The development of abused and high-risk infants in different treatment modalities: residential versus in-home care

This paper outlines the Parental Stress Center (PSC) residential treatment program and its evaluation study, specifically focusing on the developmental status of infants in treatment. The Bayley scores for mental/motor development are given for a subgroup of 20 deprived infants admitted to the residential center and for two matched groups. One comparison group consisted of similarly deprived infants, the other of normal infants. The groups, tested three times, showed few differences either among the three groups at each time period or within each group over the three time periods. The most significant between-group difference was in motor scores at time 2, with both PSC infants and problem comparison infants scoring significantly below the normal comparison infants. The decline of motor scores of the PSC infants was probably attributable to the physical restrictions of the nursery. By the final testing at age 1, these scores had improved, and again there were no group differences. The results indicate that despite the use of multiple caregivers, the deprived infants admitted to residential care kept pace with similar babies in other treatment modalities. The overall high scores when compared to other research data indicate the decided worth of early intervention.