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In August this year the Attorney General and I were pleased to announce the names of the successful organisations that will provide twenty-four new children’s contact services at locations around Australia. Funded for $15.6 million over four years, the contact services aim to provide a neutral location for changeovers between resident and non-resident parents and for supervised contact visits. These new contact services, together with those already existing, constitute just part of the government’s activities in this area and are much needed.

This need is highlighted by children's words quoted in the evaluation report for the existing services. One nine-year-old child said "It’s so much better than the police station — that was a bit scary". An eleven-year-old said "This place is so Mums and Dads don’t fight and if they do then people here can stop it". From a seven-year-old: "I come here because they had a fight and they are still mad with each other. My Dad thinks it’s stupid coming here, but I wouldn’t be able to see him at all if we didn’t come here because my Mum wouldn’t take me anywhere else". Or from another child: "When we used to have visits at Grandma’s, Mum would run out and hit Dad’s car, sometimes with us in it." These heartbreaking words make you want to go home and give your own children a big hug. Contact services provide a safe environment where the relationships between parents and children can be rebuilt and where separated parents can start the process of dealing reasonably with each other for the good of their children.

Giving people the skills and support they need to prevent these situations or at least deal with them better is a major theme of the government’s work. We are focusing actively on early intervention and prevention of problems, working with the community to provide better services and support for parents, holistic responses to problems and using existing activities to build better approaches. Such strategies are necessary to ensure we are paying our children the attention they deserve.

Research on the brain development of infants suggests that in the first three years of a child’s life, the brain is uniquely responsive to the environment. Failure to meet developmental needs at this critical time results in changes to brain physiology and leads to more extreme reactions to stress.

Of course children need good nutrition and physical care, but they also need warm, responsive and structured parenting. In providing this, parents benefit from good connections with their extended family and community networks of support. Together, these factors provide protection against a myriad of problems later in life, and most importantly, against abuse and neglect. A major policy question for the Government is ‘How can we provide support for parents to make those years count?’

I was fortunate enough to grow up in a family that provided plenty of affection and caring. My wife and I work hard to provide the same good start for our own children. Unfortunately not all children are so lucky.

For this reason, the Commonwealth Government is supporting home visiting programs such as Good Beginnings. This volunteer scheme connects experienced parents in each community with new parents, offering friendship, a role model and emotional and practical support. Their mission is to help new parents build the self confidence they need to give their children a physically and emotionally healthy start in life. The ultimate objective is to ensure that children experience a happy, healthy and loving childhood - from the very beginning. Importantly, Good Beginnings means that the communities themselves provide the solutions, with some funding assistance from the government.

Culturally specific parenting support is also provided through various initiatives. For example, the Department funds a number of Indigenous parenting and family programs. This includes the Aboriginal Child-rearing Strategy which is a series of complementary and innovative children's and family projects developed for Aboriginal communities in the desert region of Central Australia. It will incorporate the unique culture, parenting and learning styles of Aboriginal people. In the first stage of this project, Aboriginal women from more than thirty remote communities will attend a conference in April/May to discuss issues which impact on the care of their children.

Other Commonwealth programs are providing support in the early years. Playgroups have been shown to deliver better outcomes for children and greater community involvement for parents, and the Family Skills Training program teaches parenting skills to particularly disadvantaged parents. Again, the focus is on prevention and early intervention.

Good care extends beyond the early years, and the Government is making progress in this area too. The Reconnect program has proved to be very successful in preventing homelessness among adolescents, by working closely with families who are experiencing high levels of parent-child conflict.

Then there is the Youth Activities Services scheme, for 11-16 year-olds living in disadvantaged areas. These services provide innovative activities during out of school hours, providing an early intervention program for young people at risk of developing patterns of destructive behaviour which may have long term effects on their schooling and labour force participation.

The Government has made a commitment to help Australian families build resilience and strength. The Stronger Families and Communities Strategy reflects this commitment, with the allocation of $240m for early childhood research, more parenting and family relationship support initiatives, and a number of community building initiatives.

Designed to strengthen families and communities, especially families at risk and disadvantaged communities, the Strategy reinforces the Government’s prevention and early intervention policy directions and its belief that it is communities that are often best at finding local solutions to local problems.

For communities, the money from the Strategy will go on things like training for potential community leaders, developing and promoting volunteering and building community capacity so they are able to do more to help themselves.

For families, the focus is on three important issues - the needs of families with young children; strengthening marriages and relationships; and balancing work and family.

The Strategy complements measures such as the new tax system and business tax reform, and the current welfare reform process, which are designed to reduce unemployment and welfare dependency, both key risk factors in poor outcomes for children.

Recognising that new pressures are having an impact on parents’ ability to manage their work and family responsibilities, the Strategy is introducing a range of more flexible child care initiatives which will improve families’ ability to access and choose child care that meets their needs. The new measures are designed to provide greater flexibility, equity and choice. They will particularly benefit shift workers, families working outside standard business hours, those who have a sick child and those who live in rural and regional areas.

Strong families benefit from strong couple relationships. With high levels of relationship breakdown adding to the pressures on our children, and costing the country billions of dollars a year, it is important to do everything we can to better prepare couples for married life. As a result, the Strategy includes an expanded relationship education initiative designed to make relationships education, including pre-marriage education, more available and more effective.

A full range of counselling and related services continues to be supported so that families and couples have every chance to get help with relationship problems before they escalate.

Fathers play a important role in parenting, but some may not feel confident that they are the best parent they can be. The Men and Family Relationships initiative is reaching out for the first time to men and fathers to provide assistance to those in relationships, and if necessary, following relationship breakdown. We want to make sure that men remain well connected to their children because fathers have much to offer.

I recently launched a Commonwealth-funded, first-time fathers’ project run by Burnside at Coffs Harbour. This targets expectant fathers with information on child birth and early development.

Any new father will tell you, and it’s been my own experience, that it can be pretty daunting for both parents when their first child is born. And while the focus is usually on the mother and baby, I think that fathers welcome that extra bit of help to face the challenges at this exciting time.

What’s special about the Burnside project is the support they have received from AMP for ‘I’m a Dad’ kits, which each new father gets straight after his child is born. Because of the extra costs of raising children and with AMP’s involvement, the Burnside service also offers first-time fathers financial planning advice.

Recently the Government also announced a package of measures directed at achieving better relationships between separated parents and encouraging parents to maintain contact with their children after separation. The package will align the benchmarks used to set child support liabilities, as well as providing a fairer basis for determining Government assistance to children of subsequent families and enhancing a parent’s ability to improve the financial position of his or her new family.

I am profoundly concerned about children who are experiencing abuse or neglect.

Child abuse and neglect are usually entrenched in broader social problems and are not able to have a ‘quick fix’ applied. Remedies require the development of long term strategies. Most service delivery related to child abuse and neglect rests with States and Territory Governments. However, the Commonwealth plays a leadership role in this area through initiatives such as the National Council for the Prevention of Child Abuse, and information sharing through the National Child Protection Clearinghouse at the Australian Institute of Family Studies and by supporting a wide range of early intervention and parenting programs such as Good Beginnings.

Another initiative, "Tomorrow’s Children", is Australia’s national plan of action against the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Family breakdown, prior experiences of sexual abuse, poverty, drug use, youth unemployment and social isolation are all factors that place children and young people at risk. The plan identifies what Australia is doing and will need to do in future to tackle these issues further.

These initiatives provide for improvements in our knowledge and contribute towards improved service responses to child abuse and neglect.

I am committed to help support and strengthen families through services to enhance family relationships and lower the incidence of family breakdown, including parent education to prevent child abuse.

The Government’s policy focus is on prevention and early intervention strategies. I see this as most important to help break the generational cycle of breakdown and abuse. Government does not have all the answers and we recognised that communities are often best placed to solve their own problems.

Ultimately, it is about ensuring that our children have the best possible start. There couldn’t be a better motivator than that.

In the last Child Abuse Prevention Newsletter, readers were asked to provide feedback on the usefulness of Clearinghouse services and to make suggestions for improvements or new services. The Clearinghouse wishes to thank sincerely all those who responded and/or who sent in letters of support.

Feedback on Clearinghouse publications was overwhelmingly positive, but some readers were unaware of other services - the web site, the e-discussion list, and the information service. This is a clear message for us to inform people on a regular basis of services being provided, and so, future Newsletters will carry a back page summary of Clearinghouse services.

Respondents made many very useful suggestions, all of which will be followed up, and as many as possible taken up. Many readers asked for information about training courses, so we need people running course to let us know about these.

September 3-9, 2000

As part of National Child Protection Week in September, the Federal Minister for Community Services, Mr Larry Anthony, highlighted some of the important work being done by the Federal Government to raise community awareness about child abuse prevention and promote healthy parenting practices.

Mr Anthony launched the last Clearinghouse Issues Paper, Exploring Family Violence: The Links Between Child Maltreatment and Domestic Violence , which showed that in many families where either child abuse or domestic violence was identified, both forms of violence are likely to be present.

"As a society we must strive to learn more about this subject and continue developing effective child-focused responses," Mr Anthony said. "The report adds to a growing knowledge base we are developing though initiatives such as the Government’s Partnerships Against Domestic Violence Strategy (PADV). Under PADV, $5m has been committed towards addressing the needs of children who are affected by domestic violence. Overall, the Government has committed $50m to this initiative, recognising that domestic violence is an issue of national importance."

"The paper, produced by the National Child Protection Clearinghouse, gives us a better insight into the links between family violence and child abuse. It also provides important information that can be used to develop further initiatives targeted at prevention and early intervention."

Mr Anthony also had opened an exhibition of Indigenous paintings by popular painter Tex Skuthorpe. The paintings were created on behalf of the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse (NAPCAN), which was responsible for organising Child Protection Week.

Tex Skuthorpe has linked family respect and the importance of nurturing children with traditional stories for each poster. Simple messages conveyed by the posters are part of a program to assist and encourage child health and wellbeing among the Australian community.

