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“The Formation of Parent-Infant Attachment Relationships in High Risk Families: Implications for Prevention and Infant Mental Health Programs”, with Byron Egeland, Ph.D., Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Development. University of Minnesota.
Dr. Egeland presented and summarized findings from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study, a 32 year study of high risk parents and their children. The findings illustrate the special significance of the early attachment relationship for predicting later behavior problems as well as resilience and competent functioning. The implications of these findings and attachment theory for prevention and infant mental health programs were discussed.
Phaedra S. Corso, PhD, provided an overview of three methods for conducting economic evaluation: cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, and benefit-cost analysis. Each method was discussed in turn, with a special emphasis on how outcomes or benefits are defined, and the opportunities and challenges associated with applying these methods to interventions designed to prevent child maltreatment.
While African American children represent 15% of the child population in this country, they represent 34% of the children in care. On August 1st, 2007, the United States Government Accounting Office (GAO) released a report to Congressman Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, indicating a need for HHS to provide more support to states to reduce the percentage of African American children in care.
In a paper entitled, Synthesis of Research on Disproportionality, Robert B. Hill, Senior Researcher, Westat,examines a broad range of research examining issues related to the disproportional representation of African American children in the child welfare system, and the trajectories of experiences,services and resources for black children and families with public child welfare entities.
Dr. Hill provided a discussion of his findings as well as key findings of the GAO Report. Dennette Derezotes, Executive Director of the Race Matters Consortium followed Dr. Hill with a discussion of implications of the findings for child abuse prevention services.
June 27, 2007:
This teleconference featured a panel of experts addressing the complex issues involving immigration and child welfare. The panel explored and deciphered the multiple legal, policy, and program connections that exist for child maltreatment with immigrant families and suggested ways to prevent it. Statistics that describe immigrant families are both informing and confusing. For instance, recent data indicate that in one year, more than 18,000 people were detained and deported. Many of those who have been deported are the parents of U.S.-born children. Children who remain in the United States with other caretakers have required professional intervention to address depression, and other forms of psychological trauma caused by their parent’s deportation. According to other data sources, last year more than 20,000 children traveled on their own to the border in order to cross illegally into the United States.
Lastly, current federal, state, and local immigration policies may inadvertently encourage maltreatment; child welfare policies designed to intervene in family crises may exacerbate tensions between parents and children; educational policies excluding and marginalizing students may be a new form of “corporal punishment” causing emotional and psychological damage far exceeding the effects of physical paddling. Understanding the current challenges facing immigrating families, roughly representing one-fourth of all children in the United States is the intended outcome for this important teleconference. Our panel consisted of Maria Vidal de Haymes, Professor of Social Work, Loyola University Chicago, Sonia C. Velazquez, Children's Division American Humane, Howard Davidson, American Bar Association, Center on Children and Rene Velasquez, former director of a Latino immigrant center and the former director of a Teen Center for immigrant youth in San Francisco.
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June 27 Teleconference Bibliography (pdf)
This teleconference elaborated on the findings from a recent article published by David Finkelhor and Lisa Jones in the Journal of Social Issues. Their argument is that the decline in various form of child abuse and victimization, “as much as 40-70% from 1993 until 2004” can be traced to multiple factors, particularly, “economic prosperity, increasing agents of social intervention, and psychiatric pharmacology have advantages over some of the other explanations in accounting for the breadth and timing of the improvements.”
Teleconference Agenda (pdf)
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