Abstract

Emotional maltreatment is widespread and has a profoundly harmful effect on a child's development. The effects of abuse are often carried into adulthood, and emotionally abused children are more likely to experience a range of problems as adults including depression, substance misuse and eating disorders. This book sets out to identify 'what works' in preventing emotional maltreatment from recurring.

Since most emotional maltreatment takes place within the family home, involves the primary care-giver and reflects ongoing patterns of damaging parent-child interaction rather than isolated incidents, interventions directly targeting parent-child interactions are highlighted. The authors explore the available treatments, identifying which approaches work, who they work with and the limitations of each. Conclusions and recommendations based on the key findings are presented, including implications for practice and over-arching issues to be addressed.

Safeguarding Children from Emotional Maltreatment is essential reading for all practitioners working in the field of emotional abuse and neglect, including social workers, health visitors, community paediatricians and psychologists.

Jane Barlow is Professor of Public Health in the Early Years. She is Director of the Warwick Infant and Family Wellbeing Unit (WIFWU), which provides training and research in innovative evidence-based methods of supporting parenting during pregnancy and the early years. Jane has also researched extensively on the effectiveness of interventions aimed at preventing and treating abuse and is a strong advocate of a public health approach to child protection. Dr Anita Schrader is Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and former director of the UK Consortium for Street Children.