Systematic Review on Child Neglect Prevention Programs

Background and Purpose.

Child neglect is the most prevalent form of child maltreatment. In 2018, there were over 678,000 children with screened-in reports of alleged maltreatment, and roughly 80% of them were victims of child neglect. Research shows that children who suffer from neglect have negative outcomes. While there has been increasing attention to the implementation of evidence-based services in child welfare, much remains unclear whether these programs could effectively reduce the risk factors of child neglect and future child neglect reports.

Methods.

A systematic review included 12 U.S. studies from 4 child neglect prevention programs. These programs are either developed for secondary or tertiary prevention to reduce the possibilities of the first or future occurrences of child neglect report. The effectiveness of these prevention programs was evaluated by the changes seen in diminishing risk factors and the first child neglect report. “Family Connections” is the only secondary prevention program identified and a total of 4 studies were examined. There was a total of 8 studies from 3 tertiary prevention programs identified in this study, including “Safe Environment for Every Kid (SEEK)”, “Healthy Families America (HFA)”, and “SafeCare”.

Results.

For the secondary prevention program, “Family Connections” showed effectiveness in enhancing overall family functioning and reducing some of the risk factors of child neglect. Because none of these four studies examined the child neglect reports as outcomes, little is known regarding whether the program could reduce the possibilities of the first child neglect report. For the tertiary prevention program, all three models showed mixed findings in preventing the second child neglect report. The “SafeCare” program reported more consistent findings in improving child health care, home safety, and parent-child interactions, but mixed results were found in reducing recidivism of child neglect. Participants who finished “SEEK” programs got more support and resources to help with their psychological problems such as depression, stress, and substance abuse. One study showed participants involved in the “SEEK” program had fewer child neglect reports. The other two studies showed that the “HFA” program helped participants in the areas of positive parenting and mental health outcomes, and one of them found that the program did not effectively reduce the child neglect report at year 1 or 2.

Conclusions and implications.

Overall, these four programs indicated some promise in some areas of caregiver and child functioning, but mixed results in reducing future child neglect reports. However, with the broad search of all secondary and tertiary prevention programs that focused on child neglect, the total number of studies is limited. Also, some of them focused on specific populations who voluntarily participated in the program. Therefore, the generalizability of the effectiveness of the programs should be cautious. Future studies need to be done by linking the administrative data in the child welfare system so that the prevention of future child neglect reports can be examined by the study.