Child Maltreatment: Policy, Administrative Data Systems, Prevention, and Treatment

Catalog description

The course will provide an overview of the major components of the child welfare system (e.g., child protection, family court, foster care, congregate care) involved in the community response to child maltreatment and promote a critical analysis of key federal policies that guide system activities. Course participants will also become familiar with Federal, state, and community data systems, and with methods to develop integrated data systems and their relevance to evaluating system outcomes and policy effects related to the child welfare system. Next, the course will give an overview of a range of experimental, quasi-experimental, and observational research designs and analytic methods relevant to evaluating the effects of child welfare policies and practices on child and family outcomes related to child maltreatment and system involvement. Finally, class participants will apply course content to develop applied research proposals that leverage administrative data for systems research and examine methods for communicating research findings to impact policy and practice at the community and federal levels. This course will also provide an in-depth examination of the major behavioral interventions, both preventive and treatment, applied with the child maltreatment population. Students will first be given an overview of the philosophy of science and experimental methods used to establish behavioral interventions for child maltreatment. From there, students will review emerging paradigms within national funding agencies that focus on identifying and targeting mechanisms to optimize intervention effects.