The Effective Black Parenting Program (EBPP), a culturally adapted, cognitive-behavioral parenting skill training program, was field tested on two cohorts of inner-city African-American parents and their first-and second-grade children. Pre-post changes on parental acceptance-rejection, family relationships, and on child behavior problems and social competencies were compared in a quasi-experimental design on two cohorts totalling 109 treatment and 64 control families over 1 year. Results from Cohort I indicated that the EBPP produced selected significant improvements in parental rejection, in the quality of family relationships, and in child behavior outcomes. These findings were partially confirmed in the Cohort I1 sample, which also included changes in the use of specific parenting behaviors. A 1-year follow-up indicated that the reductions in parental rejection and in selected child behavior problems were maintained, though a regressive trend toward more coercive parenting practices was also noted. Implications of these results are discussed, and recommendations for future research on community-based parenting programs are offered.

It has been said that a society "succeeds or fails in direct proportion to the way it enhances or impedes the development of its children" (Noshpitz, 1974, p. 96). As is evidenced by the 1974 enactment of the federal Child Abuse and similar legislation in various states, our society is currently attending to the problem of child abuse. This attention offers us an opportunity to look closely at the way we enhance or impede the development of our children.When a problem like child abuse captures the attention of a society, the manner in which the society analyzes the problem reveals a great deal about its overall commitment to the development of children. Society's analytic approach defines the problem. By identifying those actions and attitudes directed toward children that the society considers to be abusive, the society reflects its values about children. From these definitions and values emerge the types of legal and social interventions that the society is willing to take in order to eradicate the problem of child abuse.The first part of this article is concerned with two major and general approaches to analyzing the problem: (a) the comprehensive approach, which defines child abuse as being collective, institutional, and individual in nature; and (b) the narrow approach, which considers only individual abuse. A short section follows on the prevention implications of these approaches. An extended discussion of the individual physical abuse of children then occurs, with particular emphasis on the relationship between theoretical formulations of the causes of individual physical abuse and programs that have the potential for preventing physical abuse. Finally,

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