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Family adversity comprises many risk factors for parents and children. The German early intervention approach Frühe Hilfen aims at providing enduring, effective, and scientifically validated prevention and intervention for effective child protection against those risks. The study on risk and protective mechanisms in the development of families with diverse psychosocial risks aims at identifying those mechanisms that cause and stabilize or moderate and diminish maltreatment and neglect, as well as cognitive, social, and emotional developmental deviations in risk families, specifically in the current German social and child protection system. The study examines the development of competence and early behavior problems in a sample of infants and toddlers and the interaction quality with their caregivers by applying a longitudinal sequential-cohort design. The assessments include developmental tests, systematic observations, and questionnaire data. First results suggest stable risk group membership and moderate stability of single risk factors.

Zusammenfassung Es ist eine seit langem bekannte und vielfach belegte Tatsache, dass familiäre psychosoziale Belastungen das Risiko für Kindesmisshandlung und -vernachlässigung sowie für Verzögerungen der kindlichen Entwicklung erhöhen. Was jedoch noch fehlt, sind verlässliche, repräsentative Daten zur Prävalenz von psychosozialen Belastungen in Familien mit kleinen Kindern in Deutschland. Solche Daten werden dringend benötigt, da der bundesweite Auf-und Ausbau von Ange-382 A. Eickhorst et al. 3boten und Netzwerken Früher Hilfen mit politischen Initiativen auf allen föderalen Ebenen aktuell verstärkt vorangetrieben wird. Um die Hilfelandschaft effektiv zu gestalten, ist fundiertes Wissen um psychosoziale Belastungen von Familien kleiner Kinder dringend erforderlich. Nur so kann auf den Hilfe-und Unterstützungsbedarf von Familien -zum Wohle der Kinder -adäquat reagiert werden. Die Erforschung der Lebensbedingungen, in denen Säuglinge und Kleinkinder aufwachsen, stellt für die Forschung eine methodische Herausforderung dar, da psychosozial hochbelastete Familien eher schwierig für die Teilnahme an einer Studie zu gewinnen sind und die Fragen von den Studienteilnehmern potentiell als heikel wahrgenommen werden könnten. Die KiD 0-3 Prävalenzstudie wurde 2015 an Familien mit 0-3-jährigen Kindern durchgeführt und wird zum ersten mal einen systematischer Überblick über die Verteilung empirisch bestätigter Risikofaktoren in Deutschland geben. Schlüsselwörter Psychosoziale Belastungen · Risiken für Kindesmisshandlung-/ vernachlässigung · Kindliche Entwicklung · Surveyforschung · Frühe HilfenThe KiD 0-3 study on the prevalence of psychosocial burden and early prevention in families with children aged 0-3: study design and potential of analyses Abstract Exposure to family psychosocial burden in early childhood has long been known to increase a child's risk of abuse and neglect as well as of developmental deficiencies. However, in Germany there is a lack of nationally representative evidence on the prevalence of psychosocial burden in families with young children. Such data is urgently needed to better understand the needs of families and to plan prevention efforts within the German federal action plan for early prevention. Surveying the conditions in which infants and toddlers grow up poses a formidable methodological challenge to the researcher, as families with high exposure to psychosocial burden tend to be hard to recruit in survey research and the questions tend to be sensitive. The KiD 0-3 prevalence study of families with children 0-3 years of age was conducted in 2015 and will provide a first systematic overview of empirically confirmed risk factors in Germany.Keywords Psychosocial burden · Risks of child abuse and neglect · Child development · Survey research · Early intervention/prevention

Family risks are known to be detrimental to children's attachment development. This study investigated whether parental sensitivity plays different roles in early attachment development in the context of risk: Sensitivity was hypothesized to mediate risk effects on attachment, as well as a moderator that shapes the relation between risk and attachment. Multiple family risks, parental sensitivity (defined as responsivity and supportive presence), and children's attachment security of 197 infants and toddlers (Mage = 15.25 months) and their caregivers were assessed in a prospective study with a cohort‐sequential‐design in Germany. Caregivers' sensitivity served as a mediator of risk effects on attachment as well as a moderator that buffers adverse consequences of risk. Early sensitivity might be relevant in setting the stage for attachment development supporting resilience.

sychosocial stress, especially adverse childhood experiences, is disproportionately likely to influence child development in negative ways and often leads to risky health behavior, such as substance abuse, increased burden of disease and increased healthcare costs (1). In Germany, a retrospective survey showed that difficulties in the parental home as well as violence and deprivation experiences were associated with an increased likelihood of depression, anxiety, physical aggression, and low life satisfaction as an adult (2). While international studies identified several additional types of psychosocial stress associated with an increased risk of developmental abnormalities (3-8), reliable prevalence estimates for Germany are available only for a few of these stressors and risks (9).Knowledge of the significance of individual adverse psychosocial factors in the highly sensitive first period of life may be useful to develop approaches to prevention strategies. Currently, there is no reliable data on how many of the families with children who participate in the statutory child development checks suffer from psychosocial stress. On the side of the child, these characteristics can, for example, include negative emotionality, and on the side of the parents, parenting stress or, with regard to the family, frequent quarrels. In terms of targeting prevention services to young parents, this is important information. Parents' subjective experience of psychosocial stress is a key criterion when it comes to taking the initiative for participating in prevention programs; thus, prevalence rates can be used to estimate the need for prevention. Over 99% of parents attend the child development checks (10), reflecting their high level of trust in pediatricians. Therefore, child development checks do not only provide an opportunity to detect biomedical diseases and monitor progress in the child's development, but also to gain a first impression of the overall situation in the family (11)(12)(13)(14). While in the United States an overall concept for pediatricians has already been developed and evaluated which is designed to enable early identification and support of families experiencing psychosocial stress (15), in Germany a pediatric assessment form for the evaluation of psychosocial support needs ("pädiatrischer Anhaltsbogen") is available to be used during the U3 to U6 child development checks SummaryBackground: Psychosocial stress in early childhood can impair children's health and development. Data on the prevalence of psychosocial stress in families with infants and toddlers in Germany are lacking. Such data could be used to determine the need for prevention and to plan the appropriate preventive measures.Methods: In 2015, a representative cross-sectional study called Kinder in Deutschland-KiD 0-3 was conducted by questionnaire in pediatricians' practices across Germany. Parents taking their children to the U3-U7a child development checks were asked to self-report information about stress in their families. The data were an...