Session: Parents in the Child Welfare System: Issues in Intervening on Substance Abuse and Child Maltreatment (Society for Prevention Research 22nd Annual Meeting)

Young children who are exposed to the dual problem of child maltreatment and parental substance abuse are at substantial risk for developing several kinds of problems in childhood and beyond. Interventions for such families are critical to prevention with this high-risk child population. This symposium focuses on the intervention efforts and challenges inherent in this critical but understudied area of research. The three presentations in this symposium are by independent teams testing intervention methods with families who are in the child welfare system. The first presentation focuses on a randomized trial of family-based behavioral intervention for drug-abusing mothers referred for child neglect. Preliminary results from intent-to-treat analyses showed favorable outcomes in terms of child abuse potential, parental illicit drug use, and employment stability. The second presentation describes preliminary work on a multi-pronged community-based intervention addressing substance abuse, parenting, and family support. The third presentation pertains to a newly launched NIDA-supported clinical trial that systematically tests contributions of specific substance abuse and parenting intervention components to overall impact on children ages 2 to 8. The symposium will consider issues related to intervention strategies, implementation challenges, and research process/procedures. The discussant who has considerable research and intervention experience involving high-risk families of young children, but who is not affiliated with any of the three research teams, is well qualified to provide critical commentary for the symposium.