The Heart to Heart project
Child maltreatment is destructive to the psychological and biological development of children, significantly increasing their risk for mental health disorders throughout the lifespan. Thus, translational research which uses our knowledge of risk and protective factors, at multiple levels of analysis, to inform and evaluate evidence-based interventions for young maltreated children is sorely needed (Cicchetti & Valentino, 2006). The aims of this project are to evaluate (1) the efficacy of Reminiscing and Emotion Training (RET), a brief, dyadic intervention for maltreated preschool-aged children and their mothers, in fostering maltreated children’s development in cognitive, emotional, and physiological domains and in improving their mothers’ parenting; and (2) the specific mechanisms underlying intervention effects, including the role of child and maternal diurnal cortisol regulation. To accomplish these aims, the project will enroll 240 preschool-aged children and their mothers into a randomized clinical trial. Maltreating families will be randomized into one of two conditions: the RET condition or a Community Standard condition (CS), which serves as an active control. Additionally, a demographically matched group of non-maltreating families will be included to determine the extent to which families in the RET group approximate functioning of non-maltreated families over time. Families will participate in baseline, 8-week post, 6 month and 1-year follow-up assessments with a repeated measures battery of interviews, observations, and assessments of maternal and child behavioral and biological functioning. This multi-level, multi-measure approach will enable researchers to fully evaluate the efficacy of the RET intervention, and the mechanisms underlying intervention effects. Consequently, this project addresses significant societal concerns relevant to the psychological and biological health of maltreated children through the evaluation of an innovative brief intervention. The study has potential to significantly advance scientific knowledge and to inform more effective clinical and policy efforts designed to improve the welfare of maltreated children and families, including programs that may be readily disseminated to communities nationally.
