PREVENTION RESEARCH

Increased understanding of the causes of child abuse and how best to prevent it are vital to accomplishing Prevent Child Abuse America's mission.  For the past ten years, Prevent Child Abuse America's National Center on Child Abuse Prevention Research has worked to build effective linkages between the researchers investigating these phenomena and the practitioners responsible for program implementation. These linkages are promoted through the dissemination of emerging research, the development of new research studies, and the continuation of the Center's surveys of child welfare administrators and the general public. 

In 1997, the Research Center staff continued to sponsor the HFA Research Network, a program funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.  The Network involves over 50 researchers assessing the implementation and impacts of intensive home visitation programs in 25 states. Network activities provided empirically-based guidance to refine the program's 12 critical elements, improve our ability to more accurately assess participant outcomes, and explore more effective ways to integrate HFA activities into existing health and social service systems. 

Additionally, the HFA Network NEWS made its debut last year. This publication featured findings generated by the evaluations underway in HFA programs to HFA program managers and others involved in this national initiative. Furthermore, continued funding was received in support of the Network, thereby insuring its critical role in the development of the HFA initiative at both the national and local site levels. 
  
In partnership with Research Network members and other collaborating agencies, our Research Center is continuing its effort to develop a computerized data system to track the progress of the HFA initiative nationwide. The Program Information Management System (PIMS) will facilitate comparison among HFA sites across the country and enable the sites to generate standard reports about their programs.  Nationwide dissemination of this program information tracking tool began in late summer 1998. 

The Research Center staff also continued implementing comprehensive evaluations of several model prevention programs. This past year, some of those evaluations were completed, most notable, a randomized trial of Hawaii's Healthy Start program, an intensive home visitation effort.  The program currently screens over 52% of all new births in the state and offers weekly home visitation services to roughly 20% of all newborns and their families. A monograph on the study's key findings, funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, was completed last year and is currently available through Prevent Child Abuse America's catalog. 

Similarly, the Center completed a multifaceted assessment of the Ounce of Prevention's Center for Successful Child Development (CSCD).  This study, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, highlighted the unique challenges facing prevention advocates in implementing and sustaining services in a high crime, multi-problem urban community. 

Evaluations are underway in a number of areas including an assessment of the integration of home visitation services into existing family support efforts operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative States Research, Education, and Extension Service. Center staff also assessed the ability of HFA programs operating in inner-city Chicago neighborhoods to successfully engage and retain families in services.   

In other activities, our Research Center staff are continuing their comprehensive assessment of the William Penn Foundation's prevention initiative.  In addition to examining the differential impacts of nine prevention programs located throughout the Greater Philadelphia community, this study has provided an opportunity for us to explore the impacts of welfare reform on prevention program planning and participant needs. 

To better determine the volume of child abuse reports and the availability of child welfare resources, the Research Center again conducted its annual national survey of child protective service agencies. This fifty state survey provides the most current data available on the number and characteristics of child abuse reports and fatalities as well as changes in the funding and scope of child welfare services.  
  
The Center also conducted its annual public opinion poll to determine the public’s attitude and involvement with child abuse prevention. The survey focused on several areas, including the public’s attitudes toward specific parenting behaviors; the frequency of various discipline practices; and the public’s optimism about and involvement in child abuse prevention. 

Our Research Center also accomplished a variety of tasks to enhance the ongoing development of other Prevent Child Abuse America efforts. For example, the Center surveyed a sample of HFA state coordinators and program managers to identify issues related to welfare reform in their respective states and authored a report on the findings.   

We also initiated a broader survey of HFA sites to identify key service delivery, staffing, and participant characteristics. Our Research Center continues to respond to numerous requests each week for information, statistics, and reviews of Prevent Child Abuse America publications and related materials. Our goal is for these activities to help foster efforts to spread new knowledge about the best approaches to child abuse prevention.