Child maltreatment

Prevention and intervention efforts related to child maltreatment center on parent-training strategies. The most potent and widely disseminated efforts have roots in applied behavior analysis (ABA), social learning, behavior therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy. In this chapter, we briefly review the public health problem of child maltreatment, describe why parent training is a logical prevention and intervention response, and highlight the development of evidence-based programs with deep roots in ABA. We focus specifically on the development and empirical evidence of SafeCare (and its predecessor, Project 12-Ways), an evidence-based child maltreatment prevention program for parents of children under age 5, developed by Dr. John R. Lutzker. We discuss ABA in relation to parent training as well as the workforce (i.e., providers). Not only have individuals trained in ABA played a central role in developing, disseminating, and implementing evidence-based programs such as SafeCare, but those trained in ABA are critical to the continued prevention of child maltreatment.