Intervention for maltreating fathers: statistically and clinically significant change

Fathers are seldom the focus of efforts to address child maltreatment and little is currently known about the effectiveness of intervention for this population. To address this gap, we examined the efficacy of a community-based group treatment program for fathers who had abused or neglected their children or exposed their children to domestic violence.

Using a sample of 98 group participants, we examined the magnitude and clinical significance of pre- to post-intervention changes in parenting, co-parenting and generalized aggression.

Intervention led to considerable changes in fathers' over-reactivity to children's misbehavior and respect for their partner's commitment and judgment, with results being statistically significant, medium in size, moving mean scores into the normative range and with 36-43% of men who initially scored in the clinical range recovering by the end of intervention. Changes in other domains were also evident though of lesser magnitude.

Although this study is limited in length of follow-up and the lack of a control group, results are promising for continued development of fathering interventions for this population of high-risk men.