A comprehensive 5-year evaluation of project 12-ways: An ecobehavioral program for treating and preventing child abuse and neglect

Evaluations of services designed to ameliorate the problems associated with child abuse and/or neglect (CAN) are relatively rare. The present investigation examines the impact of ecobehavioral services provided to families with extensive histories of CAN and examines the demographics of two groups of families. Project 12-Ways provides in-home ecobehavioral treatment to families referred by the state protective service agency. Impact data were collected and compared from families served by Project 12-Ways and families served by the stale protective service agency and other community programs. These data focused on the rates of CAN, placement of children outside of the parental home, and permanent termination of parental rights. Comparisons were made on pretreatment, treatment, and post-treatment rates. It was determined that both samples experienced significant decrements in CAN. While the two samples were equivalent in rates of CAN, data were presented showing differences in severity and priority of CAN which suggest that ecobehavioral services can be successful in reducing CAN. Thus, a heuristic model is available for evaluating CAN, including the manner in which the data were collected, the range of independent variables included, and the considerable span of the families' lives covered in the evaluation. These results suggest some modification of the way in which follow-up data are collected and used to change policy and practice.