News from the Section on Child Maltreatment

The big news from the section at this time of year is, of course, APA Convention programming. We are pleased that the division program includes three sessions specific to child maltreatment:

1. Christina Danko and Karen Budd are chairing a symposium on parenting risk assessment. Karen Budd will describe a new shortened measure of parenting attitudes, including data from a sample of ethnically diverse parents of young children. Christina Rodriguez will present on analog tasks to assess parenting risk for maltreatment. Mary Haskett will present on multimethod assessment of parents with substantiated physical abuse and the relationship to parent and child outcomes. Amy Smith Slep will discuss the papers, drawing from her experiences with evidence-based programs to screen for and prevent child maltreatment.
2. Div. 37 is co-sponsoring a symposium with Div. 7 (Developmental Psychology) on neurological and physiological implications of maltreatment, co-chaired by Angela Evans and Jennifer Piazza. Layla Banihashemi will describe how maltreatment shapes stress-responsive visceral brain circuits. Victor Carrion will present a neurological perspective of pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder. Martin Teicher will provide evidence for sensitive periods in the enduring neurobiological effects of childhood maltreatment. Sharon Portwood will offer her perspective as discussant.
3. For the section presidential symposium, I invited three presentations on informing child maltreatment prevention in broader social ecological contexts. Bridget Freisthler will present data on the interplay between alcohol sales outlets, parental drinking and child physical maltreatment. Joanne Klevens will report on maltreatment outcomes from the Early Head Start randomized controlled trial. Sandra Alexander will describe efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to engage the business sector in child maltreatment prevention. Jill Korbin will discuss these papers and place them in the context of how we can move the field forward to improve child maltreatment prevention efforts. 

There will also be several interesting studies on child maltreatment represented in the poster session, as well as a presentation of the section's Early Career and Dissertation Awards at the social hour. The section is grateful to Divs. 37 and 7 for sponsoring these exciting sessions on child maltreatment. We hope to see you there.