Risk assessment of neglect and maltreatment in infants and toddlers. Chances of early preventive intervention

The German child protection system lacks of interdisciplinary and standardized procedures for screening and diagnosing child maltreatment as well as for service delivery. Evidence based assessments of risk-screening in combination with consensus-based models for risk-judgement seem to predict the best possible results. A central part of determining whether an infant is at risk is to evaluate various domains of parental competencies and skills. In particular assessment procedures based on attachment research have proven to be practically and methodologically relevant. These include interactive and video-based observational methods as well as parental representations as sources of information for risk assessment. Attachment based intervention and treatment programs are effective, especially with regard to enhancing paternal sensitive behavior. However, these programs need to be adapted to delivery for specific risk groups. Overall an interdisciplinary approach with regard to the programs as well as to the training of the professionals has to be taken into account.