Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect (1993) / Chapter Skim
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8 HUMAN RESOURCES, INSTRUMENTATION, AND RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE
8 HUMAN RESOURCES, INSTRUMENTATION, AND RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE
Pages 292-323
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From page 292... ...
, psychology, social work, criminal justice, law, sociology, public health, nursing, anthropology, demography, education, statistics, and epidemiology. But few systematic efforts have been made to integrate research on child maltreatment with the knowledge that has evolved from recent studies of normal child development, family systems, and adult and child sexual behavior.
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From page 293... ...
Consequently, at this juncture, considerable effort is needed to deepen and broaden the human resources, instrumentation, and research infrastructure available for addressing the key research questions. For human resources, we need young research investigators who have been educated in a relevant discipline and who wish to focus their early research studies on selected child maltreatment problems; mature research scientists who wish to contribute their expertise in interdisciplinary child maltreatment research; and specialists in child abuse research who wish to integrate their individual studies into broader collaborative efforts that can explore biological, psychological, legal, social, and cultural aspects of this problem.
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From page 294... ...
have organized task forces or special studies focused on child abuse and neglect, but the level of relevant research expertise within these and other professional organizations is relatively unknown. Practitioners and research scientists have organized specialty societies, such as the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children and the International Society for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse.
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From page 295... ...
Although many universities offer graduate courses in child abuse and neglect, often based in their school of social work, school of education, or school of human ecology or human development, less than half a dozen universities sponsor graduate or postgraduate training programs in this field. Yet the number of Ph.D.
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From page 297... ...
Overall, the use of standard measures of family characteristics and social environmental characteristics seems to be less frequent in child maltreatment research than in family research. This may be because child maltreatment research depends heavily on agency cases for both the sample and data, or it may reflect disciplinary biases in the training of the research community.
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From page 298... ...
One analysis of the measurements commonly used in maltreatment studies was generated from a review by Straus (1992) of 617 articles published in the journal Child Abuse and Neglect for the period 1979-1989.
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From page 299... ...
In addition, NCCAN supports two national resource centers that provide information assistance and literature on child maltreatment issues: the National Resource Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, located near Denver, Colorado, and the National Resource Center on Child Sexual Abuse in Huntsville, Alabama. The purpose of the NCCAN-supported clearinghouse and national resource centers is to improve the capacity of public and private agencies to respond effectively to child abuse and neglect (NCCAN, 19921.7 In 1977 NCCAN published 21 User Manuals designed to provide guidance to professionals involved in the child protection system and to enhance the quality of services available for children and families.
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From page 300... ...
Examples of relevant papers featured in these services include "Prosecuting Child Sexual Abuse-New Approaches" by Debra Whitcomb (Research in Action, 1986~; "The Cycle of Violence" by Cathy Spatz Widom (Research in Brief, 19901; "Police and Child Abuse: New Policies for Expanded Responsibilities" by Susan Martin and Douglas Besharov (Issues and Practices in Criminal Justice, 1991~; and "Child Sexual Abuse Victims and Their Treatment" by Beverly Gomes-Schwartz et al. (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention paper, 1988~.
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From page 301... ...
As a result, federally supported research activities that may advance scientific knowledge of the identification, causes, consequences, treatment, and prevention of child abuse and neglect are often difficult to identify because they are embedded within studies that have multiple objectives. Because of variations in criteria defining child maltreatment research and the absence of a central indexing service, information about the levels and types of federal research support for child maltreatment studies is difficult to obtain.
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From page 302... ...
Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children, Youth and Families National Center for Child Abuse and Neglect Children's Bureau Public Health Service National Institute of Mental Health Violence and Traumatic Stress Branch Service Systems Branch National Institute of Child Health and Human Development National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Maternal and Child Health U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Office of Justice Programs/National Institute of Justice U.S.
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From page 303... ...
Department of Health and Human Services, including Head Start, Aid to Families With Dependent Children, the JOBS program, the Child Care and Development Block Grant, Medicaid, Healthy Start, the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant, and the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Block Grant, even though these efforts are not "child abuse" in name and no
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From page 304... ...
Table 8.2 presents a summary of the federal agencies that responded to a 1989 survey indicating that they conducted or sponsored data collection efforts or research directly related to child abuse and neglect. As noted earlier, most of these child maltreatment research programs are imbedded in more comprehensive research efforts such as those focused on family violence, injuries, or juvenile justice.
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From page 305... ...
of Health and Human Services: Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Admin. Antisocial and Violent Behavior Branch, NIMH National Institute on Drug Abuse Children's Bureau, ACYF, OHDS Center for Environmental Health and Injury Control, CDC, PHS Indian Health Service, PHS National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, ACYF, OHDS National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH HRSA, PHS Office of Planning, Policy and Legislation, OHDS Department of Justicea: X X X X X X X X X X BOTH BOTH BOTH BOTH X CA/N CA/N BOTH RELT'D RELT'D RELT'D CA/N (ALL ACTIV)
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From page 306... ...
NCCAN administers four categories of federal funding to support state programs for child abuse and neglect activities, including (1) basic grants for improving child protection services agencies and child maltreatment intervention programs; (2)
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From page 307... ...
