Independent Variable

As I was talking with Allie and Alex, a couple who recently found out they are having a baby, what is their idea of child rearing I was quite surprised by their reply. After much discussion, my focused for them were their idea of child care; whose is responsible for night time feedings, and the benefit of nurturing a newborn, and how the newborn will affect their relationship (Kaakinen et al., 2015). Allie, the wife, explained that she will be off work for 12 weeks with the baby and that the first two weeks her mother will be down to help. Alex, the husband, explained that his job did not provide paternity leave, so that he will be working every day, but did request two weeks of vacation pay to be home with his wife and child.

Early screening, ideally prenatal screening, of mothers is essential to the prevention of maltreatment during the vulnerable period of infancy and early childhood, when children’s brains are developing at a rapid pace. Support- ive relationships, including with romantic partners or therapeutic professionals, are one important aspect in breaking the cycle of maltreatment (Egeland, Jacobvitz, & Sroufe, 1988; Milan, Lewis, Ethier, Kershaw, & Ickovics, 2004). Since intimate partner violence is associated with risk for child maltreatment (Taylor, Guterman, Lee, & Rathouz, 2009), taking a broader ecological approach that includes assessing household and partner risks is important. Utilizing obstetric or pediatric venues to identify risks for intergenerational continuity and transmission, and then offering resources or referrals to bolster or build supportive relationship capacities may contribute to breaking the cycle of maltreatment, and promoting the positive health of family members (Garner et al., 2012). Screening with attention to types of abuse and neglect that mothers may have experienced during childhood will inform a more nuanced understanding of child maltreatment prevention among moth- ers with histories of abuse and neglect. One review of preventive interventions for child abuse and neglect concluded that different interventions are more or less

158-159). “In reviewing the literature, the focus was on identifying the impact of parental mental health, the associated risks, the difficulties with the interface working, and proposed solutions” (Duffy et al., 2010, p. 159). Some of concerns expressed for the program to be effective were how mental health and child care services work together, communication between the two, role clarity, and the outcome hoped to be achieved by the development of this program was to provide holistic interventions which could not be provided by just one agency, earlier intervention which was more effective, to decrease staff stress, and to obtain a better outcome for the families involved (Duffy et al.,

In 1991 mothers with newborns were recruited from hospitals at 10 different data collection from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development across the United States (Vazsonyi, 2010).Their mainly focused was when the child was 4.5 years, 8.5, and 10.5 from the 1,155 families that were recruited. For instance, all those cases were review yearly to focus on the behavior if the child was engaging any misbehavior within the years. For example, if single parents were going to have more issues controlling their children misconduct or has they are getting older was the probability for them to change. However, they used different scales to evaluate. For example, descriptive statistics of the study construct a scale score that mothers will complete to include a self-control analysis, another scale was about the correlations among the parent’s self-control and deviance. Also, they tested if at

More importantly, it involves the parents or care givers and seeks to improve family dynamics. Parental involvement is important to the efficacy of home visiting. It helps to empower the family, increase parental competence and confidence, reduce behavioral problems through the person-in-environment approach of problem solving and enhancing well-being. The amount and quality of family engagement in home visiting facilitates the establishment of a helping relationship between parents or caregivers and the home visitor (Brand, Jungman, Sierau, 2012). Also, The California Evidence Based Clearinghouse on Child Welfare, gave SafeCare a scientific rating of two and a high rating on child welfare system relevance scale; meaning, demonstrates high levels of promising effectiveness through research evidence and is commonly used to meet the needs of youth and families involved with child welfare services (Lutzker, 2013).

One obstacle in the case presented in the “vignette” is that the reader is not informed of the referral source. It can be extrapolated that this was a family visit by choice, as opposed to a mandated visit, and while this is unclear, the following paper will reflect this; the family has initiated the counselling visit.