• The Goanna and the Red Dragonfly: (Sharing the Schooling)
• The Galah and the Boobunge: (Parenting Tips)
• How the Platypus Cam to Be: (Appreciating Differences)
• Learning and Respect: (Domestic Violence)
• Children are Sacred: (Child Abuse)
• More Top Tucker: (Nutrition Poster)

"The posters are a wonderful way of communicating messages about care and respect for children, about healthy lifestyles and the importance of passing of knowledge and skills from older to younger people," Mr Anthony said.

Almost 100 thousand posters taken from the original paintings are being sent to schools and communities across Australia. Further copies may be obtained from NAPCAN Australia, tel: 02 9211 0224, fax: 02 9211 5676, napcanaus@aol.com or from any NAPCAN office.

Mr Anthony also launched a parenting program developed by Canberra’s Marymead Family and Child Centre. The program is specifically designed to meet the needs of parents from a variety of cultural backgrounds.

"Parenting Between Cultures aims to provide support and strengthen the ability of parents from different cultures to adapt their parenting skills to the Australian environment," Mr Anthony said.

"Getting the balance right between maintaining a strong ethnic identity, and incorporating the positive aspects of Australian society into parenting styles is crucial to developing healthy family relationships, and in turn a strong community."

The implication of the development of an infant's capacity to connect and relate is that the creation of social capital is largely dependent on healthy early childhood experiences. We cannot hope to build strong sustainable families and communities without the members of the community having this critical experience-mediated capacity for social affiliation and connection.

 

UnitingCare Burnside

UnitingCare Burnside is an agency of the Uniting Church in New South Wales that works with disadvantaged children, young people and families.

Burnside provides services including out-of-home care, family counselling, family support, alternative dispute resolution in families, support for young people who are homeless or facing crises, and activities aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect.

Paul Drielsma is a Social Worker with a Masters in Health Administration, and is currently the Senior Manager for Regional Centres within the agency. He is responsible for Burnside’s programs on the Central Coast, the Mid North Coast, and Orana Far West. In 1998, Paul attended the ISPCAN Conference in Auckland, New Zealand, where he first heard Professor Bruce Perry talk about his research into brain development of infants, and the implications for abuse and neglect of children.

This article has developed from that experience and continues the early intervention theme introduced in Minister Anthony's article in this Newsletter.

This article is based on a simple idea: if babies don’t develop the capacity to attach to other living organisms in a meaningful and appropriately intimate way, then those babies as adults are largely incapable of forming social networks, providing social support, and being part of a sustainable civil society. This, in turn, has critical implications for community development work in terms of its scope, the expectations that can realistically be put upon a given local community to build itself into a socially cohesive entity, and the overall emphasis and timing of social policy initiatives aimed at the creation of sustainable communities.

Moreover, the development of sustainable communities is critical for supportive structural networks that enhance the health and welfare of families and children in a way that protects against abuse and neglect of children.

This relatively simple idea is predicated on some not-so-simple concepts. They include the meaning and operation of social capital, an understanding of the new knowledge of how the brain develops in the first three years of life, and the interplay of these two areas of knowledge.

I have often noticed a compartmentalisation of the notions of community development and early childhood services. My organisation, UnitingCare Burnside (which is a child and family agency of the Uniting Church) runs a number of Family Centres which have an early childhood focus. Where these are funded by government, we are sometimes challenged for not having a broad enough focus in terms of a wider community client base. I retort that the absolute ‘best buy’ that we can provide a community in terms of building its social capital is through an early childhood focus — and this is largely the implication of this paper.

While an understanding of personal and social wellbeing, based on attachment theory, is widely accepted by child welfare workers, it remains little known or truly appreciated and understood elsewhere. Rather than a sentimental notion around ‘niceness’ and ‘motherhood’, the contention here is that civil society itself — and the links between one generation and the next, the individual and the social — rests on the quality of the early attachment experiences of infants.

While it is known that babies need looking after both physically and emotionally, this emotional dimension is not widely understood as critical nutritionally (that is, biologically) for survival of life itself, and therefore for the functional survival of the community.

Alongside well-used terms like political, financial, and human capital, the concept of social capital has been proposed as an equally important part of the equation in terms of society and its general wellbeing. Research by Putnam (1995) and Fukuyama (1995) indicates that 'the lack of, or decline in, social capital lies behind the psychological, spiritual and economic malaise in communities throughout the world' (Wilson 1997: 745).

Social capital relates to the strength of the relationship between children and parents, and between the nuclear family and the extended community (Coleman 1988). The literature on social capital has a number of definitive common themes ascribed to the concept (Bullen and Onyx 1998: 3-4):

• Participation in networks: the notion of more or less dense interlocking networks of relationships between individuals and groups;
• Reciprocity: a combination of short-term and long-term self-interest that drives care and kindnesses between people and groups;
• Trust: a willingness to take risks in a social context;
• Social norms: providing a form of informal social control that removes the need for more formal, institutionalised legal sanctions;
• The Commons: the combined effect of trust, networks, norms and reciprocity creates a strong community, with shared ownership over resources; and
• Proactivity: the sense of personal and collective efficacy.

For Putnam, reciprocity is a key concept: the willingness of people to help one another with the expectation that they in turn can call for help.

Importantly, Putnam was not just borrowing the concept of capital to be ‘cute’ about how people get on together — his seminal study on Italian society (Putnam 1993) showed that social capital actually enhances economic competitiveness and overall economic prosperity. This occurs through civic engagement fostering sturdy norms of generalised reciprocity and encouraging the emergence of social trust. Social capital 'promotes business networking; shared leads, equipment and services; joint ventures; faster information flows; and more agile transactions' (Wilson 1997: 746). These networks, in turn, facilitate coordination and communication.

Social capital is about the relations between people and is fundamental for the unleashing of the potential benefits of human capital (that is, the skills and knowledge that people possess). However, because social capital is a public good (in that it is not conceived of as a direct personal gain for individuals), it is consequently not directly invested in by the market or individuals, and is a by-product of activities not specifically designed to produce social capital (there is therefore under-investment of direct resources in building social capital) (Coleman 1998).

An important observation found in social capital literature is that: 'Social capital develops from the core building blocks of the personal capacity for trust, tolerance, value of life, and proactivity. Connections are formed, first within the family and neighbourhood, and later within wider communities' (Bullen and Onyx 1999: 6).

These building blocks are fundamental to strong families and communities, and are implicit in functional social networks and supports between people. They are seriously threatened and diminished by factors such as high growth communities, disappearing extended family support, stressful work-centered and commuting lifestyles, isolation, and the challenging transition to parenthood.

Social capital theorists describe a spiral upwards and downwards for the generation and degeneration respectively of social capital. For the upward spiral to operate, Coleman (1998) asserts that an initial threshold needs to be reached for the generation of social capital to be self-sustaining. Beyond this threshold, voluntary and spontaneous social organisation occurs. When stocks of social capital are below the threshold, the substitution of formal organisation is required to provide a ‘kick start’ to this process. But it is important to first understand what underpins the effective formation of these building blocks to know where the ‘kick-start’ point of intervention should be targeted.

The work of Professor Bruce Perry (Perry 1998) and others (McCain & Mustard 1999; Shore 1997) shows important links between brain development in infants and the formation of social capital and sustainable communities.

The brain does not arrive at birth ‘pre-wired’ — hard wiring of the brain occurs at critical periods during the first few years of life. It was thought that the structure of the brain was genetically determined at birth. It is now known that the experiences that fill a baby’s first days, months and years have a decisive impact on the architecture of their brains and the nature and extent of their adult capacities.

One of the first realisations about the post-natal wiring of the brain came out of the observation that children born with cataracts who had them removed later in childhood still could not see normally. This was because the critical period of sensory input for the neuronal hard wiring of the brain related to visual functionality (occurring during the first months of life) had been missed. This observation about learning and development applies to behavioural, mental and physical long-term health outcomes as well. Adults who started learning stringed instruments at age three show three times the levels of cortical brain activity (related to touch functionality) compared to those who never learned, with those starting to learn at age five having twice the cortical activity (Perry, 1998).

At birth, while the brain has a broad potential that is determined by genetics, experience not genetics is responsible for broad deficits in functioning. The genetic potential through experience may be maximised or minimised. The same child, through differing early childhood experience, may grow to become an aggressive, unattached person, or a creative, self-soothing, flexible one.

The brain develops in a sequential manner from the more primitive brain stem functions (regulating heart beat and temperature) to more complex cortex functions such as abstract thought. In this hierarchical sequential development, optimal organisation of higher order complex functions is dependent on how well earlier, less complex brain organisation has proceeded.

Timing is crucial. In well-organised brains, this development occurs according to a genetically-determined biological timetable and the right experiences given at the right time, matching that timetable, either fulfil or do not fulfil the developmental schedule. The landmarks in the first three years of course mirror the biological timetable of brain development. By the age of three, most of the brain systems are in place and it is more difficult from then to change an already organised system. Missing these windows of opportunity (‘critical’ or ‘plastic’ periods) means missing being able to meet the genetic potential of that system.

Biological relativity refers to the concept that any experience will have much more impact on a rapidly changing system than on a stable system. The developing brain is an incredibly fast-moving system in the first three years of life. At birth, it is consuming about 65 per cent of calorie intake compared to about 15 per cent for mature adults. The rate of change of the brain in an infant is about 100,000 times greater than the rate of change for a mature brain.

This has important implications for the nutritional value of touch. Touch is a trigger for the release, by the brain, of hormones necessary for calorie use. The Spitz studies (Spitz & Wolf, 1946) and the Romanian orphans' experience have shown the importance of human contact for the growing organism. Biological relativity explains why babies can die if they are not touched for a couple of weeks — and leaving babies without this input for hours can be a form then of child neglect on a par with months of solitary confinement for an adult.

The brain develops and organises in a use-dependent fashion. There are about twice the number of synapses in the brain at the beginning of life compared with when it is fully developed (and it is about 85 per cent developed by age three). These synapses either survive or fail to survive based on a sculpting process of these undeveloped and undifferentiated neurons whereby sensory activation of synaptic connections reinforce some over others. The repetitive neuronal experience and activity of the growing brain ensures that certain synaptic connections are maintained through the genetically determined developmental timetable. This sculpting or pruning away of little-used synapses occurs together with the reinforcing of repeated experiences producing permanent synaptic patterns. The process means that positive and negative experiences in the first years of life influence how children will be wired as adults.

