Disseminating Child Maltreatment Interventions: Research on Implementing Evidence-Based Programs

Evidence-based practices (EBPs) have the promise to reduce child maltreatment and improve the lives of countless families and children, but effective implementation entails many challenges. Efficacious interventions now exist for parents at risk for or who have perpetrated maltreatment (i.e., Chaffin et al., 2004; Chaffin, Hecht, Bard, Silovsky, & Beasley, in press; Kolko, Iselin, & Gully, 2011; Prinz, Sanders, Shapiro, Whitaker, & Lutzker 2009; Webster-Stratton, 2010) and for youth victimized by maltreatment (Cohen, Mannarino, Berliner, & Deblinger, 2000; Deblinger & Heflin, 1996). Despite the development of such programs, many families involved in the child welfare and foster care systems are not provided interventions or services with strong empirical support (Barth et al., 2005; Hurlburt, Barth, Leslie, Landsverk, & McCrae. 2007). For example, while parenting interventions are virtually de rigueur on service plans, extant parenting services often consist of didactic classroom-centered parent training or mix systems therapy and case management that bear little resemblance to the evidence-based parent behavior management programs that are proven effective (Barth et al., 2005; Casanueva, Martin, Runyan, Barth, & Bradley, 2007). The child maltreatment field is in the nascent stage with regard to transporting EBPs into relevant public sector services systems. Fortunately, research is advancing our understanding of the critical contextual factors at the client, therapist, organization, training, and sociopolitical levels that can increase the likelihood of effective EBP implementation (e.g., Addis, 1997, 2002; Beidas & Kendall, 2010; Berwick, 2003; Chamberlain et al., 2008; Elliott & Mihalic, 2004; Herschell et al., 2003; Sanders & Turner, 2005; Saul et al., 2008; Schoenwald, 2003; Turner & Sanders, 2006; Wandersman et al., 2008; Weisz & Gray, 2008). The purpose of this special issue is to advance implementation science in the field of child maltreatment prevention and intervention by presenting data-based articles that highlight recent efforts to conduct rigorous research on EBP dissemination and implementation. For purposes of this special issue, we use definitions of implementation and stages of implementation provided by National Implementation Research Network (Fixsen, Naoom, Blase, Friedman, & Wallace, 2005). Specifically, implementation is defined as “a specified set of activities designed to put into practice an activity or program of known dimensions.” As implementation is a process, and not an event, Fixsen and colleagues identified the following discernible stages as critical to effective implementation of EBPs: (1) Exploration/Adoption, (2) Program Installation, (3) Initial Implementation, (4) Full Operation, (5) Innovation, and (6) Sustainability (for further description, please refer to Fixsen et al., 2005). The articles published in this issue address all of the implementation stages, with the exception of the innovation stage. Implementation stages relevant to this issue are presented below, along with a brief review of the current state of the literature, and a discussion of how the special issue articles advance current knowledge.