A mixed-methods study to understand the impact of practitioner and organizational factors on fidelity of a child maltreatment prevention intervention in community-based settings.

Unlabelled: It has been well-documented that the degree to which interventions are implemented with fidelity in typical service settings has varied. Frequently, interventions are developed and tested in highly controlled or early adopter settings. Less attention has been given to what implementation looks like in usual care, and which factors promote practitioners' ability to implement with fidelity.

Family Connections: Using Collaborative Partnerships to Support Dissemination.

Spreading and sustaining evidence-informed practice in child welfare is complex. In particular, putting in place an active dissemination strategy requires the recognition of these unique challenges. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how collaborative partnerships between individuals and organizations may represent an opportunity for more widely disseminating evidence-based practice in child welfare.

Estimating staffing needs for in-home child welfare services with a weighted caseload formula.

State child welfare risk and safety assessment data were analyzed to determine three levels of in-home service that correspond to the Child Welfare League of America's (CWLA) national caseload standards and to evaluate the number of staff needed to provide services at each level. The analysis revealed that 50% additional case-carrying in-home services staff were needed to provide appropriate risk- and safety-based services to children in their own homes. Findings from this study were used by the state child welfare services agency to allocate vacant worker positions to local jurisdictions.

Trauma adapted family connections: reducing developmental and complex trauma symptomatology to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Families living in urban poverty, enduring chronic and complex traumatic stress, and having difficulty meeting their children's basic needs have significant child maltreatment risk factors. There is a paucity of family focused, trauma-informed evidence-based interventions aimed to alleviate trauma symptomatology, strengthen family functioning, and prevent child abuse and neglect. Trauma Adapted Family Connections (TA-FC) is a manualized trauma-focused practice rooted in the principles of Family Connections (FC), an evidence supported preventive intervention developed to address the glaring gap in services for this specific, growing, and underserved population.

Assessing the cost-effectiveness of Family Connections.

Objective: To assess the cost-effectiveness of two alternate forms of Family Connections (FC), a child neglect prevention program, in relation to changes in risk and protective factors and improvements in child safety and behavioral outcomes.

Methods: In the original FC study, a sample of 154 families (473 children) in a poor, urban neighborhood, who met risk criteria for child neglect, were randomly assigned to receive either a 3- or 9-month intervention. CPS reports and self-report and observational data on risk and protective factors, safety, and behavioral outcomes were collected prior to, at the end of, and 6-months post intervention.

Family connections: a program for preventing child neglect.

Family Connections was a demonstration program specifically designed to prevent child neglect. This article describes the development of prevention strategies and the assessment of outcomes for families who received two versions of the intervention. The sample included 154 families (473 children) in a poor, urban neighborhood who met risk criteria for child neglect and who were randomly assigned to receive either a 3- or 9-month intervention.

Housing characteristics and adequacy of the physical care of children: an exploratory analysis.

This study explored the relationship between housing conditions and the adequacy of the physical care of children. The sample included 106 caregivers who were participating in a neglect prevention demonstration project in a low-income, inner-city neighborhood. Children who lived with caregivers who had unsafe housing conditions were less likely to receive adequate physical care.

The neglect scale: confirmatory factor analyses in a low-income sample.

The Neglect Scale is an easy-to-administer, retrospective, self-report measure of neglect. Research conducted by Straus and colleagues with college students indicates that this scale has a high level of internal consistency reliability and moderate construct validity. The purpose of this article is to examine the reliability and validity of the Neglect Scale when used with a low-income, inner-city sample.

The effect of services on the recurrence of child maltreatment.

Objective: Building on a previous model of recurrence, this study examined the relationship of services on the hazard of child maltreatment recurrence during CPS intervention for families who were provided continuing intervention following a confirmed index report of physical abuse or neglect.

Method: This nonconcurrent prospective study selected 434 subject families who met study eligibility requirements from 1181 families randomly selected from the 2902 families who had experienced a substantiated report of child abuse or neglect during the sampling year. Data were collected and coded from archival sources for 5 years following the index report.