Identifying Effective Components of Child Maltreatment Interventions: A Meta-analysis

Abstract

There is a lack of knowledge about specific components that make interventions effective in preventing or reducing child maltreatment. The aim of the present meta-analysis was to increase this knowledge by summarizing findings on effects of interventions for child maltreatment and by examining potential moderators of this effect, such as intervention components and study characteristics. Identifying effective components is essential for developing or improving child maltreatment interventions. A literature search yielded 121 independent studies (N = 39,044) examining the effects of interventions for preventing or reducing child maltreatment. From these studies, 352 effect sizes were extracted. The overall effect size was significant and small in magnitude for both preventive interventions (d = 0.26, p < .001) and curative interventions (d = 0.36, p < .001). Cognitive behavioral therapy, home visitation, parent training, family-based/multisystemic, substance abuse, and combined interventions were effective in preventing and/or reducing child maltreatment. For preventive interventions, larger effect sizes were found for short-term interventions (0–6 months), interventions focusing on increasing self-confidence of parents, and interventions delivered by professionals only. Further, effect sizes of preventive interventions increased as follow-up duration increased, which may indicate a sleeper effect of preventive interventions. For curative interventions, larger effect sizes were found for interventions focusing on improving parenting skills and interventions providing social and/or emotional support. Interventions can be effective in preventing or reducing child maltreatment. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Risk factors for child sexual abuse victimization: A meta-analytic review.

“…As described in the previous section, the most common theories for sexual abuse victimization are fundamentally based on the presence of risk factors in different ecological systems. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that applying the risk and need principles of the RNR model to (preventive) treatment strategies is equally effective in child welfare as it is in criminal justice (see also Van der Put, Assink, Gubbels, & Boekhout van Solinge, 2018).…”

Study protocol: randomized controlled trial of manualized components in home visitation to reduce mothers’ risk for child maltreatment

“…Therefore, increasing parental self-efficacy may support mothers in sensitive parenting, reducing the risk for child maltreatment. Meta-analytic data support this hypothesis, by showing that child maltreatment prevention programs that include components to increase parental self-efficacy tend to be more effective in reducing mothers' risk for child maltreatment than programs without such a component [10].…”

“…Increasing mothers' skills to cope with stress, might help them to relieve their stress, giving them more mental space to adopt positive parenting practices in challenging situations and reducing their risk for child maltreatment. Indeed, a meta-analysis shows that child maltreatment prevention programs that explicitly include components to enhance personal skills (e.g., stress management skills) tend to be more effective in reducing mothers' risk for child maltreatment than programs without such a component [10].…”

“…Home visiting programs are among the most widely implemented programs for the prevention of child maltreatment [6,7]. Yet, these programs tend to yield only modest effects on reduced risk for child maltreatment, on average around Cohen's d = 0.24-0.29 [8][9][10]. This means that of one hundred families receiving home visitation, only seven to nine actually benefit more from such programs than from care as usual [11].…”

“…This means that of one hundred families receiving home visitation, only seven to nine actually benefit more from such programs than from care as usual [11]. Although it is common for prevention programs to yield relatively small effects [10,12], because only a subset of the families will develop towards child maltreatment, these numbers highlight the need to increase the effectiveness of home visiting programs to prevent child maltreatment.…”