Greetings section members! In January, I was happy to attend the Div. 37 Executive Committee Board meeting held in San Diego where we participated in strategic planning. We continue to strengthen efforts between the section and division. Our MAL, Kristin Valentino, is working on ideas for continuing education for members, and the student board is updating the postdoc guide for child maltreatment. This past winter, our board was joined by several new members: Kimberly Renk serves as new MAL, Anne Shaffer as secretary, Anna Washington as membership chair, Apryl Alexander as ECP co-chair, Sara Vice as newsletter editor, and Yoojin Chae as treasurer. Our student board, currently led by Alex Busuito, is also full after elections, and we are excited to have a full board of students that support the section mission!
Though we are disappointed to not be able to connect with members in person this summer, we are looking forward to the virtual APA conference. Founding section member and former president, Gail S. Goodman, will give an invited address on Disclosure and Memory of Trauma in Childhood. Alongside Mary Ann McCabe, I will co-chair a collaborative proposal on “Trauma and the Lifespan” for which Ann Masten will serve as the discussant. President-elect Karen Appleyard Carmody will chair a symposium on Promoting Resilience in Families Experiencing Homelessness through Evidence-Based Practice. These talks will be available as part of the online program.
I am delighted to announce that Caitlyn Owens is the recipient of the section’s Dissertation Award for her project Promoting Positive Future Expectations in Maltreated Adolescents: A Closer Examination of the Role of Parent-youth Relationships and School Engagement. We look forward to learning more about her important work! It is also my pleasure to announce the winners of the Karen Saywitz Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions in Child Maltreatment in Research and Practice. Susan Yoon receives this award for her Outstanding Contributions to Research. She has devoted her career to studying the well-being and resilience of children who have experienced maltreatment. Charissa Pizzaro is receiving the award for her Outstanding Contributions to Practice. As a bilingual licensed clinical psychologist and avid advocate for immigrant rights, she belongs to the APA Immigration Advocacy Working Group in Washington D.C. Though the pandemic prevents us from presenting these awards in person, we applaud our award winners and remain grateful to work with individuals who are so dedicated to improving the lives of children and their families.
COVID-19 continues to affect all of our lives and has certainly had a detrimental impact on children’s maltreatment risk. Included in this newsletter is a piece that Kristin Valentino, Kimberly Renk, and I wrote about the impact of COVID on child maltreatment (see page 6). The article discusses how children being kept from their typical care and school settings has limited our ability to identify and protect them from child maltreatment occurring in their homes. Calls to Child Protective Services are down while emergency room visits are increasing (Santich & Miller, 2020). We also discuss primary prevention efforts and provide suggestions for communities to address children’s exposure to maltreatment and other adverse child experiences (ACEs).
As our ability to observe and connect with families has decreased, we have realized that the most at-risk children and families are the ones who are the most difficult to reach. Many are limited by lack of technology and/or deep poverty. The people who were already having the most trouble seem to be hit hardest by the pandemic. The systemic racism embedded in this country has contributed to many of the economic and health disparities highlighted in the pandemic. We encourage our members to continue to confront systemic racism in academia and child welfare. Prior to the pandemic, Black children were more likely to be referred to the child welfare investigative agencies, more likely to be placed in an out-of-home placement, and less likely to be reunified with family (Racial Disproportionality and Disparity in Child Welfare, Children’s Bureau, ACYF, ACF, HHS, Issue Brief November 2016).We look forward to working with Div. 37’s new Diverse Racial Ethnic and Multicultural Special Interest Group (DREAM SIG) as we work to address racial disparities in child welfare, juvenile justice, academia, and beyond. In our work we recognize that Black Lives Matter.
I am working alongside our members at large to organize resources for our members to help facilitate us engaging in more advocacy work to help children and families and will have more on that initiative in our next newsletter.
Please feel free to contact me to introduce yourself and/or if you have any questions about the section. As a group and as individuals, we are devoted to children’s well-being and welfare, and we would love to find a way to involve you in our important efforts!