Where there is no patterned sensory experience (for example, if the baby is not consistently responded to by being picked up and held when distressed), then the brain does not internalise a positive association for that experience. A brain memory template is formed so that future distress is then interpreted as new or threatening and the child doesn’t learn to self-soothe based on the pattern of 'someone usually comes' (Perry, 1998). The brain hates surprises and treats any new experience initially as negative and stressful until patterned responses set up a positive memory template. So when a healthy 'someone will come' expectation is missing, new experiences are not recognised as positive compared to previous conditioned experience. For social communication and affiliation, the consequence for social connection with new people throughout life is huge here where, as babies, people have missed these positive conditioning experiences. Being connected to each other is then a neurobiologically mediated function (Perry, 1998).

In cases of infant abuse or neglect by the primary caregiver, the primary template for interaction is negative and stressful, which is then generalised to all personal relationships.

Such stressful states (which were adaptive for the baby under threat) become maladaptive traits in the adult and the brain develops a sustained position of high arousal or dissociation. Since the establishment of this trait is happening at a time when biological relativity means that the moment is so intense, it follows that survival in the moment becomes the over-riding concern of that individual.

Just as parts of the brain are specifically dedicated to seeing properly, others are dedicated to social affiliation and attachment. Part of the brain is literally activated in response to inter-communication and touch. These experiences can be described for an infant as a ‘somato-sensory bath’ (as important to sustaining life as food and water). The interaction between infant and caregiver (movement, sound, sight, smell, touch) causes patterned neuronal activity that goes to a part of the brain that organises empathy, social affiliation, and responsibility for other people. This development starts in the womb as the foetus experiences the soothing constancy of maternal heartbeat, warmth, and nourishment.

This is all involved in what Perry (1998) calls the 'sphere of concern' of the individual. There is a neurobiology to this part of the brain that is involved in social affiliation and attachment. That the brain is biased to social affiliation and attachment explains our survival as a species. We survived because we were connected, not because we were smart. Attached came first, and smart came later!

‘Sphere of concern’ which makes us feel connected to and responsible for other people is related to attachment, which is related to reward. There is a relationship between the reward part of our brain and the attachment part of our brain. When a newborn baby is picked up by a mother with a healthy neurobiology, reward will be experienced by that mother as an automatic self-reinforcing process. The smell, sound, and touch of the baby all build strong healthy positive attachment crucial for the survival and thriving of the baby. If the mother does not have that healthy neurobiology (and we have all seen this in our work), there is no ‘kick-in’ of this self perpetuating reward and response attachment process between mother and infant. The co-development of the reward and attachment systems is a function of experience. That part of the mother’s brain that is activated by baby’s smile is either there or not, based on the mother’s own early experiences.

Low level of ‘sphere of concern’ can then be a reflection of brain impairment of these systems. It is the same process of adaptive state becoming maladaptive trait that was mentioned earlier. In this case the maladaption affects our communal survival. As the sphere of concern shrinks, we literally are functioning more and more at the primitive levels of the brain — the basic individual survival levels of the primitive brain stem.

The glue of a community is social affiliation and connection which are the building blocks of social capital. Community concern can not be expected when the sphere of concern is tiny. Individuals so affected can not be expected to be ready for cognitive work in terms of appropriate therapeutic intervention, let alone be capable of meaningful engagement in civic interaction and community.

All this has critical implications about things like how long infants should be exposed to television: 30 per cent of their time in front of a TV means 30 per cent less time to experience social affiliation. If 50 per cent of an infant's waking hours is spent vying for the attention of a caregiver who is neither bonded to him/her, nor able to give adequate one-to-one time to ensure this somato-sensory bath at the appropriate times, this can have huge implications for social affiliation and attachment.

Brofenbrenner’s (1979) ecological model of social inter-relationships combines powerfully with the concept of ‘sphere of concern’. Apart from where ‘sphere of concern’ is a diminished trait from early childhood experiences, it can be seen how, for otherwise well developed individuals, the threat to livelihood and wellbeing (for example, through poverty and lack of social infrastructure) can also diminish their ‘sphere of concern’ and thus reduce social capital.

In the light of biological relativity, and the significance of early brain development, there is strong evidence that many more dollars are saved for each spent where interventions are targeted at the early years than later.

So back to our earlier question: where is the appropriate point for the ‘kick start’ of Putnam’s virtuous cycle of social capital formation? I think its clearly in the early years (0—3 years) of child development.

In conclusion, the implication of the development of an infant's capacity to connect and relate is that the creation of social capital is largely dependent on healthy early childhood experiences.

We have to get this link firmly established in the minds of our policy makers to ensure that what we do now has the required positive impact on our social living experience (and indeed our health and wellbeing) thirty years from now.

According to Guntrip (1971: 114): 'If human infants are not surrounded by genuine love from birth, radiating outward into a truly caring family and social environment, then we pay for our failure toward the next generation by having to live in a world torn with fear and hate . . . The importance of security for babies and mothers outweighs every other issue. If that is not achieved, everything else we do merely sustains human masses to struggle on from crisis to crisis.'

Bullen, P. & Onyx, J. (1998), 'Measuring social capital in five communities in New South Wales: overview of a study', Internet transcript (March), (http://www.mapl.com.au/A2.htm).

Bullen, P. & Onyx, J. (1999), Social Capital: Family Support Services and Neighbourhood and Community Centres in NSW, Family Support Services Association, Sydney.

Brofenbrenner, U. (1979), The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

Coleman, J. (1998), 'Social capital in the creation of human capital', American Journal of Sociology, vol. 94, Supp pp. 95-120.

Fukuyama, F. (1995), Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, Free Press, New York.

Guntrip, H. (1971), Psychoanalytic Theory, Therapy and the Self: A Basic Guide to the Human Personality in Freud, Erickson, Klein, Sullivan, Fairbairn, Hartmann, Jacobson & Winnicott, Basic Books, New York.

McCain, M. & Mustard, F. (1999), 'Reversing the brain drain: Early Years Study, Final Report', Report to the Ontario Government. Available at website: http://www.childsec.gov.on.ca/.

See also ABC Background Briefing, 3 October, Transcript available from: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s57732.htm

Putnam, R. (1993), Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Italy, Princeton University Press, New Jersey.

Perry, B. (1998), Tapes of four presentations as keynote to the Twelfth International ISPCAN Conference, Auckland, September. An example of Perry’s work in print: Perry, B., Pollard, R., Blakley, T., Baker, W. et al. (1995), 'Childhood trauma, the neurobiology of adaptation and "use-dependent" development of the brain: how "states" become "traits"' Infant Mental Health, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 271-291. See also: http://www.bcm.tmc.edu/

Putnam, R. (1995), 'Bowling alone: American declining social capital', Journal of Democracy, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 65-78.

Shore, R. (1997), Rethinking the Brain: New Insights into Early Development, Families and Work Institute, U.S.A.

Spitz, R.A., & Wolf, K.M. (1946). ‘Anaclitic depression: an inquiry into the genesis of psychiatric conditions in early childhood. II’, Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, vol. 2, pp. 313-342.

Wilson, P. (1997), 'Building social capital: a learning agenda for the twenty-first century', Urban Studies, vol. 34, no. 5-6, pp. 745-760.

Paul Drielsma is the Senior Manager, Regional Centres, UnitingCare Burnside in New South Wales. Email: pdrielsma@burnside.org.au

Further reading

Further reading in this area may be found in an edited collection published by the Australian Institute of Family Studies — Social Capital and Public Policy in Australia.

Edited by Ian Winter, this book is the result of a collaboration between the Australian Institute of Family Studies and a group of Australia's social capital researchers and commentators. Its objective is to link ideas about the nature of social capital to the development of public policy in Australia. The collection comprises the following chapters:

• Social capital and public policy in context, by Ian Winter;
• Major themes and debates in the social capital literature: the Australian connection, by Ian Winter;
• Making policy social, by Eva Cox and Peter Caldwell;
• Social capital, active citizenship and political equality in Australia, by David Hogan and David Owen;
• Sources of social capital, by Jenny Onyx and Paul Bullen;
• Developing social capital: a new role for business, by John Murphy and Barrie Thomas;
• Non-profit organisations, social capital and social policy in Australia, by Mark Lyons;
• If only men were angels: social capital and the Third Way, by Mark Latham;
• Building social trust through education, by Philip Hughes, John Bellamy and Alan Black;
• Families, social capital and health, by Fran Baum, Catherine Palmer, Carolyn Modra, Charlie Murray and Robert Bush;
• Trick or treat? Social capital, leadership and the new public policy, by Martin Stewart-Weeks.

Social capital and Public Policy in Australia, edited by Ian Winter, Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2000. 344 pages, $33 plus $3 postage. Contact the Australian Institute of Family Studies on (03) 9214 7888 to order.

• Tell children never to give out personal information such as surname, address, telephone number

• Remind children that people are not always who,they say they are online

• Supervise your child's use of the Internet and become computer literate

• Organisations or schools should never post photos of children with any identifying information on the Internet

• Tell your child never to arrange a face to face meeting with some one they have met on the Internet

• Ask your child to immediately exit any chatroom or shut down from any site that has suggestive, obscene or harassing messages and to report the site to a teacher or parent. Tell them never to respond to such messages

• Use blocking software such as Net nanny and Cyber Patrol that will filter out sites

For further information on Internet safety issues see www.netalert.net.au

Reproduced with permission from ECPAT Australia Newsletter no.59, October 2000, p.5.

Readership and contents

The Newsletter is designed to provide information to service providers, policy officers, researchers, and students in the area of child abuse prevention.

