Preventive Intervention for Maltreated Infants

To evaluate the relative effectiveness of 2 theoretically-informed approaches to preventing the adverse sequelae of maltreatment in infants: Psychoeducational Home Visitation (PHV) and Infant-Parent Psychotherapy (IPP). Non-maltreated infants and their mothers serve as a comparison. Maltreated infants and their mothers are randomly assigned to 1 of 3 types of intervention for 12 months: 1) Services routinely available in the community when a family is reported for child maltreatment (Child Protective Services, CPS); 2) CPS involvement plus weekly PHV; 3) CPS involvement plus weekly IPP. Intervention is provided until the infant's second birthday. All mother-infant dyads (including comparison non-maltreated infants and their mothers) participate in baseline assessments at the infant's age of 12 months. Subsequent assessments occur at 18, 24, 36, and 48 months of age. Assessments measure three major areas: 1) family-ecological variables; 2) maternal functioning and parenting; and 3) child functioning and stage-salient issues. CPS records are monitored annually across all groups to determine whether any reports of maltreatment have been filed.