Background: This study tests whether home visitation to prevent child maltreatment can be improved by adding manualized program components, targeting four key risk factors for child maltreatment: low parental self-efficacy, high levels of perceived stress, parental anger, and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Home visitation is widely implemented, but effects on child maltreatment risk tend to be modest at best. Home visitation tends to be rather flexible (i.e., professionals decide how to support each family). We will test whether adding manualized program components increases program effectiveness, by ensuring that key risk factors are addressed, while maintaining flexibility. In addition, we will test whether any component effects on reduced child maltreatment risk can be explained (i.e., is mediated) by ameliorated risk factors. Lastly, we will test whether the components are more effective for some mothers (e.g., those at highest child maltreatment risk) than for others.Methods: We will conduct a randomized controlled trial among 398 mothers enrolled in a Dutch home visiting program targeting families at risk for child maltreatment. Mothers in the experimental group will receive the manualized components in two consecutive home visits, while mothers in the control group will receive regular home visits (care as usual). Mothers will fill out questionnaires at four time points: before and after each of the two home visits. Outcome variables include the four targeted risk factors parental self-efficacy, perceived stress, parental anger, and (recognition of) post-traumatic stress symptoms, as well as parenting practices (e.g., rejection and affection), and risk for child maltreatment. Discussion: This study aims to determine whether adding manualized program components to a flexible home visiting program increases program effectiveness on risk for child maltreatment. In addition, our test of whether the effects of the components on risk for child maltreatment is explained (i.e., mediated) by amelioration of the targeted risk factors, may contribute to our understanding of the role of these risk factors in child maltreatment. Our tests of which mothers benefit most from adding the components may help move the field towards evidence-based personalized family support. Trial registration: This trial has been retrospectively registered in the Netherlands Trial Register (NL8005).

Studying Parenting Practices in Parents with Different Cultural Backgrounds: Methodological Difficulties and Practical Recommendations Studying parents with different cultural backgrounds improves our understanding of differences and similarities in parenting and child development. This helps us to refine theories, which, at present, are mostly based on research among “western” parents. Measuring parenting practices in parents of different cultural backgrounds, however, is complex because most measures do not explicitly take cultural differences into account. First, parents’ cultural background might influence the extent to which measurements are affected by biases. Second, parents of different cultural backgrounds do not always express concepts similarly. As a consequence, operationalizations of such concepts might not be accurate for parents of different cultural backgrounds. This paper discusses the challenges that researchers face when studying parenting practices in parents with different cultural backgrounds. We also offer practical recommendations to overcome these challenges: (1) carefully consider the fit between measures and the cultural background of participants; (2) evaluate the accuracy of the measurements by using multiple measures; (3) increase validity by distinguishing between items that measure parenting styles and items that measure parenting behaviors; and (4) combine qualitative and quantitative research to improve interpretation of quantitative findings. We discuss how careful integration of these strategies can help improve the cultural sensitivity of parenting measures.