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Home > Statistics & Research > Child Abuse & Neglect Research > Abstracts and Findings from Federally Funded Child Abuse and Neglect Research

 

Project Title: Helping Families Prevent Child Neglect
Grant/Contract Number: 90CA1580
Type of Project: Demonstration
Funding Agency: Office on Child Abuse and Neglect
Agency Contact Person: Sue Sparrow
(202) 205-8244
Principal Investigator: Diane DePanfilis, Ph.D., M.S.W.
Mailing Address: University of Maryland at Baltimore
511 West Lombard Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Total Project Duration: 09/30/96 to 09/29/01
FY 98 Total Costs: $150,000
Total Project Budget: $1,000,000
Child Maltreatment Focus: Primary
Type of Abuse: Neglect
Sample Size: 100 families
Age of Subjects: 6-8 years old
Child Abuse and Neglect Focus
of This Project:		 Treatment and Preventive Interventions
Summary  


The University of Baltimore School of Social Work will implement the Helping Families Prevent Child Neglect project. The project will offer home-based intervention to families at risk of neglect and will test two premises: treatment needs to be long-term and parent groups foster social connections that enhance parenting competency. Goals of the project include evaluating the cost-effectiveness of four promising interventions for helping families prevent neglect and achieve positive outcomes while examining the ability of a comprehensive assessment protocol to predict the occurrence of neglect. This project will provide a strengths-based, family-focused intervention to 300 vulnerable urban families in Baltimore's Westside Empowerment Zone, with a child between the ages of 6 and 8 years. The project focus will be on families at risk for child neglect in which neglect has not yet occurred. The project will be guided by the following principles: (1) importance of the helping alliance, (2) empowerment-based practice, (3) application of the strengths perspective, (4) cultural competence, (5) developmental appropriateness of interventions, and (6) community involvement. The expected benefits to families are prevention of child neglect, increase in protective factors, decrease in risk factors, and increase in positive child and family functioning. This project also will encourage and strengthen linkages among helpers in the identified community for collaboration, resource-sharing, and program development.