Overview
CDC’s goal is to stop child abuse and neglect from happening in the first place. To prevent child abuse and neglect, key sectors of society including public health, government, education, and social services can come together to focus on comprehensive strategies and approaches.
Comprehensive violence prevention means addressing risk and protective factors and how these factors affect people, communities, and society. Effective prevention strategies include modifying policies, practices, and behaviors. Children and families benefit from having safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments.
CDC's Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Resource for Action represents a select group of strategies based on the best available evidence. Below are the evidence-based strategies to achieve the goal of preventing child abuse and neglect. With each strategy, example approaches include specific ways to advance the strategy. This resource is also available in Spanish.
Prevention strategies
Policies that strengthen families' financial stability can reduce child abuse and neglect. These policies help parents’ meet children’s basic needs (food, shelter, medical care), provide developmentally appropriate childcare, and improve parental mental health. Example approaches include:
- Strengthen household financial security through child support payments, tax credits, and subsidized childcare.
- Family friendly work policies, such as livable wages, paid leave, and flexible, consistent schedules, improve the balance between work and family.
Social norms are group-level beliefs about how members of a group should behave. Changing how we think and talk about child abuse and neglect, and why it happens, informs policy choice and change. Example approaches include:
- Public engagement and education campaigns use various communication strategies, communication channels, and community-based efforts to reframe how people think and talk about child abuse and neglect and who is responsible for preventing it.
- Legislative approaches to reduce corporal punishment can help establish safer, more effective discipline strategies and reduce the harms of physical punishment.
Access to quality childcare and early childhood education can reduce parental stress and maternal depression, enhance parenting skills, increase family involvement in children's education, help parents connect with other parents, and improve children's social, emotional, and behavioral development. Example approaches include:
- Preschool enrichment with family engagement programs provides high-quality early education and care to economically disadvantaged children, which helps with learning and development.
- Improved childcare quality through licensing and accreditation ensures children's daily experiences are positive and supportive.
Parents who lack some parenting skills or have health or financial issues have more difficulty providing what children need in their relationships and environments. Parent or family training programs that help influence children's behavior through positive reinforcement can help families raise their children and prevent physical abuse and neglect. Example approaches include:
- Early childhood home visitation programs provide information, caregiver support, and training about child health, development, and care to families in their homes.
- Parenting skill and family relationship programs support parents and caregivers and teach behavior management and positive parenting skills.
In situations where abuse has already happened, child and family treatment may help reduce the health consequences of child abuse and neglect, prevent abuse recurrence, decrease risk for other violence types, and decrease the likelihood that individuals will abuse their own children. Example approaches include:
- Enhanced primary care can help identify and address family problems that may be risk factors for child abuse and neglect.
- Behavioral parent training programs may reduce child abuse and neglect recurrence, while teaching parents specific skills to build safe relationships with their children.
- Therapeutic child and family treatment may lessen the harms of abuse and neglect exposure.
- Treatment for children and families can prevent problem behavior and later involvement in violence.
Implementation guidance
CDC's Violence Prevention in Practice tool focuses on taking action to implement the strategies in the Prevention Resources for Action guides. The tool is designed to support state and local health agencies and other stakeholders who have a role in planning, implementing, and evaluating violence prevention efforts.