The contents of each Newsletter comprise a mix of contributions from Clearinghouse staff at the Australian Institute of Family Studies and writers in the child abuse prevention area generally. Contributions are concerned with practice, training, research, policy, and legislation, and news or reviews of recent relevant publications are also published. Regular Newsletter features include a literature highlights section on recently published material received by Clearinghouse, and a comprehensive listing of forthcoming conferences and workshops.

Length: items may range from very short contributions such as notices or news items, to essays and research articles ranging from 2500—4000 words.

Graphic material: graphs and tables should be used sparingly and should be uncomplicated and accessible; photographs are welcomed.

Title and headings: a short abstract of the main emphasis of the article should follow the title, and succinct headings throughout are required for the purpose of guiding the reader.

Referencing: the Harvard (author—date) style of referencing is used.

Biographical note: items should be accompanied by the author’s name and affiliation.

Presentation: the electronic provision of material, while not essential, is much appreciated.

The National Child Protection Clearinghouse holds copyright to all articles published in the Child Abuse Prevention Newsletter.

Acceptance of all material is subject to a review process. Consideration will be given to whether articles are relevant, clearly written, jargon-free and accessible. Consideration will also be given to the following criteria: timeliness of article; significance of the topic; factual accuracy; clear presentation and logical organisation of material; conclusions substantiated by convincing analytical argument; argument supported by references; quality and balance of the argument or information presented; and balance and relevance of any policy implications drawn.

Please contact: Judy Adams, Project Manager, National Child Protection Clearinghouse, Australian Institute of Family Studies, 300 Queen Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia. Phone (03) 9214 7812. Fax (03) 9214 7839. Email: judy@aifs.org.au

A recent investigation in the USA, supported by the Crewwick Foundation, looked at parent support programs and the evaluation research associated with those programs (Bowes, 2000). The questions that initially prompted this investigation were:

Has there been evidence found for parents’ changed attitudes, beliefs, knowledge of child development or changed parenting behaviour as a result of parent education and support programs?

What has been measured or recorded about parents’ preferences for particular styles of service delivery or for particular types of information about child development and parenting?

There are a number of different parent education and support programs in Australia. The reason that these were not the focus of study for this project is that there are more such programs in the USA and they have been operating over a considerable period of time, many since the 1970s (Family Resource Coalition, 1995,1996). The greater experience with such programs and the more ready availability of research funding in the USA has meant that many of the programs have been evaluated in a scientific way, sometimes following participants over a period of years to assess long-term impact of programs.

In general, limited information has been collected about parental response during and following participation in parenting programs. We need to know more about the mediating effects of parental response to programs to help explain benefits that flow to children. We also need to know more about the community links of families and how these are affected, positively or negatively, by participation in such programs. An argument is made for parental involvement and input from the beginning of programs so that they are more closely matched to needs.

Parents play a key role in children’s development. The way that they care for their children, teach them skills and values, and guide them in their encounters with the world outside the home lays the foundation for children’s later emotional, social and intellectual development.

Most parents undertake the job of parenting with little preparation except their own experiences as a child. Their parenting is also shaped by their own personality,the characteristics of the child and their family and social networks (Belsky & Vondra, 1990). The parenting that they experienced themselves, however, is likely to be a major influence on the way that parents raise their own children (Barnard & Martell, 1995). Even for parents fortunate enough to have had a nurturing upbringing, this previous learning may be insufficient if they are living isolated from family or a network of friends who can assist with advice and support. For new parents who came from a home where they were neglected or abused or if they have experienced institutional rather than family care, new information and guidelines are needed to establish a different way of parenting their children from that observed and experienced as a child.

New parents, except perhaps those who have worked in a closely allied area such as nursing or early childhood education, need a lot of information and advice about their child’s development and appropriate parenting responses to the rapid changes in development over the child’s first few years of life. Parents can seek this information from a variety of sources such as medical professionals, early childhood nurses, other parents, their extended family, child care teachers, their workplace, the media, and a range of parenting publications and videos available for purchase (Goodnow & Collins, 1991).

Not all parents, however, feel confident to ask professionals or paraprofessionals, nor do all have the literacy skills to seek out published information. Many parents of young children do not have family members close by or even in the same country to ask for advice and emotional support during the physically and emotionally demanding years of caring for a young child. Single mothers are particularly vulnerable to lack of social support (Cochran & Henderson, 1990). Communities often do not have places where new parents can meet one another and in modern cities, links with neighbours and friends in a geographical area are often limited (Cox, 1995).

Isolation, whether it be geographical such as in remote areas of Australia or social where parents have no contact with family or friends as happens in many of our cities and suburbs, has been linked to child abuse (Fegan & Bowes, 1999). Lack of information about appropriate behaviour for children at different ages, and lack of monitoring and emotional support from other adults have been seen as factors in the development and continuation of abuse of young children (Daro,McCurdy & Harding, 1998).

The child development information and parenting advice included in most parent education and support programs are seen as crucial elements in interventions that seek to prevent child abuse and neglect and to help parents give their children a firm emotional, social and intellectual start to their lives. Such prevention programs are seen as preferable to crisis management interventions and to be cost-effective for governments in terms of long-term savings in the health, education and criminal justice systems (Hayes & Bowes, 1999; National Crime Prevention, 1999).

Several suggestions have been made about how information about parenting and child development can be made available to new parents before or after they have had a first child. The timing of any intervention is very important so that information is available when parents are receptive and motivated (National Crime Prevention, 1999). One approach has been to set up programs of parent education and support targeted at parents with children of preschool age, recruiting parents as early as possible. Such programs are either set up as universal programs for all parents with young children or as programs available to parents seen to be "at risk" generally on the basis of low income.

Information was reviewed from a range of written materials about 24 US family support programs (Bowes, 2000). Results from that review form the basis of this article with four key programs chosen to illustrate the range of approaches to parent education and support in the USA and the different kinds of focus and findings of evaluation studies. These are the Infant Health and Development project, New Chance, Parents as Teachers and Healthy Start.

The Infant Health and Development Project is focused on low-birth-weight premature infants and their parents from all socio-economic groups. It provides home visits, support for parents and an intensive centre-based educational curriculum and operates in several sites. Like other demonstration and research programs, it provides a high quality service to parents that is an example of "best practice" and employs professionals and paraprofessionals. A summary of the program and its evaluation results is presented below.

Table 1	Infant Health and Development Project
Location	16 sites
Purpose	To reduce the incidence of developmental delay in low-birth-weight infants
Target population	Low-birth-weight premature infants (0-3 years) and their parents
Services provided	Provides home visits, parental support and an intensive, center-based educational curriculum
Personnel	Professionals and paraprofessionals
Parenting component	Home visits
Child development information component	Home visits
Outcomes for children	Program children in the higher low-birth-weight group showed higher IQ scores than children in comparison groups at ages 3 (end of intervention), 5 and 8. Maths scores were higher for the heavier low-birth-weight children than comparison groups at age 8. Fewer behaviour problems were reported for the heavier low-birth-weight children than comparison groups at ages 3, and, to a lesser extent, 5 and 8. These effects were not seen for the lighter group except for higher maths scores at age 3 only. Program children in poorer families were most likely to show enhanced cognitive and receptive language scores (except for multi-risk families with six or more risk factors).
Outcomes for parents	Focus was on child outcomes

Source: Institute for Research on Poverty (1997), Brooks-Gunn (1995)

New Chance

The New Chance project targeted another "at risk" group, teenage mothers who had dropped out of high school. In this program, the focus was on the young mothers rather than directly on their children, with services aimed at helping them to parent their infants and plan future pregnancies but also to give them the life and vocational skills to help them provide financially for the children. The extensive educational component of the project was conducted in a centre rather than through home visits, and child care was provided. A summary of the program and its evaluation results is presented below.

Parents as Teachers

Parents as Teachers (Table 3) is a widespread program in the USA and worldwide that focuses on parents of children in their first three years of life. It provides child development information and parent support through home visits, group meetings and referral to other services. It is designed as a universal rather than a targeted service but has been used both ways.

Table 3	Parents as Teachers
Location	Missouri (in all school districts). Programs operate in 48 other states and the District of Columbia, USA, Australia, Canada, England, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the West Indies
Purpose	To give children the best possible start in life and to assist parents in their role as the child’s first teacher
Services provided	Home visits that offer information about child development and practical ways parents can encourage their children’s development. Group meetings for peer support and for information about child development issues of particular interest to parents e.g., safety in the home for toddlers. Periodic monitoring and screening for undetected learning problems. Referral to other community resources.
Personnel	Specially trained parent educators
Parenting component	Central to the program and linked to child development information
Child development information component	Central to home visits and group meetings
Outcomes for children	At three years, PAT children in the pilot program were significantly more advanced than a comparison group in language development, intellectual abilities and social skills (Pfannesnsteil & Selzer, 1985). At the end of first grade, PAT children scored higher than a comparison group on reading and mathematics achievement tests. Teachers rated them as having fewer behaviour problems (Pfannensteil, 1989) PAT children were found at age three to perform significantly above national norms on language and intellectual abilities, despite being over-represented on traditional risk characteristics. More than half of children with observed developmental delays overcame them by age 3 (Pfannensteil, Lambson & Yarnell, 1991). PAT children were found to maintain their relative level of achievement demonstrated at age three through first and second grade at school, despite the diversity of their preschool, childcare, kindergarten and school experiences (Pfannensteil, 1995).
Outcomes for parents	PAT parents in the First Wave Missouri study of 3-year-olds in the pilot program were more knowledgeable about child rearing practices and child development than a comparison group (Pfannesnsteil & Selzer, 1985) PAT parents of children in grade one in the follow-up to the First Wave Missouri study were more likely to initiate contacts with teachers and to take an active role in their child’s schooling, as reported by teachers (Pfannensteil, 1989) PAT parents in the Second Wave Missouri study showed an increased knowledge of child development and parenting practices when their child was three. There were only two documented cases of child abuse among the 400 families over a three-year period (Pfannensteil, Lambson & Yarnell, 1991) PAT parents in the follow-up to the Second Wave Missouri study demonstrated high levels of school involvement which they frequently initiated (Pfannensteil,1996) PAT families compared to comparison groups in Binghamton, New York had substantially reduced welfare dependence and half the number of suspected cases ofchild abuse and neglect In a study of parents in at-risk situations involving mainly Hispanic parents in Salinas, California, PAT parents scored higher than a randomly assigned control group on measures of parenting behaviour

Source: Stief (1993), Kelly (1996), Pfannensteil, Lambson & Yarnell (1991, 1996), Parents as Teachers (1999).

