Child Welfare

How Should Clinicians and Students Cope With Secondary Trauma When Caring for Children Traumatized by Abuse or Neglect?

When health care professionals encounter child abuse and neglect, they can experience a range of emotions, such as anger, sadness, and frustration. Such feelings can cloud judgment, compromise care, or even undermine one’s capacity to complete evaluation of a child. … Read More

How Should Race and Resource Context Influence How Neglect Is Considered by Clinicians?

Separation of children from their parents is one possible traumatizing consequence of a mandated report, which is not to be taken lightly. This commentary on a case considers how racism and poverty should influence clinicians’ construal of their duties as … Read More

How Should Clinicians Minimize Bias When Responding to Suspicions About Child Abuse?

Abstract Clinicians have ethical and legal obligations to report suspected maltreatment of children. A decision to report suspected abuse is one of great ethical, clinical, and legal importance and can weigh heavily on clinicians who have established relationships with a … Read More

Child Trafficking: Addressing Challenges to Public Awareness and Survivor Support

Why This Matters Human traffickers can target children in the U.S. to exploit them sexually, force them into labor, or both. Children can be targeted due to their age and other factors that make them vulnerable. Children experiencing poverty, homelessness, … Read More

Interested in policy supporting homeless youths? ABA group provides guidance

Richard Hooks Wayman was a senior youth policy analyst at the National Alliance to End Homelessness in the mid-2000s when he became involved with the ABA Commission on Homelessness and Poverty. Hooks Wayman spent most of his earlier career focusing on … Read More

FACT SHEET: President Biden to Announce Strategy to Address Our National Mental Health Crisis, As Part of Unity Agenda in his First State of the Union

In his first State of the Union, the President will outline a unity agenda consisting of policy where there has historically been support from both Republicans and Democrats, and call on Congress to send bills to his desk to deliver … Read More

Exploring the Effects of Maltreatment and Child Welfare System Experiences on Juvenile Justice Involvement

This dissertation examines the effect of maltreatment and child welfare experiences on juvenile justice involvement. Using a broad sample of youth who have been involved with probation and the advanced causal inference method of Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation (TMLE) and … Read More

Reaching and Supporting Families Most in Need: Lessons and Practice Considerations from the Head Start REACH Case Studies

What is the Head Start REACH project? The Head Start REACH project is examining the ERSEA approaches that programs for infants and toddlers (Early Head Start) and preschool-age children (Head Start) use to engage Head Start–eligible families experiencing adversities. Adversities … Read More

Helping Children and Youth Maintain Relationships With Birth Families

Children and youth who are adopted need to maintain relationships with their birth families, previous caregivers, or other important connections, and it is vital that their parents support them in doing so. Nurturing these relationships is in the best interests … Read More

Birth Family Connections and Openness

Children who have been adopted are part of at least two families—their birth or first family and their adoptive family. Many, especially those adopted at an older age, have connections to their birth parents or other members of their birth … Read More