Research Project 2

SUMMARY/ABSTRACT – PROJECT 2 Project 2 of the Center on Causal Data Science for Child and Adolescent Maltreatment Prevention (CHAMP Center) will involve proof-of-concept field testing of a decision support tool developed through collaboration among Project 1, the Resource Core, and the Dissemination & Outreach Core. We will use the findings from Project 2 to test our overarching hypothesis that predictive and causal data science can substantially increase the scale at which maltreatment can be prevented and maltreatment-related outcomes can be mitigated. Effective scalability of appropriate interventions remains a critical obstacle to efforts to reduce child abuse. No matter the strength of the tools to support implementation or the extent to which the knowledge is shared, implementation science cannot reduce the incidence of maltreatment if the intervention to be implemented uniformly targets a small number of causes in all children and families who are at risk. It is thus essential to test whether tools developed using predictive and causal data science are sufficiently effective and safe to warrant their dissemination. In Project 2, we will test whether the personalized and precise approaches developed as part of Project 1 can reduce children’s risk of maltreatment safely and practically. Insights from the conduct of Project 2 will feed back to Project 1, the Resource Core, and the Dissemination & Outreach Core so that these groups can learn from the results and iteratively improve on models and translational processes central to the CHAMP Center. Evidence indicating problems in any of these areas will be considered by relevant members of the cores, who will decide whether to conduct further discovery research or to refine the tools. Decision support tools produced via collaboration among Project 1, the Resource Core, and the Dissemination & Outreach Core will be tested in a clinical trial.