Effective Interventions to Ameliorate the Incidence of Child Maltreatment: The Empirical Base

Abstract

The effectiveness of interventions currently utilized with abusive and neglectful families still is largely in question. Recent evidence often suggests that intervention generally is unsuccessful However, this review of the literature shows that certain interventions have been found effective in treating physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse. Interventions appear most successful when more than one is provided to a family and when interventions are provided for 6 to 18 months. The majority of research on effective interventions in child maltreatment has focused on the treatment of abusive parents. Nevertheless, the limited data available on child maltreatment interventions sup-port the usefulness of specific interventions with children. Many services identified in this review were found not to be widely available. Often, lack of community resources has served as a barrier to providing effective intervention with maltreating families.