Testing Interventions to Address Child Maltreatment and Parental Substance Abuse in Families with Young Children

The co-occurrence of child maltreatment and parental substance abuse is a major public health problem with serious consequences for children, parents, families, and the community at large. The need for effective dual intervention for caregiver substance abuse and child maltreatment is unquestionable, but there is a dearth of controlled outcome studies with substance-abusing parents who have engaged in child maltreatment. This presentation describes a recently launched clinical trial which is examining two evidence-based treatments—Contingency Management for substance abuse and Pathways Triple P parenting intervention to improve parenting and address child maltreatment. The study involves a longitudinal, factorial, randomized and controlled design and seeks to gauge impact on outcome variables that include parental substance abuse, parenting-related functioning (parenting practices, child-maltreatment recidivism, observed parent-child interaction), child adjustment, parent’s HIV behavioral risk, and parental quality of life. The sample includes parents in the child welfare system who are struggling with substance-abuse difficulties and have at least one child 2-8 years of age. The presentation addresses the methodological and practical considerations which inform this type of research. Potential ramifications for this and related studies will be discussed.