IUPUI is Indiana's premier urban research university. The campus enrolls more than 30,000 students in 21 schools and academic units.
Joanne Martin
Assistant Professor & Director IARCH
Environments for Health and Institute for Action Research in Community Health
jbmartin@iupui.edu
E-Parenting Project: Enhancing home visitation to prevent child abuse
E-Parenting Project (EPP)combines 3 evidence-based interventions to prevent child abuse and neglect into an engaging, interactive, tailored computer program that can be used in home visiting programs. Home visiting is one of the most effective ways to reach families with risk factors for child maltreatment(CM) at the most time(birth-3). Healthy Families America(HFA) is widely implemented across the US, including 56 programs in Indiana. Trained, supervised home visitors develop trusting relationships and strive to improve parenting using well-accepted curricula. However, rigorous studies often find no effects on preventing CM. Expecting home visitors to become competent in evidence-based interventions and use them consistently is a challenge and may not be realistic. Computerized programs have tremendous potential to replicate proven interventions in a cost-effective manner. With funding from CDCP, we are conducting a randomized trial to see if risks for CM are reduced when mothers participate in HFA home visitation that includes E-Parenting compared with regular HFA home visiting and no home visiting. HFA home visitors present E-Parenting in 8 20-minute sessions during HFI home visits. E-Parenting is a computerized version of Motivational Interviewing, Cognitive Retraining and SafeCare, each of which has demonstrated effectiveness in preventing CM. The research is an interdisciplinary collaboration representing psychology, nursing, and public health, with investigators from IU School of Nursing, Wayne State University School of Medicine and CDCP. Each are recognized experts in preventing child maltreatment, but bring different perspectives. The goal is not only to prevent child abuse, but to help parents nurture their children and create a stable, safe family so children grow up healthy and able to reach their full potential.
