Can childhood neglect be assessed and prevented through childcare skills training?

Child neglect continues to be the most prevalent form of child maltreatment, yet it has received less specific research attention than other forms of maltreatment. The objectives of the study was to assess the effect of childcare skill training on the child's welfare. Six 16-25 year-old mothers took part in the study, two in the feeding programme, two in the bathing programme and two in both programmes. Three mothers reached criterion levels on the second observation point which suggests that any prompts were effective in changing behavior without the addition of praise or vouchers. Follow-up observations were completed with three mothers and showed that skills had been maintained above the criterion level. Results for the feeding programme do not show consistent improvement across mothers. A childcare skills training programme was implemented to increase specific parenting skills (bathing and feeding) for six young, vulnerable mothers and assess if this intervention could be utilized in the assessment and prevention of child neglect. There are obvious limitations in this study due to the relatively small numbers of participants and the fact that no fathers participated, these results are important because they point towards the potential of childcare skills training in relation to assessment and prevention of neglect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)