Healthy Start

Healthy Start (Table 4) is an example of a program with a specific purpose, namely to prevent child abuse. It operates through home visits, parent support groups, community education and case management.

Table 4	Healthy Start
Location	Hawaii (state-wide)
Purpose	To enhance child development, to promote positive parenting, to enhance parent-child interaction, to ensure that all families have a primary care physician, to ensure appropriate use of community resources, and to prevent child abuse and neglect.
Target population	Pregnant women and mothers of children up to three months old. Program continues until children are five.
Services provided	Postpartum screening of newborns in the hospital, home visiting for high risk families (includes assessment of parent-child interaction, parent skill building, child development screening, and a free toy library), case management services and interagency coordination, parent support groups (to increase parents’ self-esteemand reduce isolation) and community education (to enhance awareness of child abuse dynamics and intervention strategies). Some sites offer respite care, male home visitors to work with fathers, and parent-child play sessions.
Personnel	Paraprofessionals do voluntary home visiting. Administered by the Maternal and Child Health Branch of the state’s Department of Health.
Parenting component	Parent-child bonding and interaction and building of parenting skills are the focus of home visits. Parent support groups and community education are concerned with parenting.
Child development information component	No part of the program teaches parents specifically about child development.
Outcomes for children	Very few cases of abuse and neglect. No cognitive gains.
Outcomes for parents	Low incidence of abuse and neglect. Improvements in parenting behaviours and home environment. High risk families lost these gains after program completion. Parents identified the main benefits of the program for them in terms of personal support from the home visitor, assistance in obtaining goods and services, and information about child rearing. The main ways in which parents said that their parenting had changed was in reducing reliance on physical discipline, increasing their understanding and enjoyment of the child, and preventing them from using harsh or abusive punishments. Measures showed greater variability: three quarters of the sample demonstrated knowledge of positive, non-physical methods of discipline, and half of the sample refrained from all physical punishment. Most parents who reported using physical punishment used mild (hitting hand) or moderate (e.g., spanking) physical punishment.

Source: Stief (1993), Kelly (1996), Daro, McCurdy & Harding (1998)

Outcomes for children

Outcomes for children are the focus of ultimate concern for all of the programs. The evaluation results have been extracted from reports about parent education programs, from evaluation reports and from journal articles reporting aspects of results for programs. The amount of detail varies according to the source of the information. As a result, this section cannot be seen as a comprehensive review of outcomes for all projects but rather as indicative of the kind of outcomes that have been investigated and the direction of outcomes based on this selected sample of programs.

Outcomes for children have been reported in terms of children’s development in various areas, their experiences at home, their experiences with other services, their success at school and, for a few long-term studies, their lives beyond school (Bowes, 2000). As noted previously, the programs differed in their focus with some very child-centred and others more concerned with providing services to parents to assist them and their children. These differences are reflected in the evaluations of the programs with some programs taking many measures of child outcomes and fewer of parent outcomes and vice versa.

Quality of the evaluations also differs with the larger federal programs able to fund outside agencies to conduct carefully designed evaluations and smaller programs often only able to monitor progress of children and parents themselves, sometimes without the benefit of a control or comparison group. Most programs, however, have a comparison group and unless otherwise indicated, it is the comparison between the program children and the comparison children who did not participate in the program that is reported.

Despite all of the differences in programs and their evaluations, there are some general conclusions that can be made about outcomes for children on the basis of this sample of programs. For children, a major benefit at home, found in several studies, is a lowered incidence of abuse, neglect and use of physical punishment. Children whose families have participated in a program are likely to have fewer accidents requiring hospitalisation and to have better health care including more health screenings and a greater likelihood of immunisation and other preventative health care. They are likely to benefit from more stimulation at home and more interest and involvement from their parents in education and schooling.

While cognitive gains may not persist beyond the early years of school, longitudinal studies show long-term social outcomes for children including higher rates of employment and less criminal behaviour in adulthood. Fewer behaviour problems are seen in program children at school and they are less likely to repeat grades or to be placed in special education classes.

The cost savings to society in major services such as welfare, education and the criminal justice system are clear from this review. These prevention programs in the early years of a child’s life, do appear to have immediate and long-term benefits for children, particularly the disadvantaged children who are generally the target of these programs.

Most programs work through parents to bring about these beneficial outcomes for the children. The interest of this report was to discover what was known about parent response to programs so as to speculate on how programs worked through parents to benefit children. The first point to make is that few programs worked solely through parents. Many brought health and nutrition programs directly to children or included a high quality early childhood education component. Many of the benefits for children may have come directly from these child-focused services.

Outcomes for parents

The focus of the Bowes (2000) report was on parent response to parent education and support programs. Sixteen of the 24 programs reviewed reported outcomes for parents ranging from parents’ changed relationship with their child and their parenting knowledge, attitudes and behaviour to health, educational and vocational outcomes for the parents. Beyond the home, parents’ involvement in their child’s schooling and their knowledge of and use of community resources have been additional points of interest for several of the studies. Only two programs commented on changes in the parents’ peer support networks following participation in the program and none enquired about any engagement in community volunteer work once the program had ended even though some programs encouraged parents to become volunteer home visitors.

Parents themselves reported positive changes in their parenting attitudes and skills, and in their attitudes and behaviour relating to educational qualifications (there was an increase in the percentage with a GED), and there were changes in the amount of reading materials in the homes of participants. Nevertheless, the evaluation of Even Start which was conducted in a more rigorous way than many of the evaluations found few differences between program and comparison parents on a number of measures (Bowes, 2000).

Parenting outcomes

Three studies reported on parents’ changed relationship with their child with one reporting no differences from non-participants in positive parent-child interactions and the others reporting more positive relations and more enjoyment of the child. One aspect of parenting that might be expected to change as a result of the parenting education that was part of most of these programs is parents’ knowledge about child development and about parenting. Parents as Teachers and Healthy Start were two programs that reported positive change in parents’ knowledge, with the Healthy Start program reporting more specific knowledge gains about positive, non-physical methods of discipline.

Eight programs reported attitudinal changes to parenting and all were positive. Parents wanted to be better parents and reported an increased confidence in their parenting and coping abilities. Attitudes to discipline had changed to a less strict and less punitive approach, and parents were more aware of the important part they played in their child’s education.

The aim of these programs, however, is to change the parenting behaviour of parents in ways that benefit their children. Twelve programs reported on aspects of parenting behaviour. Of the results concerned with abuse and neglect of children and the associated use of physical punishment, all found positive changes. Programs such as Parents as Teachers and Healthy Start, Hawaii reported reduced rates of abuse and neglect. Parents’ increased knowledge of disciple strategies was reflected in parents’ refraining from or using reduced forms of physical punishment and their use of more appropriate discipline strategies (Healthy Start).

Other parenting behaviour following program participation included giving children more time and attention, more parent-child negotiation over limits and family rules, more involvement in their children’s learning through reading to their children and involvement in school readiness, and an increase in father participation. Mothers were also more likely to breast feed their infants and have them immunised.

Home and family

Many of the evaluation studies employed the HOME (Home Observation for the Measurement of the Environment) inventory. This gives age-appropriate measures of the home learning environment (e.g., availability of play and reading materials) and of parent child interaction (e.g., frequency of adult contact, emotional climate). As a result of using this observational method, several studies, including Healthy Start, reported a positive change in the home following parent participation in the program.

Another aspect of home and family that was the focus of some programs, particularly those for teenage mothers, was subsequent child-bearing. Programs often included information about contraception and advice about spacing of later children. While some programs reported positive change on these outcomes, New Chance found that despite a rise in the percentage of teenage mothers using contraception, a high percentage became pregnant and gave birth seemingly unaffected by the program’s message, according to the authors of the evaluation (Quint, Bos & Polit, 1997).

Parents’ health and wellbeing

Health information for parents was part of many of the programs and several positive health outcomes were found: reduced smoking and better diets, fewer parents at risk of depression (New Chance), and decreased depression, anxiety and sickness (see Bowes, 2000). Other evaluations, however, found no differences between participants and non-participants in self-esteem, depression or feelings of personal wellbeing. Positive feelings of self-esteem, efficacy, greater control over their lives and greater confidence were reported for parents in three programs (see Bowes, 2000). New Chance found that although the percentage of parents at risk of depression had dropped for participants in the program, the level of depression was still very high, reflecting the poverty-stricken life circumstances of the participants.

Education and employment

Many of the programs included educational and vocational classes for parents. Parents were encouraged to complete a GED (equivalent to a high school diploma) and to undertake vocational training that might lead them out of welfare dependency. Several programs reported that parents were either enrolled in GED education or had completed the qualification. While three programs reported improvements in parents’ basic skills of reading and maths, one reported no difference in literacy gains between participant and non-participant parents. Program participation was linked to higher levels of employment and reduced welfare dependence in five programs and to positive changes in vocational attitudes and skills in another. Again, the New Chance report sounded a word of caution reporting that the increase in employment for the teenage single mothers in that program was often short-term with the large majority remaining poor and on welfare after three and a half years (Quint, Bos & Polit, 1997).

Involvement in society beyond home and work

Four programs reported that program parents were more likely to be involved with activities at their child’s school. Involvement included taking part in transition programs when their child started school, taking part in teacher-parent interviews and attending classroom activities, many for the first time, or with parents initiating contact with teachers.

An important outcome for parents of program participation was often greater knowledge and use of community resources. Parents themselves saw this as a key benefit of participation (Healthy Start Program). By putting parents in touch with community resources beyond the program, programs encouraged parents to take an active role in mobilising resources for their families.