In addition to discretionary research and demonstration projects, NCCAN develops certain studies in response to legislative requirements, often by selection of contractors from nonacademic institutions. Since 1974, Congress has mandated the preparation of eight different reports, including the series of National Incidence Studies and five special studies on the following topics: nonpayment of child support in maltreating families; the maltreatment of handicapped children; child maltreatment in alcohol abusing families; high-risk child abuse and neglect groups; and
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From page 308... ...
The U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, which was legislatively mandated in the 1988 amendments to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, has established a task force to address research needs.
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From page 309... ...
In addition, NIMH supports training grant awards for both individual investigators and research institutions. NIMH has supported pre- and postdoctoral studies focused on child maltreatment and currently supports research fellows through institutional training grant awards in the area of family violence, sexual aggression, law and mental health, and spouse abuse, many of whom are working on different aspects of child abuse and neglect.
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From page 310... ...
Yet NICHD is not listed in the 1992 federal guide to funding resources for child abuse and neglect and family violence programs (NCCAN, 1992~. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
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From page 311... ...
, it has supported a broad range of projects addressing issues such as family violence, injury prevention, minority health care, the relationship between teenage pregnancy and child maltreatment, coordinated care for child abuse victims, child prostitution, drug-addicted infants, and the sequelae of child maltreatment. The bureau has also supported the development of interventions such as the Resource Mothers program that are designed to support new mothers in dealing with the emotional and behavioral stresses that result from the demands of a newborn.
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From page 312... ...
have small research or data collection programs relevant to child maltreatment studies. A comprehensive inventory of such programs is available in the 1992 Guide to Funding Resources for Child Abuse and Neglect and Family Violence Programs, U.S.
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From page 313... ...
Studies on child maltreatment should be viewed as an important opportunity for building collaborative state research organizations directed toward long-term improvements in social service programs in areas such as child protection, child welfare, family counseling, and foster care. PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS In addition to governmental research funding, at least eight private foundations have selected child abuse and neglect as a priority funding area.
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From page 314... ...
CONCLUSIONS The infrastructure for child maltreatment research has developed in a haphazard, piecemeal fashion, reflecting the absence of a national plan for providing research, education, and professional support for studies of child abuse and neglect. Governmental roles in this area have been complicated by the absence of sufficient funds to support a robust research program, uncertainties about the most promising research directions to pursue, an emphasis on categorical program efforts in governmental research agencies, tensions between the role of the federal and state governments in sponsoring projects in areas such as child maltreatment, and child and family welfare, and conflicting social values about the proper interventions to develop in response to child maltreatment incidents.
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From page 315... ...
RESEARCH RECOMMENDATIONS Human Resources Recommendation 8-1: Better measures are needed to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the available pool of researchers who can contribute to studies of child maltreatment. A directory of active research investigators, identifying key fields of research interests, should be developed in collaboration with professional societies and child advocacy organizations, whose members have research experience on child abuse and neglect.
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From page 316... ...
Postdoctoral training programs designed to deepen a young scientist's interests in research on child abuse and neglect should be given preference at this time over graduate student dissertation support, although both training efforts are desirable in the long-term. The absence of external fellowship training for health professionals interested in child maltreatment research is particularly appalling, given the broad range of roles that health professionals are expected to play in detecting, identifying, confirming, treating, and preventing child abuse and neglect.
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From page 317... ...
Particular attention should be given in the near term to instruments that improve the identification of child maltreatment in order to lessen research dependence on reported cases of child abuse and neglect. Attention should be given to the development of instruments that are sensitive to ethnic and cultural differences and that can improve the quality of etiology and consequences studies in selected subgroups.
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From page 318... ...
The Congress should request that the General Accounting Office conduct a thorough review of all ongoing federally supported research on child abuse and neglect to identify and categorize research programs that are directly or indirectly relevant to this area, particularly if their primary goal is in support of a related objective, such as the reduction of family violence, injuries, infant mortality, and so forth.
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From page 319... ...
The role of the federal government in supporting research on child maltreatment should be to develop studies and information that can lead to improvements in the treatment and prevention of child abuse and neglect as well as extending the scientific understanding of the principles and factors that influence this behavior. A formula should be developed among these, and other, federal agencies to ensure that a designated portion of available federal research funding is directed toward collaborative long-term studies.
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From page 320... ...
Since child maltreatment is known to be a significant factor in the development of social disorders such as intentional injury, substance abuse, delinquency, and family violence, research on child abuse and neglect should be an integral part of the funding programs for each of these areas. The goal of the proposed task force should be the development of a formula whereby each agency sponsoring relevant research should be encouraged to allocate 10 percent of its funds to studies on basic and applied research studies on child maltreatment, administered through a consortium effort that would foster long-term studies and encourage the transfer of knowledge among these separate programs.
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From page 321... ...
4. The National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, funded by NCCAN, is located in the Family Life Development Center at Cornell University.
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From page 322... ...
Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice. National Center for Child Abuse and Neglect 1992 A Guide to Funding Resources for Child Abuse and Neglect and Family Violence Programs.
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From page 323... ...
GAO/HAD 92-99. Westover Consultants 1990 Inter-agency Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect.
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