Partnering With Parents, an infant mental health (IMH) intervention program at Starfish Family Services (SFS), is dedicated to improving social-emotional outcomes, supporting wellness, and strengthening relationships between infants and families. Families served by SFS experience a myriad of societal, community, and relational stressors that can…

Objectives: Infant crying is particularly frustrating to caregivers in the first few months of life and the most common trigger for shaking and abuse. The effectiveness of the "Period of PURPLE Crying" prevention materials (DVD and booklet) designed to increase knowledge and change behaviors related to crying and the dangers of shaking…

Intimate partner violence (IPV) between parents has been linked to negative parenting and child maladjustment, yet the mechanisms underlying this association are not fully understood. Based on a theory that violence among parents disrupts the coparental alliance--which has been linked to parenting quality and child adjustment--the authors examined…

Objective: To examine the associations between child physical abuse executed by a parent or caretaker and self-rated health problems/risk-taking behaviors among teenagers. Further to evaluate concurrence of other types of abuse and how these alone and in addition to child physical abuse were associated with bad health status and risk-taking…

The Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project is the first major opportunity to use a behavioral economics lens to look at programs that serve poor and vulnerable people in the United States. Sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S.…

As cities across the country and globe continue to generate new solutions to a wide variety of vexing problems, sharing information about what works and what doesn't has become more important than ever. Yet, outside of a few prominent policies, the vast majority of successful municipal experiments never reach a national audience or, for that…

Objective: To evaluate the social and emotional adjustment of 219 children in families with varying levels of intimate partner violence (IPV) using a model of risk and protection. To explore factors that differentiate children with poor adjustment from those with resilience. Methodology: Mothers who experienced IPV in the past year and their…

This multigenerational study empirically demonstrates the extent to which offspring whose parents experienced childhood abuse are at increased risk of being abused or neglected. Females with substantiated childhood sexual abuse and nonabused comparison females were assessed at six points spanning 18 years in a prospective, longitudinal study.…

Evidence linking alcohol and other drug abuse with child maltreatment, particularly neglect, is strong. But does substance abuse cause maltreatment? According to Mark Testa and Brenda Smith, such co-occurring risk factors as parental depression, social isolation, homelessness, or domestic violence may be more directly responsible than substance…

Recently, awareness of abuse of parents by their adolescent offspring has increased. Research has not addressed the issue of police involvement in adolescent to parent abuse, even though people in law enforcement have become increasingly involved in mediating family disputes and applying sanctions against abuse activity. This study analyzed police…

A literature review on treatment of physically abused children and physically abusive parents is presented. A variety of treatments is documented, with the most popular for children being therapeutic daycare emphasizing improving developmental skills. Although most programs demonstrated some improvement with treatment, many included no or very…

This report attempts to improve the capacity of teachers, counselors, and other professionals to serve families whose children are at risk due to substance abuse and maltreatment on the part of the caretakers. Any professional coming into contact with these children needs to be aware of the scope of the problem and understand what these children…

Project REAL (Relationship skills, Education on violence prevention, Academics, Leadership and decision-making skills) was a practicum designed to increase the academic achievement of middle school students exposed to domestic violence. Eleven students and their parents participated in a 12-week interpersonal-cognitive counseling group and its…