ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is on prevention of neglect in the general population, prevention of neglect in families considered to be at high-risk for inadequate parenting, and remediating the already existing condition of child neglect and preventing its reoccurrence. This book proposes four approaches that guide the categorization of interventions with neglected children and their families. These strategies for practice are drawn from the causal models found in Chapter Three. The practice approaches are as follows:
1. Intrafamilial practice focuses on interventions with adults to change behaviors and/or personality or family characteristics, which can result in neglectful parenting. The parental deficiencies model, that suggests interventions aimed at remediating the deficient familial characteristics that lead to child neglect, implies these strategies. Constructed from social learning, behavioral, developmental, neurobiological, and information-processing theory, the parental deficiencies model proposes interventions to remediate the deficient familial characteristics that result in child neglect.
