Background

The role of alcohol use in the etiology of abusive and neglectful parenting is significant. We examined how the Sacramento Neighborhood Alcohol Prevention Project (SNAPP) may have reduced rates of substantiated child maltreatment, entries into foster care, and entries into foster care where alcohol use was a factor.

Participants and setting

The study sample is 326 Census block groups: 21 and 16 in the South and North intervention areas, respectively, and 289 in the At-Large comparison area in Sacramento, California.

Methods

SNAPP used a quasi-experimental design to reduce alcohol supply and alcohol-related problems among 15–29 year olds in two economically, racially, and ethnically diverse neighborhoods. The dependent variables are substantiated child abuse and neglect; total foster care entries; and alcohol-related foster care entries.

Results

Substantiated child abuse and neglect was inconclusive for both intervention areas. In the North, total (RR = 0.822, 95 % CI [0.721, 0.933]) and alcohol-related (RR = 0.760, 95 % CI [0.634, 0.914]) foster care entries decreased by 17.8 % and 24.0 %, respectively. Intervention effects in the South were not well-supported for foster care entries (RR = 1.118, 95 % CI [0.988, 1.258]), but increased alcohol-related foster care entries (RR = 1.264, 95 % CI [1.075, 1.484]).

Conclusions

Environmental intervention strategies may be effective at reducing child abuse and neglect. However, given the mixed findings from our work, we need to identify under what conditions these interventions work best and whether some components of these strategies (e.g. awareness vs. enforcement of underage sales) differentially affect child abuse and neglect.

中文翻译：

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评估萨克拉门托邻里酒精预防项目 (SNAPP) 对虐待和忽视儿童的影响

背景

酒精使用在虐待和疏忽育儿的病因学中的作用很重要。我们研究了萨克拉门托邻里酒精预防项目 (SNAPP) 如何降低经证实的儿童虐待率、进入寄养家庭以及进入寄养家庭（酒精使用是一个因素）的发生率。

参与者和设置

研究样本是 326 个人口普查区块组：分别有 21 个和 16 个位于南部和北部干预区，289 个位于加利福尼亚州萨克拉门托的网络普通用户比较区。

方法

SNAPP 使用准实验设计来减少两个经济、种族和民族多元化社区中 15-29 岁人群的酒精供应和酒精相关问题。因变量是经证实的儿童虐待和忽视；寄养项目总数；和与酒精有关的寄养条目。

结果

两个干预领域都没有确凿的虐待和忽视儿童的证据。在北方，总的（RR = 0.822, 95 % CI [0.721, 0.933]）和酒精相关的（RR = 0.760, 95 % CI [0.634, 0.914]）寄养项目分别减少了 17.8 % 和 24.0 %。南方的干预效果没有得到很好的寄养条目支持（RR = 1.118，95 % CI [0.988，1.258]），但增加了与酒精相关的寄养条目（RR = 1.264，95 % CI [1.075，1.484] ).

结论

环境干预策略可能会有效减少虐待和忽视儿童的情况。然而，鉴于我们工作的混合结果，我们需要确定这些干预措施在什么条件下最有效，以及这些策略的某些组成部分（例如，提高认识与执行未成年人销售）是否会对虐待和忽视儿童产生不同的影响。