Preventing Child Maltreatment Through A Cellular-Phone Technology-Based Parenting Program

The current project will employ a 3-group experimental design with random assignment of parents to one of three groups: Planned Activities Training as usual (PAT); Cellular Phone Enhanced PAT (CPAT), or a no-intervention control group. Two cohorts of high-risk mother-child dyads (low education or mother adolescent at time of birth) will be recruited. In years 1 and 2, the first cohort of participants will be recruited in Kansas City, MO and South Bend, IN from an ongoing longitudinal descriptive study of child neglect, which has tracked risk and protective factors since the child's birth (n=180). During years 3 and 4, a second cohort of matched high risk mothers (operationally defined the same as for cohort 1) will be recruited from Head Start programs within the same two communities (n=180). Families in both cohorts will be enrolled when the first family child is between the ages of 4 and 6 years.

Participants assigned to the intervention groups will receive intervention services in the home setting and will be assessed prior to the intervention, as well as at 1-, 6-, and 12- month post-intervention time points. The control group participants will complete assessments at similar time points to the intervention groups. Several outcomes will be examined in order to measure intervention effects, including child maltreatment risk and occurrences, parent behaviors, and child behaviors. These outcomes will be collected utilizing a multi-method approach that will involve parent interview, parent-report and self-report measures, mother-child observation, and review of local CPS system records. For those parents participating in an intervention group, data will also be collected on maternal engagement, retention, fidelity, and dosage with regard to the intervention. Lastly, program and participant costs will be examined to determine the cost-effectiveness of including a technological component with this existing parenting program. It is expected that the knowledge generated through this study will aid in the improvement of parenting interventions targeting the prevention of child maltreatment.