Apart from institutional links in the community to schools and other social service agencies, parents made other links that improved their social support base through participation in the programs. Healthy Start, for example, reported increases in social support through the home visitor. Another index of parents’ more positive role in the wider community is the decreased level of criminal behaviour reported by the Elmira program (Olds et al, 1997), the only program that reported that kind of data for parents.

Discussion

This review does provide some information on parents’ response to such programs.

Many programs have documented changes in parental attitudes and behaviour, particularly in terms of reduced physical punishment of children. Parents reported more confidence in their coping ability following program participation and more knowledge about child development.

These findings are particularly important because unrealistic expectations about children’s behaviour and lack of knowledge about alternative discipline strategies are two of the factors that have been linked to child abuse (Daro, McCurdy & Harding, 1998). The parent outcomes found in this review suggest that education about child development and parenting can lessen the chances of abuse by changing parents’ attitudes and behaviour and their confidence in their parenting.

Parenting and social support

In the design of the programs and their evaluation, there is a surprising lack of attention to the social support links of parents and ways to build social networks.Too often, it seems, families are seen as isolated units without ties to extended family or to friends. All too often these social ties are missing for families with young children.

Many families face the demands of child rearing without support or involvement from outsiders who are in a position to observe what is happening. This isolation can raise the likelihood of abuse. Assisting the development or strengthening of social networks involving parents would seem to be a legitimate activity for programs to achieve their aims. Programs can address the issue of social support through holding group meetings or activities for parents and young children, or through artificially setting up support groups as is done by early childhood nurses in New South Wales when they form "mothers' groups" for mothers with newborn children.

Parenting and employment

Other aspects of parents’ lives also impinge on their ability to parent effectively. In their design, many of the programs reviewed acknowledge the importance to parents of education and employment. The evaluations of programs, however, do not investigate how study and jobs affect parenting beyond assuming on the basis of past research that both are of benefit to family functioning. There is a large body of research that investigates how parents in the paid workforce reconcile the demands of work and home, and how this can have an impact on their parenting (Galinsky, 1999; Hochshild, 1997; Repetti & Wood, 1997; Williams, 2000). Little account has been acknowledged of this research in the design or evaluation of programs for parents in the paid workforce.

Parenting and other external demands

Paid work is not the only external demand on parents. Other aspects of parents’ lives such as substance abuse or care for elderly relatives need to be considered to give a total picture of how an external program can change parenting practices. These considerations of the total context of parents’ lives are no doubt part of the day-to-day operations of a program. Sensitive program coordinators or home visitors make themselves aware of the total picture in order to tailor available services appropriately for parents and children. What is missing is measurement of these additional contextual factors in the evaluative research on the programs beyond demographic details of employment or income levels.

Such information could lead to useful insights into the design and flexible use of programs as well as contributing to understanding of the factors that affect parenting and the ways in which parenting is affected.

Limits of family support programs

Some of the program evaluators made the point in their reports that no matter how good programs are, they cannot counteract the effects of poverty on families. The total life circumstances of families and the stresses flowing from those circumstances will often override the efforts of the best-intentioned parenting programs (Daro, McCurdy & Harding, 1998; Quint, Bos & Polit, 1997). This limiting factor needs to be kept in mind. Parenting programs are often designed to help parents work within existing constraints by focusing on parent-child interaction and parenting skills. Changing life circumstances through education and employment training, however, has been a focus of many of the programs. Wider social policies will ultimately have the greatest effect on parenting.

Results of the investigation

The first of the questions that guided this investigation was:

Has there been evidence found for parents’ changed attitudes, beliefs, knowledge of child development or changed parenting behaviour as a result of parenting education and support programs?

The conclusion of the review of 24 programs was that change has been documented on all of these dimensions. The programs can affect parents’ confidence as parents as well as their skills. A wider range of approaches to dealing with problem behaviour in children accompanied by a knowledge of appropriate behaviour for children over their development as well as a decrease in the incidence of physical punishment of children have been shown to result from these programs. Parents have also been found to increase their involvement beyond the home in activities that benefit their children such as participation in school activities.

The second question was:

What has been measured or recorded about parents’ preferences for particular styles of service delivery or for particular types of information about child development and parenting?

In this sample of program documents, there was no information to help answer this question. It seems that programs generally employ a "top-down" approach at least in terms of development of information for parents. Parents may be asked what they would like to have discussed at a group meeting but this level of program description was not available to check the extent of parent involvement in choice of topics.

Some programs come with curricula for parents and/or children. The Parents as Teachers program, for example, has suggested topics and activities for home visits and parent handouts on a variety of topics, according to the age of the child. Like some other programs, the PAT program makes an effort to make information accessible for parents by preparing handouts at different reading levels and in other languages, as well as the use of short videos for use during home visits.

The Wellness Guide

The only example found of a parenting resource for parents designed from the "bottom up" is The Wellness Guide for Families prepared through the University of California, Berkeley. The contents of the guide that gives information about child development, parenting, employment, and resources in California for families, was developed in a dialogue between individuals, parent groups and researchers from the Division of Public Health, Biology and Epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley as well as experts in the field.

The Guide (Penhoet, E. E., Syme, S. L., Neuhauser, L., Martin, S., Tatmon-Gilkerson, M., Fadem, P. S. Fleitas, G., & Margen, S., 1999) is an easy-to-use 80-page book that incorporates a telephone referral system developed in association with telephone companies in California. Distribution of the Guide to families through health clinics, parenting and child care centres, schools and prisons was followed by research on its use. The research showed that most recipients kept the Guide and used it, significantly improving their health knowledge and attitudes and making changes to lifestyle on the basis of information in the Guide (Neuhauser, 1999).

Directions for future research

More information about what parents want and find sufficiently relevant and useful to change their parenting attitudes and behaviour is potentially available from current parenting programs. The research conducted on many of these programs has, of necessity, been limited to evaluation of whether or not programs were achieving their aims. How they are achieving their aims is the next research question.

An insight into changes in parenting as a result of parenting education and support programs must in the first instance come from parents themselves. Information is needed about which aspects of the program made an impression on them and how they changed their parenting as a result. Parent preferences for different kinds of services or resources are also largely unknown. In the Healthy Start program in Hawaii, parents were interviewed about their response to the program.This and some other programs suggest that the relationship with the home visitor or other key staff in the program is a key to change in parenting. The role of the home visitor and parental response to home visitors and the support and information they provide is an important area for future research.

This report has discussed results of program evaluations that have compared program participants with non-participants. Yet within program participants there will be some who benefit from the program and others who show no benefits. Some evaluations investigated different effects of the program on subsets of participants. The Infant Health and Development Study, for example, compared families with infants who were of heavier and lighter weight in the low birthweight range and found benefits mainly for the heavier group.

More research needs to be done on which parents, families and children gain most and least benefit from the programs, and the factors that contribute to any difference in response. It is particularly important in a multicultural society like Australia to design programs and examine their effects for different cultural groups.

Finally, a group that received little mention in program descriptions and evaluations, is fathers. The extent to which fathers are involved in programs, directly or indirectly, needs to be investigated, and the effects on them and their families assessed. The important role that fathers play in children’s development is widely acknowledged in the child development literature (e.g., Parke, 1995). Many programs do reach out to involve fathers (Family Resource Coalition, 1996) but little research has been done on fathers’ response to parent education and family support programs.

Conclusion

There is a need for more information on parent response to parent education and support programs. Such information is important to help us understand how such programs benefit children and the mediating role played by parents in the process. It also assists in the planning of such programs - planning that should involve parents at every stage.

References

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Belsky, J., & Vondra, J. (1990). Lessons from child abuse: The determinants of parenting. In D. Ciccetti and V. Carlson (Eds.), Child maltreatment: Theory and research on the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Bowes, J. M. (2000). Parents’ response to parent education: A review of selected parent education and support programs in the USA: Report to the Creswick Foundation, Macquarie University, Sydney.

Brooks-Gunn, J. (1995). Strategies for altering the outcomes of poor children and their families. In P. L. Chase-Lansdale and J. Brooks-Gunn (Eds.), Escape from poverty: What makes a difference for children? Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Cochran, M., & Henderson, C. R. (1990). Network influences upon perception of the child: Solo parenting and social support. In M. Cochran, M. Larner and C. R. Henderson (Eds.), Extending families: The social networks of parents and their children, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Cox, E. (1995). A truly civil society: 1995 Boyer lectures, ABC Books, Sydney.

Daro, D. D., McCurdy, K., Harding, K. (1998). The role of home visiting in preventing child abuse: An evaluation of the Hawaii Healthy Start Program, National Committee to Reduce Child Abuse, Chicago, IL.

Family Resource Coalition (1995). Family support programs and the prevention of child abuse, Family Resource Coalition, Chicago, IL.

Family Resource Coalition (1996). Guidelines for family support practice. Family Resource Coalition, Chicago, IL.

Fegan, M., & Bowes, J. M. (1999). Isolation in rural, remote and urban communities. In J. M. Bowes and A. Hayes (Eds.), Children, families and communities: Contexts and consequences, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.

Galinsky, E. (1999). Ask the children: What America’s children really think about working parents, William Morrow and Company Inc., New York.

Goodnow, J. J., & Collins, W. A. (1990). Development according to parents: The nature, sources and consequences of parents’ ideas, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hove, UK.

Hayes, A., & Bowes, J. M. (1999). Children, families and communities: Looking forward. In J. M. Bowes and A. Hayes (Eds.), Children, families and communities: Contexts and consequences, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.

Hochshild, A. R. (1997). The time bind, Henry Holt and Company, New York.

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Dr Jennifer Bowes is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, Sydney Australia 2109. Email: jbowes@iec.iec.mq.edu.au

This article is an edited version of a paper presented at the Seventh Australian Institute of Family Studies conference, Family futures: issues in research and policy, held in Sydney on 24-26 July 2000.

Readers may be interested in publications from the Australian Institute of Family Studies which also examine parenting programs.

One of these is the Clearinghouse Issues Paper No. 10, Valuing parent education : a cornerstone of child abuse prevention by Adam M. Tomison. This paper provides an overview of parent education and the various forms it may take, in conjunction with a summary of what is known about the effectiveness of parent education interventions. Parent education is advocated as a significant component of any comprehensive framework for the prevention of child maltreatment.

