OneFamily Foundation grant supports parent education for domestic violence survivors

Deaconess Children’s Services gratefully acknowledges a grant from The OneFamily Foundation in the amount of $8,500 to support its IMPACT program. The OneFamily Foundation was established in 1997 in Seattle, Washington. The goals of the foundation are to provide resources to enhance the lives of women living in poverty and at-risk youth, to support services for abused women, and to aid efforts to end violence and sexual assault against women and children.

Research suggests that exposure to extreme stress in childhood, such as domestic violence, affects children's neuro-cognitive development. Children exposed to high levels of domestic violence had IQs that were, on average, 8 points lower than unexposed children. Structural equation models showed that adult domestic violence accounted for 4% of the variation, on average, in child IQ, independent of latent genetic influences.

According to Michael DeBellis, M.D., abused children with PTSD have lower intracranial and cerebral volumes, larger lateral ventricles, and a smaller corpus callosum than healthy controls. Most of the subjects were diagnosed with PTSD as a consequence of sexual abuse, which began when they were between 1 and 7 years old and lasted between one and five years. Several subjects had witnessed domestic violence and/or were emotionally abused, which often coincided with the sexual abuse. A few subjects were also physically abused. All of the abused children were living in stable environments without the perpetrators during the study, which was published as the second of a two-part series in the May 15, 1999, issue of Biological Psychiatry.

The good news revealed by research is the younger the child, the more ‘plasticity’ the child’s brain has, and the better able we are to help parents take needed steps to help rebuild healthy brain tissue through positive bonding and parenting. This donation will allow Deaconess’ IMPACT to provide individualized parent coaching (Parent Child Interactive Therapy - PCIT) for domestic violence survivors and aimed at increasing parents’ awareness of specific child behaviors and encouraging them to use praise and nonviolent discipline strategies.

Parent Child Interactive Therapy (PCIT), is a one to one parent education and behavior management program for children. The PCIT program seeks to halt violence in families that has been on a sharp up rise in this country. One of the common characteristics to violence in families is a negative way of relating to each other. PCIT is a proven to work technique that has been able to reduce the risk of child abuse, and provides skills that parents can transfer to other situations and settings.

PCIT provides direct coaching to the parent by the therapist. The therapist coaches the parent in what to say and gives encouragement and praise when the parent is able to relate positively to the child. The therapist watches the family interact and listens to what is said. At Deaconess, PCIT is conducted in both a specialized therapeutic room equipped with a one way mirror, video recording, and a listening device used for directly communicating with the parent as well as with the parent/child in the home and community. Parents learn how a child’s behavior is shaped and maintained by their social environment and how methods of behavioral change learned throughout PCIT can be applied to new problems as they arise.

Two recent research studies show that PCIT is effective in mitigating child abuse. The first reported that when PCIT was tested with maltreated children and their parents, PCIT resulted in (a) fewer child behavioral problems, (b) lower parental stress, and (c) reduced risk factors known to cause child abuse. The second study showed that PCIT is effective in preventing re-reports of child physical abuse. After an average of 850 days, only 19% of the participants in PCIT had re-reports of physical abuse to the child, compared to a second group of participants who didn’t receive PCIT. The second group had a re-report rate of 49%. Longitudinal studies indicate that the improvement gained during PCIT continues to grow over time and has positive impacts on other children in the home. PCIT is for parents or caregivers and children who regularly have contact with each other at least 3-4 times per week.

Deaconess Children's Services programs have been proven to work in all populations we have served, transforming the lives of children and the future of our country for the better.