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Objective: Child neglect is the most common type of child maltreatment. Our objective was to systematically evaluate the available evidence regarding the effectiveness of child neglect treatment programs, including those focused on victims of childhood neglect and (or) their caregivers.Method: We comprehensively searched the Medline, Psycinfo, and Eric databases from January 1980 to May 2003. Two authors independently reviewed 54 studies that met inclusion criteria. Fourteen articles met our design criterion and were assessed for their methodological quality according to guidelines developed by the US Preventive Services Task Force.Results: Of the 14 studies included in the review, 2 were rated as good, and 3 were rated as fair. We found evidence that 2 specific types of play therapy and a therapeutic day treatment program had beneficial effects for children. Further, parents and children in families where neglect had occurred showed improvement with multisystemic therapy.Conclusions: Rigorous studies of treatments for neglected children and their families are lacking. Well-designed and well-conducted evaluations are urgently required to identify effective treatments, which should then be made available to children and their caregivers.

Objective: This study assessed the feasibility and efficacy of a parent-education group for families with young children and a parent with depression. We designed the program to be readily disseminated if shown to be effective.Method: We recruited 44 parents with depression from clinics and family doctors in Hamilton, Ontario, and randomly assigned them to receive the parenting program or to a wait-list control group. The outcomes measured included knowledge of depression, parenting, family relationships, depression symptoms, child depressive symptoms, and functioning. We used analysis of covariance to test for posttreatment differences between experimental and control groups.Results: Of the treatment group, 27% dropped out at posttreatment, and 43% by follow-up. Those who dropped out had more severe depression at baseline than did those who completed the program, and there was selective loss of parents with more severe depression in the experimental group. In intention-to-treat analyses at posttreatment, probands in the experimental group reported more improvements on family functioning, parenting sense of competence, and family and parent conflict than did control subjects. Standardized effect sizes (ES) were medium (0.4 to 0.6). When baseline depressive symptom scores were controlled in the analyses, the between-group differences were reduced, showing that selective loss of participants may have influenced the findings.Conclusions: On balance, the results are encouraging and support the further development and evaluation of the group intervention. However, the study does not provide unequivocal evidence in support of the program. Before it is transferred to other settings, the program needs further modification to improve participation by parents with more severe depression and further evaluation of its effectiveness.