent skills education and father-mentoring program for GTB parents and fathers at risk for abuse or neglect. The goals and objectives of the program are to (1) hire a parent educator to make home visits to instruct parents/fathers in the Common Sense Parenting skills program and (2) engage community members from the Native Men's Group to mentor fathers in the roles of Native American fathers and men.

  
  

  • Indian Child Welfare Consortium
    Location:  Temecula, California
    This grantee is expanding the work of Indian Child and Family Services (ICFS), whose overall aim is to strengthen and preserve American Indian children and families through the implementation of culturally adapted, evidence-based family strengthening programs. The project has established a Tribal Child Abuse Prevention (TCAP) program that will support a multilevel preventive intervention for native families. 

  These grantees have developed unique approaches to address child abuse and neglect prevention efforts in their communities. Each grantee has chosen a different evaluation approach, but they all share similar program outcomes. Some of these outcomes include increased knowledge of parenting skills, access to support services within the community, implementation fidelity, cultural competence, parental empowerment and development, and improvements in children’s behavior in response to positive parenting. Dissemination efforts include a focus at the community, State, and national levels, providing information directly to service agencies and researchers through conference and workshop presentations. 

  For additional information on this cluster of grants, please contact the Federal Project Officer, Rosie Gomez, at rosie.gomez@acf.hhs.gov.

  To read about a site visit to the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, visit the Child Welfare Information Gateway website: http://www.childwelfare.gov/management/funding/funding_sources/sitevisits/yakima.cfm

  Contributed by Rosie Gomez, the Children's Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect

• Framing Effective Child Abuse Prevention Messages

  Framing Effective Child Abuse Prevention Messages

  A new report from the FrameWorks Institute presents the Institute's latest research on effectively communicating with the public about child abuse prevention. With the support of Prevent Child Abuse America and the Doris Duke Foundation, The Frameworks Institute compared different "frames" for talking about child abuse and early childhood development and how those frames impact public support for policies that improve children's development and prevent child abuse and neglect.
  
  In the study, 4,200 registered voters read 1 of 17 different narratives (or frames) that presented different ways of thinking about early childhood development. The participants then answered questions that measured their support for certain child-related policies. The research found participants were particularly sensitive to issues involving the physical and emotional welfare of children, and the following frames were most effective for increasing support for child-related policies:

  • Prosperity—The skills and capacities that begin developing in early childhood become the basis of a prosperous and sustainable society.
  • Ingenuity—Society can invent and replicate more effective policies and programs for young children.
  • Toxic Stress—Serious early stress can lead to lifelong problems in learning, behavior, and both physical and mental health.
  • Pay Now or Pay Later—Devoting societal resources to children early in life is less costly than treating adults affected by poor outcomes.
  • Return on Investment—We can support the most effective early childhood programs by comparing the benefit of the investment to the cost.

  Although participants' concern for child well-being was already high, the study found that exposure to these frames increased support for child-related policies by an additional 5-10 percent. Combining the Prosperity or Ingenuity frames alongside other messages proved to be particularly effective. The FrameWorks Institute suggests that programs and advocates should use these different frames to meet their communication needs for increasing public support for policies that promote early childhood development and child abuse prevention.
  
  Framing Child Abuse and Neglect: Effects of Early Childhood Development Experimental Research, by Tiffany Manuel, is available on the Prevent Child Abuse America website:

  www.preventchildabuse.org/canp/resources/pdf/FramingChildAbuseandNeglect_researchreport_2009.pdf (4,320 KB)
  
  Related Item
  
  Visit the FrameWorks Institute Toolkit on "Talking About Child Abuse Prevention" for more research and communication tools to increase public support for child abuse prevention policies:

  www.preventchildabuse.org/canp