The presiding judge will appoint a clinical psychologist to perform an evaluation of all parties and give a recommendation based on the results of the assessment. The court appointed evaluator’s sole purpose is to aid the presiding judge in making the final custody arrangements, by remaining impartial and determining the best interest of the child involved (Patel, 2014). The techniques in which court-appointed evaluators execute the assessment varies. One key aspect of the evaluations is that both parent and child are assessed. The evaluator must figure out information such as the child’s attitude and preferences towards the parent, emotional stability of all parties and the parent’s financial capabilities in providing adequate living arrangements (Grisso, 1984). One of the most common methods of evaluation is simply through observation. The evaluator observes the relationship between parent and child through how they interact with each other. Although there is a possibility that interactions can be ‘staged’, parents and children typically adjust to being observed, and will even display blatant and undesirable behaviors in the presence of the evaluator (Robert Galatzer 1997). The NIMS Observation Checklist, developed in 1998 by psychologist Jerry Nims, is an observational checklist used to assess five basic characteristics in determining the best

Alternative response (AR) (also called an assessment response or family assessment response) in this publication, the terms alternative response (or pathway) and assessment response (or pathway) are used interchangeably. These responses—usually applied in low- and moderate-risk cases—typically do not require a formal determination or substantiation of child abuse or neglect, and names are not entered into a central registry. Both pathways for the most part envelop evaluations of child wellbeing and/or hazard. An exhaustive family evaluation concentrated on family 's qualities and necessities is integral to AR and might likewise be incorporated with IR. Both pathways offer numerous basic standards and objectives, including an emphasis on child security, permanency, and prosperity. ((n.d.). Retrieved December 20, 2015, from https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/differential_response.pdf)

During my time with the family I felt that they were at risk for impaired parenting related to prolong separation from the parent as evidence by long amounts of time with no physical contact with the baby. It was clear that both mom and dad were emotionally stressed by not being able to provide basic needs for their newborn, and physical contact was restricted to small amounts of touching through the isolette. It was also clear that mom and dad had still not developed any comfort with independently holding or feeding the baby. I observed that they wanted to become more comfortable and have more physical interaction with their child. Overall they wanted to become more integrated into the physical care of their child.

Our family was very complex due to the number of children, the fact that it was a single parent home, the socioeconomic status of the family, issues with health literacy, and the initial responses from the family that left us without a clear understanding of their primary health concerns. These conditions required that we be adaptable with one another, as well as our family. We quickly realized that there was an initial assumption among us all that a solution for our family would either be clearly chosen by them, or clearly identified by our interactions with them early on, and this was not the case. Rather, our conversations with the family, their health needs, and our assessments changed with almost every home visit. This complexity might have been much more difficult for our team had we not had a shared mental model very early on. We all agreed that we had to ensure we were making no assumptions, and that every visit was approached with completely open

gather data to determine the correlation between variables. The questionnaires were given to the participants are the Relationships Questionnaire (RQ ; Bartholomew & Horowit, 1991) to measure attachment, the Parental Attachment Questionnaire (PAQ; Kenny, 1990) to measure the parenting style, and the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 10- item questionnaire (10- item CD-RISC; Campbell-Sills & Stein, 2007) to measure resiliency.

First, no cases opened for children mental health case management where the parents and/or guardians were contacted via letter. Therefore, it is evident that phone contact has the most significant impact on whether parents and/or guardians will receive mental health case management services for their child. Another trend is that the referrals that were received from law enforcement or child protection had a zero percent chance of opening for children’s mental health case management. This was not surprising, as most families that may have child protection or law enforcement involvement typically do not want the county to intervene in their lives. Lastly, referrals that came from the parents and/ or guardians themselves had over a fifty percent chance of opening for children’s mental health case management. Again, this was not surprising because if the parents are contacting the county, they typically want these services in place for their child. Overall, these were the results of my research. Additionally, there are some apparent trends that are evident by completing this research

When the total stress score of an individual falls above the 90th percentile, parents are considered to be at-risk and referral for intervention is recommended. Scores on the Parent and Child Domain scores are then interpreted to clarify the issues that should be addressed during intervention. When the Parent Domain score is elevated above the 90th percentile and the Child Domain score is not, dysfunctional parental attitudes and struggles with parenting skills are considered to be the target of intervention. When Child Domain scores are elevated and the Parent Domain is not, the pattern reflects a difficult child and parents are presumed to be in need of support and training in parenting skills tailored to match that child's difficult temperament or current behavioral

To gather information for this research I will use, self-report data, surveys, questionnaires and psychological tests. Given the age of participants, TOEFL Junior Tests for comprehension will be administered. Results from these tests will be used to insure information given is relatable and presented accordingly. Surveys and self-reports will be designed to gather information on perceived parenting styles, behavioral issues, and criminal issues. Psychological tests will include: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), Behavior Assessment System for

The authors included information on clients of all ages and that they took time to focus on families