Children who experience homelessness are vulnerable to mental health problems, developmental delays and lower academic achievement. Research suggests that parental health literacy, sensitive parenting behaviour and child self-regulation are modifiable mechanisms that might enhance children's resilience to adversities associated with homelessness, yet empirical evidence on implementing such interventions in shelter settings is limited. Through a coordinated academic-community partnership, this study aimed to examine the (1) feasibility of conducting an integrated health approach in shelter settings and (2) the effectiveness of separate interventions on child and parent outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current commentary provides an introduction to the special issue examining COVID-19-related professional challenges, innovations, and implications for child maltreatment victims. The editors of the special issue provide a summary of the research presented as well as the implications for the field of child maltreatment research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAttachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) is a promising home-visiting intervention promoting sensitive caregiving and secure parent-child attachment in families with young children. The goal of this study was to examine a learning collaborative approach to disseminating ABC in a community setting. Training outcomes (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current study examined direct and indirect effects of a mother's history of childhood physical and sexual abuse on her child's officially reported victimization. This prospective, longitudinal study followed a community-based sample of 499 mothers and their children. Mothers (35% White/non-Latina, 34% Black/non-Latina, 23% Latina, and 7% other) were recruited and interviewed during pregnancy, and child protective services records were reviewed for the presence of the participants' target child between birth and age 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUS government-funded early home visiting services are expanding significantly. The most widely implemented home visiting models target at-risk new mothers and their infants. Such home visiting programs typically aim to support infant-parent relationships; yet, such programs' effects on infant attachment quality per se are as yet untested.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChildhood physical abuse predicts emotional/behavioral, self-regulatory, and social problems. Yet factors from multiple ecological levels contribute to children's adjustment. The purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which the social-emotional adjustment of physically abused children in first grade would be predicted by a set of child-, parent-, and family-level predictors in kindergarten.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis pilot randomized trial tested the feasibility and efficacy of supplementing residential substance-abuse treatment for new mothers with a brief, yet rigorous, attachment-based parenting program. Twenty-one predominantly (86%) White mothers and their infants living together in residential substance-abuse treatment were randomly assigned to the program (n = 11) or control (n = 10) group. Program mothers received 10 home-based sessions of Dozier's Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) intervention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite significant advances in knowledge and availability of evidence-based models for child traumatic stress, many children simply do not complete treatment. There remain notable gaps in the services research literature about treatment completion among youth, particularly those who have experienced trauma and related sequelae. This study investigated the linkages among child physical and sexual trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology, and treatment completion utilizing a clinical sample drawn from a large database from community treatment centers across the United States specializing in childhood trauma.
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