The Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice (Division 37 of the American Psychological Association) is committed to the application of psychological knowledge to advocacy, service delivery, and public policies affecting children, youth, and families. The Division advances research, education, training, and practice through a multi-disciplinary perspective. Division activities, which include published works, have focused on such topics as: divorce and custody, child abuse prevention, pediatric AIDS, drug-exposed infants, latchkey children, homelessness, and systems of care.

President's Column

As someone who has dedicated almost his entire professional career to traumatic stress during childhood and specifically, child maltreatment, I am deeply honored to be the President of the Section on Child Maltreatment. Although our Section is relatively small, the importance of our work is substantial and we make a significant contribution to the American Psychological Association’s commitment to children and families. I would like to thank Sharon Portwood, J.D., Ph.D. who finished her term in 2006 as President of the Section and who now serves on the Executive Committee as Past President. Sharon did an outstanding job as President and I have greatly admired her dedication in executing the responsibilities of the position.

Earlier this year, President Bush followed the annual presidential tradition of declaring April Child Abuse Prevention Month. Of course, it is noteworthy that our President tries to capture the public’s attention regarding the scope of the child maltreatment problem in our society and the need to create safe and secure families and communities for all of our children. However, child maltreatment does not occur in isolation. Sadly, many of our children are exposed to multiple other forms of violence, including domestic violence, community violence, bullying, and extrafamilial sexual assault. Violence exposure, including child maltreatment, may contribute to a child’s problems in several possible domains, such as mental health difficulties, disruption of normal development and attachments, and later drug and alcohol issues. Many of us believe that the different types of violence to which children are exposed are interrelated and that researchers who study child maltreatment benefit from knowing what researchers who study other forms of violence are doing. Protecting our children is a big job. Communication between professionals and researchers in the child maltreatment field with their counterparts in related areas of interpersonal violence can only enhance our efforts to keep our children and communities safe.

For those of you who are members of the Section, we welcome you and encourage your participation. Please become active in any of the task forces or other projects that are ongoing within the Section. For anyone thinking about joining the Section, we’d love to have you as a member and join in our commitment to addressing the wide array of clinical, research, training, and prevention issues posed by the problem of child maltreatment. Although we can perhaps never eradicate child maltreatment in our society, the Section is dedicated to bringing further recognition to the problem of children’s exposure to abuse and other forms of violence, providing effective services to families to treat the impact of violence, and making the kind of sustained prevention efforts that may ultimately result in reduced exposure and safer families and communities.   More detail...