Preventing Child Abuse: A Review of Community-Based Projects II: Issues Arising from Reviews and Future Directions

Detailed examination of evaluated community programmes for the prevention of physical child abuse and neglect shows that success depends on matching the skills of the sta to the needs of the families. The relative ineciency of risk screening and attrition from prevention programmes argues for comprehensive as well as focused aspects of programmes and variation in which is available. Sexual abuse prevention programmes have usually been implemented in schools but are more successful when the focus includes bullying and when children and parents are also actively involved. This is also true of bullying programmes. In establishing risk for abuse, more eective methods are required to assess aspects of family life that are not readily observable, including involved but non-resident adult males. It is important not only to approach abuse prevention by intervening in dierent ways and at dierent points in the network of processes within and around the family, but also to find cost-eective ways of sustaining preventative eorts. *c 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd