Citation

Tanaka M, Jamieson E, Wathen N, MacMillan HL. Child Abuse Rev. 2010; 19(1): 21-38.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/car.1068

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Despite the significant financial and human resources invested in child protection services (CPS), it is unknown whether these services are effective in preventing recurrence of child physical abuse and neglect. This paper reviews available studies evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions and identifies methodological limitations and factors that may contribute to these limitations. We searched databases to identify randomised controlled trials published in peer-reviewed journals in the past five decades that evaluated interventions to reduce recurrence of physical abuse and neglect. We outlined ten methodological standards that are important for rigorous testing of psychosocial interventions and applied them in critically appraising identified studies.