How do we screen all families in a population at a single time point, identify family-specific risks, and connect each family with evidence-based community resources that can help them overcome those risks--an approach known as targeted universalism? In this article, Kenneth A. Dodge and W. Benjamin Goodman describe Family Connects, a program…

Purpose: Violence against children increases in adolescence, but there is a research and practice gap in research-supported child abuse prevention for the adolescent years. A pilot program for low-resource settings was developed in collaboration with nongovernmental organizations, government, and academics in South Africa, using research-supported…

Objectives: To examine the components affecting the quality of the implementation and their impact on the outcomes of the "Growing Up Happily in the Family" program targeted at parents with children aged 0-5. Method: At-risk and non-at-risk parents (N = 196) participated in 26 groups in local social services. Adherence, adaptations,…

This article reviews the contents and research on the Strengthening Families Program (SFP), a family evidence-based seven- to 14-session intervention for drug prevention in high-risk children ages 0 to 17. Twelve Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) found significant improvements in youths' behavioral health, including 50% reductions in substance…

Children from low-income families are more likely than those from higher income families to have poor social, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and health outcomes. One approach that has helped parents and their young children is home visiting, which provides information, resources, and support to expectant parents and families with young…

Family-centered, community-based programs are particularly suited to support families with at-risk children or maltreated children and achieve family preservation or reunification. In these child protection and child welfare cases, assessment is of great importance to inform decision making. But the implementation of services to support the…

The Strong Start Study tested an innovative, High-Fidelity Wraparound intervention with families in early recovery from substance use. The Strong Start Wraparound model addressed the complex needs of pregnant and parenting women who were in early recovery to increase the protective factors of parental resilience, social connections, concrete…

Child maltreatment affects millions of children each year. health care providers are increasingly called upon to address such psychosocial problems facing many families. In this article, the authors describe a practical approach to further enhance pediatric primary care and make it more responsive to the needs of children and families. The Safe…

"Free To Grow"--a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)--supported efforts by Head Start agencies and their community partners to strengthen the families and neighborhood environments of high-risk preschool children living in low-income communities. The goal was to reduce the children's vulnerability to substance…

Parent education programs have been shown to be effective family-based interventions for preventing child abuse and neglect; however, to ensure their effectiveness, they must be continually evaluated. The purpose of this quantitative study was to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of the Nurturing Parenting Program for…

The profound injuries caused by child maltreatment are well documented in the neurological, attachment, cognitive, and developmental literature. In this review paper, we explore the potential of early childhood education (ECE) as a community-based resilience intervention for mitigating the impacts of child abuse and neglect and supporting families…

Early childhood is a critical time for cognitive, social, and behavioral development. Many states have invested in comprehensive early childhood care and education systems that offer a wide range of supports and services to families from the prenatal period through school entry. Home visiting programs are an important component of state early…

Women offenders and their children represent a severely disadvantaged and marginalised population. For many children, the very risk factors that contributed to their own mother's incarceration are present in their current lives, creating an intergenerational vulnerability for poor outcomes. Providing an intensive individualised parenting…

The Durham Family Initiative (DFI) is one of two community-based child abuse prevention efforts that comprise The Duke Endowment's Child Abuse Prevention Initiative. Beginning in 2002, the Endowment provided support to the Durham Family Initiative (DFI) in North Carolina and Strong Communities in South Carolina to develop a comprehensive approach…

A population-level approach to deliver parenting and family support is a necessary but neglected approach needed to reduce the high prevalence of emotional/behavioral problems in children, decrease inadequate and potentially abusive parenting practices, and to provide improved parenting support to all parents within a specified population. We…