CSN Monthly Bulletin

Child Abuse Prevention

May 2005

This bulletin comes to you from the Children's Safety Network through CSN Discuss, an electronic forum for the discussion of child and adolescent injury and violence prevention and related issues.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

News and Developments
  1. New Resource: Child Maltreatment 2003
  2. United States Surgeon General holds Workshop on Child Maltreatment Prevention
  3. 10th International Conference on Family Violence: Advocacy, Assessment, Intervention, Research, Prevention & Policy.
Articles and Reports
  1. Hawaii Healthy Start Program studies
  2. Preventing abusive head trauma among infants and young children: A hospital-based parent education program
  3. The economic burden of hospitalizations associated with child abuse and neglect
  4. Risk factors for infant maltreatment: A population-based study
  5. Effects of nurse home-visiting on maternal life course and child development: Age 6 follow-up results of a randomized trial
Child Abuse Prevention Resources from CSN
  1. An MCH Approach to Preventing Child Maltreatment Fact Sheet Packet
  2. Incidence and Costs of Child Abuse and Neglect in 2002

AVAILABILITY

Copies of many items can be delivered to state Maternal and Child Health and state public health staff upon request. Articles available by e-mail are so indicated. Some other articles can be faxed or mailed. To request an article or other publication, e-mail jhudson@edc.org with the item name, delivery preference (e-mail, fax number, or mailing address). This service is available to state Maternal and Child Health and state public health staff. Copyright law forbids us from delivering articles to others.

URLs of publications that can be downloaded from the web are included in the bibliographic information.

News and Developments
  1. New Resource: Child Maltreatment 2003

    The United States Children’s Bureau recently released Child Maltreatment 2003, which presents state-level data from 2003 submitted to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). Forty-four states submitted data for this report, representing nearly 80% of the country’s child population under age 18. Information submitted by states includes the number of child maltreatment reports that were investigated or assessed by state child protective services (CPS) agencies, characteristics of victims and perpetrators, and the outcomes of abuse, including fatal and non-fatal injuries. Overall, 906,000 children were determined to be victims of abuse or neglect in 2003, which represents a slight increase from 2002. The complete report can be accessed online at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/publications/cm03/index.htm.
  2. Surgeon General Richard Carmona Holds Workshop on Child Maltreatment Prevention

    The Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Richard Carmona, recently hosted a 2-day workshop on child maltreatment prevention. The workshop brought together practitioners, researchers and policymakers from a variety of disciplines to explore how to better define and achieve the public health approach to preventing child maltreatment. Discussants highlighted family, community, and social strategies to prevent child maltreatment and analyzed the barriers and challenges faced by this field. An audio archive of the workshop is available at http://videocast.nih.gov. Additional information about the workshop is available on the Surgeon General's website at http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/healthychild/workshop.html
  3. 10th International Conference on Family Violence: Advocacy, Assessment, Intervention, Research, Prevention & Policy

    For the past 10 years, the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Institute (FVSAI) has joined with partner organizations to host the International Conference on Family Violence. This year, the conference will take place in San Diego, California, from September 16-21, and will focus broadly on the spectrum of activities associated with a response to family violence—from research and assessment to intervention and policy development. Conference participants may include child abuse, sexual assault, and family violence service providers, researchers and policymakers, and public health professionals, among others. Preliminary conference and registration information is available on the FVSAI website at http://www.fvsai.org
Articles and Reports
  1. Hawaii Healthy Start Program studies

    Duggan A, McFarlane E, Fuddy L, Burrell L, Higman SM, Windham A, Sia C.
    Randomized trial of a statewide home visiting program: Impact in preventing child abuse and neglect.
    Child Abuse & Neglect. 2004 June;28(6):597-622.

    Duggan A, Fuddy L, Burrell L, Higman SM, McFarlane E, Windham A, Sia C.
    Randomized trial of a statewide home visiting program to prevent child abuse: Impact in reducing parental risk factors.
    Child Abuse & Neglect. 2004 June;28(6):623-43.

    Windham AM, Rosenberg L, Fuddy L, McFarlane E, Sia C, Duggan AK.
    Risk of mother—reported child abuse in the first 3 years of life.
    Child Abuse & Neglect. 2004 June;28(6):645-67.

    The June, 2004 edition of the journal Child Abuse and Neglect, a publication of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, includes several articles assessing the impact of the Hawaii Healthy Start home visiting program on child abuse and maternal risk factors. The Hawaii Healthy Start Program is the basis for the Healthy Families America national model of home visiting. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University, in collaboration with the Hawaii State Department of Health, found that Hawaii Healthy Start did not prevent child abuse among families that received the intervention, nor did it have an effect on certain maternal risk factors for abuse. Findings from these studies served as an impetus for reworking several Healthy Start program elements.

    Availability: email or hard copy
  2. Dias MS, Smith K, DeGuehery K, Mazur P, Li V, Shaffer ML. Preventing abusive head trauma among infants and young children: A hospital-based, parent education program. Pediatrics. 2005 April;115(4):e470-7.

