Boarding schools are the common 'out-of-home' placements for adolescents, due to various historical, religiously orthodox, and traditional reasons and due to dysfunction within families. The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between a free versus an enforced decision to enroll in a boarding school in terms of personal…

Researchers often question the validity of multi-informant assessments among adolescents with child welfare involvement. Yet, within other clinical populations, prior research finds that multi-informant reports have a discernable structure characterized by discrete patterns of agreement and disagreement. This structure "tracks"…

Maltreating mothers often struggle to respond sensitively to their children's distress. Examining psychophysiological processing of own child cues may offer insight into neurobiological mechanisms that promote sensitive parenting among high-risk mothers. The current study used event-related potential (ERP) methodology to examine associations…

Families involved with child welfare services often experience a range of stressors in addition to maltreatment, including intimate partner violence, substance abuse, and mental health problems. Children in these families are at risk for developing a myriad of problems. Although parenting education programs are among the most routine interventions…

Mothers' distress is a correlate of their children's elevated behaviour problems and symptoms. Parenting practices have been shown to mediate these associations, but few studies have observed parenting or focused on parents at risk of child abuse. In this study of 269 high-risk mothers and their young children (M?=?4.2?years), structural…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine whether childhood misfortune reduces the likelihood of being disease free in adulthood. Design and Methods: This article used a sample of 3,000+ American adults, aged 25-74, who were first interviewed in 1995 and reinterviewed in 2005. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds of avoiding…

In a randomized controlled trial, the effectiveness of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and correlates of maltreatment outcomes were examined. Mothers (N = 150) had a history or were at high risk of maltreating their children. After 12 weeks and compared to waitlist, PCIT mothers were observed to have improved parent-child interactions and…

Increasingly, female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) are charged with IPV perpetration and mandated by courts or child protective services to receive domestic violence services. A critical need exists for evidence-based interventions targeting the needs of this unique population, but such research is scarce. To address this gap, we…

Child maltreatment is a costly social issue, both financially and in terms of children's well-being. All 50 states and many countries have enacted mandatory reporting laws, but not all of them require mandated reporter training. A multitude of studies have shown that many mandated reporters do not report all of the cases of suspected child abuse…

Research suggests that child maltreatment predicts juvenile violence, but it is uncertain whether the effects of victimization persist into adulthood or differ across gender. Furthermore, we know little about the mechanisms underlying the victim-perpetrator cycle for males and females. Consequently, this study analyzed associations between child…

Objectives: Attempts to understand the effects of maltreatment subtypes on childhood functioning are complicated by the fact that children often experience multiple subtypes. This study assessed the effects of maltreatment subtypes on the cognitive, academic, and mental health functioning of preadolescent youth in out-of-home care using both…

Rates of food insecurity in households with children have significantly increased over the past decade. The majority of children, including those at risk for food insecurity, participate in some form of non-parental child care during the preschool years. To evaluate the relationship between the two phenomenon, this study investigates the effects…

The purpose of this study was to analyze a nationally representative sample of families referred to Child Protective Services (CPS) agencies, the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, to examine the association between maternal depression and parenting practices over a 36-month follow-up period. Three hypotheses were tested: (1)…

Youth departing from out-of-home care settings face numerous challenges as they adapt to new settings or return to placements that have been unsuccessful in the past. Although several thousand youth face this transition annually, little is known about their specific needs and risks at departure. To better identify needs and risks, we evaluated the…

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of intimate partner violence (defined as any physical violence during the last 12 months or previously) among mothers who maltreat their children, and to examine whether mothers' experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) are associated with repeated reports (rereports) of children to Child Protective…