Development and description of an empirically based ecobehavioral treatment program for child maltreatment

Victims of child maltreatment and their families evince a myriad of behavio ral problems, including deficits in parenting skills, social skills, safety skills, anger, stress, and financial management, mood disorders, and abusi ve behavior. Controlled treatment outcome studies in child maltreated sampl es have indicated that many of these problems are responsive to clinical in tervention strategies. However, empirically based practitioners who treat c hild maltreatment are faced with the inevitable task of effectively integra ting these treatments into their clinical programs. Therefore, this paper d escribes the development of an ecobehavioral treatment program for child ma ltreatment that is founded on a comprehensive integration of previously val idated procedures. The program's development, and methods of assessment and intervention, will be underscored, including therapist training strategies , and solutions to problems that sometimes occur. Data in support of the pr ogram is examined, but primarily as a means to demonstrate how evaluative c omponents may be utilized in practice settings to guide intervention. Copyr ight (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.