    Shaken baby—or shaken infant—syndrome (SBS) occurs when an adult violently shakes an infant, usually during a moment of rage or extreme frustration. A significant number of young children suffer from SBS each year. Many of these children die from their injuries. This study assessed the effectiveness of hospital-based parent education in reducing the incidence of SBS in upstate New York. The intervention, which was implemented by maternity-ward nurses, included distributing materials to new parents on SBS, showing them a short videotape, and asking them to sign a statement that they understood the information. Results indicated a significant reduction of abusive head injuries among infants whose parents received the intervention, indicating that a short-term parent education program is an effective SBS prevention strategy.

    Availability: email or hard copy
  3. Rovi S, Chen PH, Johnson MS. The economic burden of hospitalizations associated with child abuse and neglect. American Journal of Public Health. 2004 April;94(4):586-90.

    The United States Children’s Bureau estimated that 906,000 children were victims of abuse or neglect in the United States in 2003. Many of these children suffer injuries and trauma that require hospitalization. One argument for primary prevention of child abuse—the prevention of abuse before it begins—is that primary prevention is cost effective. Primary prevention strategies, such as parent education, tend to cost less than medical treatment for the injuries caused by abuse. This study compared the cost of hospitalizations for abused children with those of children hospitalized for other conditions. The authors found that abused children tended to stay in the hospital longer, have more diagnoses, require more medical procedures, and incur more costs than other hospitalized children. Each abused, hospitalized child incurred nearly $10,000 more in hospital charges than other hospitalized children.

    Availability: email or hard copy
  4. Wu SS, Ma CX, Carter RL, Ariet M, Feaver EA, Resnick MB, Roth J. Risk factors for infant maltreatment: A population-based study. Child Abuse & Neglect. 2004 December;28(12):1253-64.

    The most commonly used source of information on child maltreatment is child protective services (CPS) data. State CPS data provides information on the number of children involved in substantiated cases of child maltreatment, but often does not include information that could aid in identifying possible risk factors for abuse. This study analyzed a combination of birth vital statistics, CPS data and other pregnancy-related data sources to assess sociodemographic and perinatal risk factors for maltreatment among infants in Florida. The authors discovered five risk factors that were most significantly related to infant maltreatment. Infants were more likely to be maltreated if: 1) their mother smoking during pregnancy; 2) they had two or more siblings; 3) their mother was a Medicaid beneficiary; 4) their mother was unmarried; or 5) they were afflicted by low birth weight. Infants with four or more of these risk factors had 7.4 times the rate of maltreatment than the general infant population in Florida. Infant./mother dyads with three of more risk factors made up half the number of infant maltreatment cases in Florida. The authors believe that the risk assessment they used can help states identify those infant/mother dyads most in-need of early intervention services.

    Availability: email or hard copy
  5. Olds DL, Kitzman H, Cole R, Robinson J, Sidora K, Luckey DW, Henderson CR Jr, Hanks C, Bondy J, Holmberg J. Effects of nurse home-visiting on maternal life course and child development: Age 6 follow-up results of a randomized trial. Pediatrics. 2004 December;114(6):1550-9.

    This study analyzed the effects of nurse home visiting on “mothers’ fertility and economic self-sufficiency and the academic and behavioral adjustment of their children” four years after the program ended. The authors found significant positive effects of home visiting on mothers’ subsequent pregnancies and dependence on welfare and food stamp programs. They also found that children who were visited by nurses had “higher IQs and language scores and fewer behavioral problems,” as reported by their mothers. The authors concluded that nurse home visiting had significant, positive effects on high-risk children and mothers, and that the effects of the program endured years after the visits stopped. Dr. David Olds, one of the authors of this articles, developed the Nurse-Family Partnership program (http://www.nccfc.org/nurseFamilyPartnership.cfm).

    Availability: email or hard copy
Child Abuse Prevention Resources from CSN
  1. An MCH Approach to Preventing Child Maltreatment Fact Sheet Packet

    CSN is about to publish a fact sheet packet to provide (MCH) agencies with information about the extent, character, and consequences of child maltreatment; an awareness of why and how State MCH agencies can help prevent child maltreatment; the benefits of designated child maltreatment as a Title V State Performance Measure; and case studies that explore the range of strategies and activities that State MCH agencies use to prevent child maltreatment. This fact sheet packet will be available in Spring 2005 on the CSN web site.
  2. Incidence of Child Abuse and Neglect in 2002—A CSN EDARC Resource

    The CSN Economics and Data Analysis Resource Center has compiled incidence and cost estimates of child abuse and neglect for 2002. This compilation includes a breakdown of costs due to lost productivity, medical care, mental health care, and property damage, as well as the costs of public programs to serve those victimized by abuse. Costs are also broken down for specific categories, including sexual abuse, serious neglect, and fatal abuse. For more information or to request a copy of this compilation, contact Dexter Taylor at taylor@pire.org.

Next month's CSN Discuss Bulletin will focus on U.S. Mortality Data and Surveillance

Please direct questions about this bulletin to Erin Lyons at:

Children's Safety Network
Education Development Center, Inc.
1000 Potomac Street, NW
Suite 350
Washington, DC 20007
Phone: 202-572-3732
Fax: 202-298-6038
E-mail: elyons@edc.org
http://www.childrenssafetynetwork.org/