|
|
Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect
Research
The Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect's research programs examine a range of issues that affect abused and neglected children. One major focus is on the development of clinical trials for youth in foster care. The Center has implemented a study of infants who enter foster care to examine factors that affect developmental and mental health outcomes as well as access to health and developmental services. The Center has also implemented an intensive home-based intervention for the infants and their families to test if it can improve their developmental and mental health outcomes. Another project is conducting secondary data analyses to support the development of an intervention trial to improve mental health outcomes for preteens who enter foster care.
Another area of research examines a number of policy-relevant factors that influence access to services and behavioral health and child welfare outcomes for children in the child welfare system. One study is examining the influence of Medicaid mental health capitation on access to and the costs of services for children receiving publicly funded mental health and child welfare services.
Other studies examine the influence of kinship (relative) care versus foster care on access to services; outcomes of youth who enter out-of-home placement; long-term outcomes for adults who were previously in out-of-home placement; outcomes for children who return home or remain in out-of-home placement; physical abuse injuries; and infant emotional development.
Faculty Research Interests
Dr. Donald Bross conducts research on how programs that benefit children can be effectively promoted; the effectiveness of services supporting child protection professionals; and on the law and ethics of pediatric advocacy.
Dr. Antonia Chiesa’s research interest is in cervical spine injury in Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) and SBS prevention.
Dr. Robert Clyman’s research interests focus on developmental risk, clinical interventions and early intervention, and empirical policy research with infants, youth, and adolescents in abused and neglected children and their families. He is currently directing a longitudinal study of 275 young infants who have entered foster or kinship care and their families, examining the impact of child welfare policy, neighborhood, family and child factors on the development of the children's functioning, and the early onset of psychopathology. His policy research focuses on the impact of major U.S. and state child welfare policies, such as reunification and kinship care, on the well-being of youth.
Dr. Karen Frankel’s research interests are in infant mental health and child maltreatment.
Dr. Christina Little's research interestsare inchild abuse and neglect, high-risk families involved with the child welfare and criminal justice systems, and interventions to ameliorate adverse child experiences. She has a particular focus on children aged birth to preschool.
Gail Ryan, MA, has focused her research on primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of abusive behaviors in childhood and adolescence.
Dr. Andrew Sirotnak's research interests focus on the etiology and identification of child physical abuse injuries, child abuse educational interventions for professionals, and peer support for residents in training.
Dr. Brian Stafford’s research interests include perinatal and infant mental health.
Dr. Heather Taussig's research interests are in the field of child abuse and neglect and foster care, with an emphasis on randomized controlled trials of interventions.
|
|
