Citation

Ayoub CC, Willett JB, Robinson DS. Child Abuse Negl. 1992; 16(4): 495-511.

Affiliation

Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1393713

Abstract

Research suggests that perinatal screening and early intervention may reduce the incidence of maltreatment and improve the parenting in at-risk families. The question of whether families with different sets of entry-level characteristics differ in the way that they respond to intervention is asked in this paper. We investigated whether entry-level family functioning and family problems had an impact on length of time in treatment and the improvement or deterioration of family functioning over time. In our analyses, we used entry-level characteristics to classify families into five homogeneous groups--situationally stressed, chronically stressed, emotionally stressed, multirisk, and violent multirisk--and we found that treatment duration and rate of change in family functioning over time differed in clinically important ways across these groups. Our findings suggest that treatment is likely to be successful in stabilizing and slowly improving the family functioning of the majority of families at risk of child maltreatment.

Language: en