Parental Training Lowers Child Abuse
What a novel concept. But that's one lesson to learn from this study (Medpage Today, 1/27/09). It's hardly the last word on the subject, as the authors themselves say. And of course the "costs" of training may outweigh the "benefits," but injuries to children by parents are both an immediate and a long-term problem. Physical abuse of children consumes medical resources in the short term and is a factor in creating the next generation of child abusers.
Parenting skills aren't innate. People need to learn what to do and the best way to do it. Some people can learn that on the job and some had excellent parental role models themselves. But many people don't have those advantages and need help.
One question I have: Is this part of the usual CPS arsenal of weapons to use against child abuse? In other words, if CPS identifies a family as likely to abuse a child, can it require the parents to attend a parenting skills course? Or better yet, can if require them to see an individual case worker who can identify their particular shortcomings and try to address those?
Or do CPS workers basically resort to punitive measures? "If I have to come out here again, I'm going to take the children," shouldn't be the first and last response available to CPS. My guess is that if caseworkers can suggest or require parents to get involved in parenting classes or case-specific corrective therapy as an alternative to punishing the parents, they would tend to intervene in problematic situations earlier. I also think the parents would be more amenable to their intervention.
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