The current investigation reports the results of a randomized controlled trial of a brief, relational intervention for maltreated preschool-aged children and their mothers, called Reminiscing and Emotion Training (RET). RET facilitates elaborative and emotionally supportive parent-child communication, which is an essential component of the…

ISFAR (Intensive Services to Families at Risk Project), a program designed to prevent foster care among children at risk for placement because of documented or suspected abuse or neglect, is described, and its effectiveness evaluated. ISFAR's staffing patterns, guiding philosophy of helping parents become more adequate in their interaction with…

The report documents a study in which parents identified as abusive or neglectful were interviewed to examine the relationship between the dependent variable of reduction of abusive or neglectful behavior and the independent variables describing the families (N=171) and the services given. Chapter I provides an overview of the study design.…

Several recent reports have examined the needs of families with substance abuse problems in the child welfare system, and documented the barriers to obtaining social services. This report aims to inform substance abuse agencies in depth about the changes in child welfare laws and practices that affect substance abuse agencies policies and…

Human Options is a non-profit social service agency in Orange County, California which provides services for battered women and their families. This study: assessed the outcomes for graduates of its programs; obtained consumer evaluations of the agency's services; measured the needs for aftercare services; and assessed how the children of program…

Presents data about the decision-making processes leading to a suggestion of committal to care for a sample of Norwegian children. Suggests that parent characteristics, primarily substance abuse and psychiatric illness, were the main reasons for suggesting committal to care, while the children themselves were fairly invisible in the process.…

Details implementation of the Family Group Decision Making Project in Canadian Newfoundland and Labrador among residents from Inuit and European backgrounds. Notes how the program offered solutions to problems of fostering cultural autonomy, measuring family violence, unifying families and protecting family members, and integrating child welfare…

A comprehensive picture of existing services to families under stress can be useful for immediate and long-range planning. In order to determine the range of services to families under stress, including those identified as involved in child abuse and neglect, the Council for Child Protection and Family Support, Missoula, Montana, surveyed, through…

Analysis of 206 cases of severely abused and/or neglected children over a 4-year period resulted in the conclusion that children are poorly served by delays in the existing Massachusetts social service/legal system. Among specific findings were that two-thirds of parents were poor, 84 percent were psychiatrically disordered, and foster care…

A study was made of the repetition of child abuse. (This repetition is sometimes referred to as recurrence or recidivism). The central feature of the research strategy was a followup on a group of families cited for abuse, conducted to determine the degree to which abuse had recurred or had been discontinued and to assess the conditions associated…