The second is Evaluation of the National Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy: Primary Prevention and Early Intervention: Technical Report. Volume 2 . by Penny Mitchell. This report includes the evaluation of activities in the areas of parenting eduation and support funded by the National Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy. Projects funded by the Strategy and discussed in this report are:

• Programs for Parents
• Resourceful Family Project
• Exploring Together Program
• Community Volunteers supporting Families (Home-Start)
• Family Wellbeing

The third publication is in press, the National Audit of Child Abuse Prevention Activities 2000, previously referred to on page 18

Families, Youth and Community Care Queensland has recently released a Child Abuse Prevention Public Speaking Kit. The Kit was developed by the Department’s Positive Parenting Coordination Section, in response to an identified community need for resource support in the provision of education and information on child abuse and its prevention.

The Kit is designed to assist those who work in government departments, community organisations, parent groups and other areas where there is a need to present material about child abuse prevention and the role of the community. It can be used with a range of audiences, and is particularly appropriate for presentations to the general public, parents, foster carers and those who work directly with families and children. Trainers who use the Child Abuse Prevention Public Speaking Kit are not required to have a sophisticated knowledge of child protection procedures — the materials for presentation are self-explanatory and a list of agencies and departments is provided for people requiring further information or assistance.

The Kit includes: Tips on public speaking; Session plans for workshops; Activity sheets; Overhead transparency masters and handouts; A list of available services and agencies; A guide to contact and referral and; Evaluation forms. At the end of the presentation on child abuse prevention, participants will have a stronger understanding of what constitutes child abuse and neglect. They will be able to:

• Identify behaviours considered harmful to children and some of the causes, contexts and consequences;
• Identify a range of approaches to understanding child abuse;
• Identify risk factors and warning signs of child abuse and neglect;
• Promote preventative procedures and positive parenting strategies for care providers;
• Identify the benefits of early identification and intervention;
• Promote a wide range of child abuse prevention activities that can be undertaken by communities and;
• Be aware of the range and function of services which offer support to families.

The Child Abuse Prevention Public Speaking Kit is available for purchase from the Positive Parenting Coordination Section at FYCCQ — Tel: (07) 3224 7588. The price of the Kit is $40 (plus GST & postage). It will also soon be available on the Department’s website — http://www.families.qld.gov.au/

The new Clearinghouse Child Abuse Prevention Programs database is now available for searching at http://www.aifs.gov.au/na2.htm

Created as part of the recent National Audit of Child Abuse Prevention Programs conducted by the Clearinghouse with the cooperation of the Australian States and Territories, the database contains descriptions of nearly 1,300 programs currently operating throughout Australia. The database updates and replaces the Prevention programs database that has been in operation since 1997 and ensures that the most up to date information is avialable to Clearinghouse stakeholders and the wider community.

The database may be searched by any words used in the item, such as name of program, organisation name, target group, or program type. If you would like the Clearinghouse to search the database for you, contact the information service using the contact details below.

Below is an example of the database entry for one of the programs included in the Audit.

Program	Male Adolescent Program for Positive Sexuality (MAPPS)
Organisation	Adolescent Forensic Health Service
Address	900 Park St, Parkville VIC 3052
Phone	03 9389 4272
Fax	03 9389 4365
Email	mapps@ozonline.com.au
Commenced	1996
Ongoing	Yes
Description	The MAPPS program provides an early intervention, assessment and treatment service to all young male adolescents placed on supervised juvenile dispositions who have been convicted of a sexual offence. The program also aims to provide education on the nature of adolescent sexual offending behaviour and disseminate this information across all agencies coming into contact with children and young people.
Targets	Children and young people 0-24 years; Professionals or paraprofessionals
Age Groups	Adolescents (13-18 years)
Populations	Offenders
Geographical Area	State/ Territory wide
Abuse Type	Sexual
Prevention Type	Primary; Tertiary
Program Type	Community Education; Offender Programs; Child Focused Programs
Keywords	Child protection; Early intervention; Gender issues;
Products	Juvenile Justice - Evaluation Report, Male Adolescent Program for Positive Sexuality, 1998, Vic Government, Department of Human Services
Evaluation?	Yes
Evaluation Type	External (independent)
Involved	Pretest and post-test comparison
Description	Evaluation Report 1998
Entry Updated	September 2000

A ‘State Of The Nation’ report on child abuse prevention, based on the Audit findings, is currently in press and will soon be available. The report describes the range and scope of child abuse prevention activities throughout Australia, identifying trends and innovation in child abuse prevention. Copies of the report will be provided to all agencies/groups who participated in the Audit; copies will also be made available to other interested parties, on request.

Contact details: National Child Protection Clearinghouse, Australian Institute of Family Studies, 300 Queen Street Melbourne VIC 3000; tel 03 9214 7871; fax 03 9214 7839; email fic@aifs.org.au

Conference papers available

The Seventh Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference, Family futures: issues in research and policy, was held recently in Sydney on 24-26 July 2000. Here is a sample of conference papers which are available via the Australian Institute of Family Studies web site.

The national child protection data collection: what does 10 years worth of data tell us? By H. Johnstone. http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/afrc7/johnstone.html

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has been collating the national child protection data since 1990-91. These data are provided to the Institute by state and territory community service departments who have responsibility for child protection matters. The national collection includes three separate data collections: child protection notifications, investigations and substantiations; children on care and protection orders; and children in out-of-home care (collected since 1995-96).

This paper analyses the last 10 years of the national child protection data, focusing mainly on the data on child protection notifications and substantiations, but some data on children on care and protective orders and children in out-of-home care are also included. The comparability of the data is examined and some of the major differences between jurisdictions in child protection systems and in the child protection data are highlighted. Trends in the number and rate of children in the child protection system are then examined on a state by state basis. The likely impact of policy changes and other factors in explaining trends in child protection are discussed. Trends in the number and rate of Indigenous children in the child protection system over the last 10 years are also examined.

The link between children's services and child protection: the perspective of directors of children's services, by K. Fisher, C. Thomson & M. McHugh. http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/afrc7/fisher.html

The NSW Department of Community Services (DoCS) Office of Childcare commissioned the Social Policy Research Centre in 1999 to examine the relationship between children's services for children under school age and the DoCS child protection function. The project also investigated the effectiveness of children's services as a protection and prevention strategy for abuse and neglect.

The study comprised three components: a literature review, a survey of directors of children's services and focus groups with workers in child protection's services. The survey with directors of children's services included questions on details of children at risk of abuse and neglect placed in a service as well as the effectiveness of communication with DoCS from initial placement through to case closure. The survey contained a number of open-ended questions in relation to children at risk including: whether the care differed from care given to other children; record keeping in the service; adequacy of meeting needs of children from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-English speaking backgrounds and children with a disability; demands on primary contact carers; training in child protection; prevention programs; abuse in care; and, the effectiveness of a placement as both a prevention and protection strategy. This paper reviews the findings from the survey of directors of children's services highlighting some of the strengths and weaknesses of the present system from the perceptions of workers in the field.

Compiled by Joan Kelleher, AIFS Librarian. To borrow or obtain photocopies of any of this material, provide details to the library where you work or study, or your municipal library. Your library will obtain the material from the Clearinghouse for you.

Aborigines

Indigenous Australians: a new deal for a new century?, by M. Cadd, In, Work, wages and welfare: selected papers from the 1999 ACOSS Congress, Strawberry Hills, NSW, Australian Council of Social Service, 2000, pp. 83-90.

This paper provides background information on the Secretariat of the National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC) and information on the development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children's services, including the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency and the Indigenous Child Placement Principle. An overview of issues for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service provision is presented, including: combating poverty and preventing child removal, juvenile justice and rates of detention, and Kids Help Line and problems for young people of child abuse, bullying and homelessness. The National Families Strategy, the Draft Document on Reconciliation and national strategies, and the role for non-government organisations are issues discussed.

Maori, the media, racism and neglect, by A. Blank, Social Work Now, no.14, 1999, pp. 41-45.

The Breaking the Cycle public awareness campaign was developed to meet the directive from the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services to promote awareness of the unacceptability of child abuse. In this article the author discusses the ramifications of raising awareness and influencing Maori attitudes towards child abuse and neglect through media campaigns, including the Breaking the Cycle campaign, the 1998 Alternatives to Smacking campaign and the 1999 Neglect Prevention Programme.

Adoption

Adoption policy in the United States: a word of caution, by L.D. Hollingsworth, Social Work, vol. 45, no. 2, 2000, pp. 183-186.

In order to protect the health and safety of children recent adoption policies in America have attempted to expedite the termination of the rights of parents who have been charged with child maltreatment. These policies also aim to make it easier for people who wish to adopt these children to do so. This article comments on the risk of the legislation actually causing further disadvantage to poor children and their families. Recommendations are made for addressing these issues.

Bullying

Persistence of bullying from childhood to adolescence - a longitudinal 8-year follow-up study, by A. Sourander, L. Helstela & H. Helenius, Child Abuse & Neglect, vol. 24, no. 7, 2000, pp. 873-881.

The objective of this study was to examine the factors associated with bullying and victimization from age 8 to 16. It was found that if bullying and victimization were still happening at age 16 it was associated with a wide range of psychological problems at both age 8 and age 16. It is suggested that preventive measures should be targeted at those children who are characterized by both psychological disturbance and bullying.

Child abuse

Child abuse and neglect: part 1 - redefining the issues, by M. James, Canberra, ACT, Australian Institute of Criminology, 2000.

There are few social issues that evoke such extreme emotive responses, both publicly and privately, as child abuse and neglect. Although the issues surrounding family behaviour are primarily regarded as private, legislative and institution reforms have provided for a public response to any report of child maltreatment. Questions that have been raised include: how successful have academics and legal professionals been in placing this item on the political agenda; how has welfare practice responded to the problem; what has been the response of the criminal justice system; and has society in general improved the situation of those children who are the victims of abuse and neglect? This article looks at the emerging issues, discusses the incidence and prevalence of child abuse and neglect, and outlines issues dealing with identification, intervention and prevention, and the legislative and legal processes.

