A scoping review of evidence-based interventions available to parents of maltreated children ages 0-5 involved with child welfare services

• Published in: Child abuse & neglect Vol. 76; pp. 546 - 560
• Main Authors: Landers, Ashley L., McLuckie, Alan, Cann, Robin, Shapiro, Valerie, Visintini, Sarah, MacLaurin, Bruce, Trocmé, Nico, Saini, Michael, Carrey, Normand J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-02-2018; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Abused children; Attachment; Caregivers; Case studies; Child Abuse; Child abuse & neglect; Child maltreatment; Child Rearing; Child welfare; Childrearing practices; Children; Clinical trials; Evidence-based practice; Health problems; Infants; Intervention; Medical screening; Mental health; Mental health services; Parent Child Relationship; Parent-child relations; Parenting Styles; Parents & parenting; Poverty; Quasi-experimental methods; Quasiexperimental Design; Risk factors; Scoping review; Substance abuse; Systematic review; Tests; Toddlers; Uptake; Welfare services; Young Children; Intervention; Child welfare; Scoping review; Child maltreatment
• ISSN: 0145-2134; 1873-7757
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.09.012

Parents referred to child welfare services for child maltreatment often struggle against chronic risk factors including violence, substance abuse, mental health concerns, and poverty, which impinge upon their ability to be sensitive caregivers. The first line of intervention within the child welfare context is to modify parenting behavior. This scoping review comprehensively surveyed all available literature to map the extent and range of research activity around the types of interventions available within a child welfare context to parents of infants and toddlers (0–5 years of age), to identify the facilitators and/or barriers to the uptake of interventions, and to check that interventions match the risk factors faced by parents. This scoping review engaged in stringent screening of studies based upon inclusion/exclusion criteria. Sixty-five articles involving forty-two interventions met inclusion criteria. Interventions generally aimed to improve parenting practices, the relationship between parent and child, and/or attachment security, along with reducing child abuse and/or neglect. A notable finding of this scoping review is that at present, interventions for parents of children ages 0–5 involved with the child welfare system are most frequently measured via case study and quasi-experimental designs, with randomized control trials making up 26.2% of included study designs.