What Do We Know and Why Does It Matter? The Dissemination of Evidence-Based Interventions for Child Maltreatment

This chapter highlights the potential for developmental and clinical researchers to export theory and research to the broader community, especially those families involved with child welfare. It first summarizes what we know about the impact of child maltreatment, with an emphasis on its deleterious effects on attachment and self-development in young children. Next, the chapter describes Mt. Hope Family Center as an example of an effective university-community partnership that contributed to the design and implementation of randomized control trials (RCTs) for maltreating families. In particular, it emphasizes that policy change is possible when university, government, and community entities achieve mutual understanding and a shared commitment to improving the delivery of services to vulnerable children and families. The positive changes in the maltreated preschoolers who received the child-parent psychotherapy intervention may bode well for these children's future relationships with peers and other relationship partners.