Child maltreatment 1998 : reports from the states to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, Walter R. McDonald & Associates & United States, Children's Bureau - Washington, DC, U.S. Government Printing Office, 2000.

The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) is the primary source of national information on abused and neglected children known to the State child protective services agencies. In 1998 in the United States, nearly one and a half million children received preventive services, 20 of every 1,000 children in the population.

Child maltreatment, other trauma exposure, and posttraumatic symptomatology among children with oppositional defiant and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, by J.D. Ford, R. Racusin & C.G. Ellis, Child Maltreatment , vol. 5, no. 3, 2000, pp. 205-217.

Children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), comorbid ADHD-ODD, and adjustment disorder controls were assessed for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Results showed that ODD and (to a lesser extent) ADHD were associated with a history of physical or sexual maltreatment. PTSD symptoms were most severe if (a) ADHD and maltreatment co-occurred or (b) ODD and accident/illness trauma co-occurred. These findings suggest that screening for maltreatment, other trauma, and PTSD symptom may enhance prevention, treatment, and research concerning childhood disruptive behavior disorders.

The role of friends, in-laws and other kin in father-perpetrated child physical abuse, by C. Coohey, Child Welfare, vol. 79, no. 4, 2000, pp. 373-402.

This study compared 35 physically abusive fathers with a sample of non-abusive fathers. The study aimed to show the relationship between the structure of social ties and the function of those ties. It was found that the physically abusive fathers received significantly fewer emotional and instrumental support from their friends, in-laws and other kin than the comparison fathers. Physically abusive fathers were found to be only weakly linked to members of their social networks. These are the people who might have been able to discourage the fathers' aggressive impulses or provide additional support to them and their families.

Child abuse in New Zealand, by B. Atkin, In, M. Freeman, ed. Overcoming child abuse: a window on a world problem, Aldershot, UK, Ashgate, 2000, pp. 305-327.

Child abuse may always be a problem with no perfect solutions. This chapter deals with the issue of child abuse in New Zealand and outlines the overall statutory framework and the process for dealing with child abuse. Questions are raised such as How is the safety of children assured when abuse becomes apparent? What are the resources available for dealing with abuse in families? How are false allegations of abuse handled? These questions suggest that major responsibility rests on the state and the community. The author asks where the balance is between an intrusive and culturally insensitive governmental agency and one which appears to be backing away either through lack of resources or for ideological reasons. In New Zealand the balance is tilted in favour of minimal intervention, with concerns being raised that economics are given priority over care of children, that unless a case is one of the most compelling kind of abuse, it will be not be investigated and that social workers are inadequately trained and resourced.

Failure-to-thrive, maltreatment and the behavior and development of 6-year-old children from low-income, urban families: a cumulative risk model, by M. A. Kerr, M.M. Black & A. Krishnakumar, Child Abuse & Neglect , vol. 24, no. 5, 2000, pp. 587-598.

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between failure- to-thrive (FTT), maltreatment and four aspects of children's development: cognitive performance; adaptive functioning at school; classroom behavior; and behavior at home. The findings suggest that cumulative risk is more detrimental to children's development than the presence of a single risk factor. These results underscore the importance of interventions to prevent both FTT and maltreatment during a child's early years.

Affective, organisational, and relational characteristics of maltreating families: a systems perspective, by P.W. Howes, D. Cicchetti & S.L. Toth, Journal of Family Psychology, vol. 14, no. 1, 2000, pp. 95-110.

In-home structured interactions of 42 maltreating families and 23 low-income comparison families with preschool-aged children were examined to determine whether maltreating and nonmaltreating families could be distinguished by system-level processes. Family interactions were videotaped and coded for ratings on affective, organizational, and relational features of each family unit. The importance of family climate and structure, above and beyond individual maltreatment acts, were noted. Implications for treatment and social policy directions are discussed.

Child abuse prevention

Child sexual abuse prevention programs: a meta-analysis, by M. K.Davis & C.A. Gidycz, Journal of Clinical Child Psychology , vol. 29, no. 2, 2000, pp. 257-265.

This article looks at a meta-analytic evaluation of the effectiveness of school-based child abuse prevention programs. Analysis of moderator variables of twenty-seven studies revealed significant effects for: age; number of sessions; participant involvement; type of outcome measure; and use of behavioral skills training. It was found that programs presented over 4 or more sessions that allowed children to become physically involved produced the highest effect sizes. The importance of these findings for future child sexual abuse prevention programs is discussed.

Child sexual abuse prevention programs: do they decrease the occurrence of child sexual abuse?, by L.Ed. Gibson & H. Leitenberg, Child Abuse & Neglect, vol. 24, no. 9, 2000, pp. 1115-1125.

The objective of this study was to determine whether school-based child sexual abuse prevention programs affected the rates of child sexual abuse. The study found that these programs are associated with a reduction in the incidence of child sexual abuse. A secondary aim of the study was to determine if there were differences in sexual satisfaction or avoidance of sexual activity between those women who had participated in such a program and those who had not. The study found no evidence that prevention programs decreased sexual satisfaction or led to avoidance of sexual activity in adulthood.

Creating the future: a resource kit for children about domestic violence and abuse, by Jannawi Family Centre (New South Wales), Lakemba, NSW, Jannawi Family Centre, 2000, unpaginated handbook, 60 minute video, compact disc, stickers, poster.

This kit aims to assist children and families to talk about their experiences of domestic violence and abuse, to understand the effects on their lives and relationships, and to develop and strengthen positive relationships based on equality and respect. It is based on a feminist analysis of domestic violence, and is suitable for use by workers whose clients are 5 - 12 year old children and their families in health, welfare, educational and therapeutic contexts. The kit includes a leader's handbook, a video divided into seven sections, an activity book for each section or story, the audio soundtrack for all the stories, and a poster which features all the puppet characters.

Development of the Stay Safe programme, by D. MacIntyre, A. Carr & M. Lawlor, Child Abuse Review, vol. 9, no. 3, 2000, pp. 200-216.

This article describes the development and implementation of the Stay Safe programme which was developed in the Republic of Ireland. The programme includes modules for teachers, parents and children. Liaising with local child protection and child health professionals is an integral part of implementation. The curriculum includes: disclosure training; assertiveness training; coercion management training; enhancing self-esteem; and the promotion of peer support.

Evaluation of NAPCAN: final report, by Keys Young, Milsons Point, NSW, Keys Young, 2000.

The key aim of the evaluation reported in this document was to examine the effectiveness of the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN)'s child abuse prevention activities over the last five years. The evaluation focused in particular on: community education materials; coordination of National Child Protection Week, held annually in September; and media campaigns. The evaluation also sought to examine NAPCAN Australia's role and achievements in conducting other activities such as lobbying and policy work and holding professional conferences. Methodology comprised three key components: a postal survey of agencies which use NAPCAN's materials; phone interviews with 38 service providers, 15 research/ policy/ peak organisations, and ten individuals currently holding official positions within NAPCAN; and, telephone interviews with 24 parents who had used NAPCAN materials or participated in NAPCAN activities, and three discussion groups with a total of 16 parents.

Making a difference: recognising and reporting/ notifying child abuse and neglect, by NSW Child Protection Council. Sydney, NSW, NSW Child Protection Council, 1998, kit (1 40 min. video, looseleaf training manual, booklet, 1 audio tape).

This training package presents a training manual and video which cover face-to-face training, and a self paced learning kit which includes a audiotape. The manual is designed for use and presentation by supervisors, team leaders, directors, coordinators or other nominated staff who wish to equip agency workers with the knowledge and understanding to fulfil their responsibilities in recognising and reporting or notifying child abuse and neglect. Developed by Carolyn Quinn, the manual includes workshop outlines, trainers resource materials and background information. The video (Executive Producer: NSW Film and Television Office) has three parts: Recognising abuse and neglect; What's your responsibility? What happens next? It includes dramatised scenes and interviews with professionals. The self paced learning kit was developed by Eleanora De Michele. It includes information about child abuse and neglect, including definitions, dynamics, effects, indicators, reporting / notifying, role and responsibilities. It is stated that completing both parts of the training package is the minimum required for workers to have an understanding of the complex issues that surround the recognition of child abuse and neglect and the child protection response.

Prevention is better than cure: exploring strategies for the prevention of child abuse and neglect, by A. Tomison, Keynote address presented at the 1999 Xi'an International Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect (First ISPCAN Chinese Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect), Xi'an, China, November-December 1999, and Online http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/pubs/papers/tomison2.html

Focusing on systemic issues in child protection and child abuse prevention, this paper aims to provide a context for the work of health, medical and social welfare professionals, and to suggest ways forward for the development and enhancement of systems for the prevention and protection of child abuse and neglect. Some of the key components of a child abuse prevention framework, based on current trends in western communities are presented and the relevance of some of these prevention strategies for the Chinese community is considered. The role of community education and health promotion for child abuse prevention in China is discussed. Professional education on child maltreatment and effective interagency coordination and communication are issues which, it is suggested, need to be considered when developing child abuse prevention service networks.

Prevention of child sexual abuse: implications of programme evaluation research, by D. MacIntyre & A. Carr, Child Abuse Review, vol. 9, no. 3, 2000, pp. 183-199.

After reviewing 30 child abuse prevention programme evaluation studies, it was concluded that child abuse prevention programmes can lead to significant gains in children's, parents' and teachers' safety knowledge and skills. A set of best practice guidelines were established from the review. It is suggested that the curricula for parents' and teachers' programmes should cover child protection issues, as well as local child protection procedures. It was found that it is better to run longer programmes which are conducted by trained staff. Such staff may include teachers, parents, mental health professionals and law enforcement officers.

Using video vignettes to evaluate children's personal safety knowledge: methodological and ethical issues, by B. Johnson, Child Abuse & Neglect, vol. 24, no.5, 2000, pp. 811-827.

This study aimed to assess children's perso