Intensive family preservation services with abused and neglected children: an examination of group differences

Abstract Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS) have emerged as one of the most widely-employed placement prevention models in the field of Family-Based Services. Most IFPS evaluations have reported positive outcomes, but some results have been mixed. The use of heterogeneous client samples may explain some of the equivocal findings, so a study was designed to assess maltreatment group differences in a relatively large sample of families referred by Child Protective Service (CPS) agencies. It was found that: (a) Neglectful families, in contrast to abusive ones, were poorer, more reliant on public income, more likely to be headed by a single parent, had more children at imminent risk of placement, and were more likely to have medical, mental health, and substance abuse problems; (b) families referred for both abuse and neglect were more similar to the neglect-only group than the abuse-only one; and (c) although the majority of all children avoided placement, children from neglectful families were almost twice as likely to be placed than children from abusive ones, with those from multiple maltreatment families being at highest risk. The implications for research methodology and service delivery are discussed.