Purpose: Protecting children from mistreatment is a global concern, and further research and evaluation in child protection services is required. Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) has demonstrated potential, but to date, there is no systematic review of studies that evaluate the application of CQI in child protection. Method: This systematic…

Purpose: The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act requires child welfare agencies to have provisions in place to refer young children to early intervention services, yet the socioemotional health needs of children are often challenging to recognize and treat effectively. This study reviews the substantive and psychometric properties of…

Objective: Children in out-of-home placements typically display more educational, behavioral, and psychological problems than do their peers. This systematic review evaluated the effect of kinship care placement compared to foster care placement on the safety, permanency, and well-being of children removed from the home for maltreatment. Methods:…

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the construct and predictive validity of the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI-2). Methods: The validity of the AAPI-2 was evaluated using multiple statistical methods, including exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and latent class analysis. These analyses were…

Objective: We examine how frontline workers and supervisors delivering a research-supported intervention (RSI) to reduce child neglect negotiated system-related challenges, the pragmatics of RSI implementation, and their professional identities and relationships with clients. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews, small group…

The widespread adoption of research-supported treatments by mental health providers has facilitated empirical development of quality assurance (QA) methods. Research in this area has focused on QA systems aimed at assuring the integrity of research-supported treatment implementation, while examination of QA systems to assure appropriate…

Objective: To evaluate whether the addition of a wraparound facilitator to regular child protection services improved child and family functioning over 20 months. Method: A single blind randomized controlled trial with concealment and stratification across three sites (N = 135 eligible families with substantiated maltreatment). Results: Based on 2…

Ronald Hughes, Judith Rycus, and their colleagues have produced a seminal review of differential response (DR) programs implemented across the nation. Their review questions nearly every aspect of the DR movement, beginning with the concept on which all DR programs are based and ending with serious concerns about the quality of evaluations…

Ronald Hughes and his colleagues have written a groundbreaking article on child welfare's use of differential response. Their research addresses the matter from a "lessons learned" and "ways to improve" approach. Our comments focused on three key issues: (1) the importance of evidence-based practice; (2) the recognition…

In their critique of differential response (DR), Hughes and colleagues raise a number of important issues that are central to broader efforts at the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF) including the need for greater reliance on evidence-based practice in child welfare, more rigorous evaluation methodologies, and a robust set of…

Hughes, Rycus, Saunders-Adams, Hughes, and Hughes's article represents an important effort to critically examine the foundation of thought and empirical evidence associated with the rise in prominence of differential response (DR) within child welfare systems throughout the United States. The insights and criticisms offered are an important…

This is a response to the document by Hughes et al. in this issue that offers a critique of the status of differential response (DR). We find the document to be helpful in intent, but do not find that it reflects scientifically sound methods, and contains many mischaracterizations of the status, impetus, research, and evaluation of DR to date. We…

This article is a response to "Issues in Differential Response", a review of the current evidence pertaining to differential response (DR) programs in child protective services (CPS). In my view, the Hughes, Rycus, Saunders-Adams, Hughes, and Hughes article suffers from several weaknesses. First, DR programs are critiqued as if they were…

The Hughes et al. paper is critiqued generally and in specific areas. The weak nature of the authors' empirical work is discussed along with their enigmatic writing and vague and incorrect use of references, and their simultaneous use of sweeping statements of opinion and narrow analytical focus. This review examines the authors' errors…

This article is an invited commentary and analysis of the authors' completed systematic evaluation of Child Protective Services (CPS) differential response (DR) models. I write this commentary based on 25 years of public child welfare experience followed by 13 years as a social work professor and researcher. In their review of DR, the…