What have we learned about treating child physical abuse? A literature review of the last decade

Social Services Provided for Physically Abused Children: A Four-Year Follow-Up Study in Sweden

“…In a small study comparing Individual Child and parent Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment (CBT) to Family Therapy (FT), there were lowered levels of parental anger and physical discipline/force in both groups after treatment, explicitly in the group receiving CBT (Kolko, 1996). This has been further reported (Kolko & Swenson, 2002), but needs to be explored through treatment conceptualization techniques, improved study design, longer follow-up periods, care in dealing with sources of bias, and larger samples (Briere, 1996;Oates & Bross, 1995). Somewhat more than a quarter (26%) of a cohort of police reported physically abused children in Sweden were referred to mental health treatment following a DSS investigation (Lindell & Svedin, 2004).…”

“…There are few studies investigating the outcomes for physically abused children who have received support from the CAPS, but existing findings show beneficial effects (for review see James & Mennen, 2001;Oates & Bross, 1995). In a small study comparing Individual Child and parent Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment (CBT) to Family Therapy (FT), there were lowered levels of parental anger and physical discipline/force in both groups after treatment, explicitly in the group receiving CBT (Kolko, 1996).…”

Prevalencia de las alteraciones emocionales en una muestra de menores maltratados

“…Finalmente, es relevante reseñar que dada la diversidad de sintomatología que puede aparecer como consecuencia de la vivencia de situaciones traumáticas de larga duración e intensidad en el contexto familiar es recomendable utilizar diferentes instrumentos de evaluación con el fin de valorar adecuadamente las distintas áreas de funcionamiento de estos menores (Briere y Spinazzola, 2005;Fantuzzo, Gaudio, Atkins, Meyers y Noone, 1998;Oates y Bross 1994). En esta línea, el RCADS (Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale), en la versión de 30 ítems (Sandín, Chorot, Valiente y Chorpita, 2010) se muestra como un instrumento apropiado tanto para su uso en el ámbito clínico como de investigación.…”

Child physical abuse: Risk for psychopathology and efficacy of interventions

“…The primary goal of services typically given to physically abusive families is to keep families intact and decrease CPA [48], and is not to decrease children's mental health problems. Services tend to be directed at improving caregivers' sensitivity to children's developmental needs, anger management, and social support [49,50] or general family functioning [51]. Nonspecific supportive group therapy appears to be the most frequently used service for abusive caregivers [52], despite the consistent finding that the teaching of specific parenting strategies result in decreases of physical punishment [53][54][55][56][57][58].…”