Translational Research that Adapts New Science FORMaltreatment prevention (TRANSFORM)

OVERALL CORE Every year, millions of children in the United States suffer child abuse and neglect (USDHHS, 2022). Our CAPSTONE Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Child Abuse and Neglect (P50) Project renewal goals are to advance a national resource center for conducting innovative research, disseminating emerging discoveries, and training investigators, clinicians, policy makers, and other professionals committed to preventing the occurrence of, and understanding the sequelae of, child maltreatment. The TRANSFORM renewal (Translational Research that Adapts New Science FOR Maltreatment Prevention) will continue to build on current state-of-the-art research methodologies and clinical practices to foster the next generation of professionals committed to addressing the deleterious and persistent personal and societal burden associated with child abuse and neglect. TRANSFORM builds upon the strengths of Mt. Hope Family Center, University of Rochester, including large longitudinal databases on child maltreatment. Additionally, a Resource Core incorporating statistical and methodological expertise will further strengthen TRANSFORM, extend our geographical reach, and expand our partnerships. TRANSFORM will continue to influence the field by serving as a national flagship Center on the etiology and sequelae of child abuse and neglect. We are grounded in the developmental psychopathology framework and adhere to a life course perspective in our research. TRANSFORM emphasizes a transdisciplinary approach, integrates contextual and cultural considerations as well as multigenerational influences to advance science and inform practice and policy. In doing so, TRANSFORM will apply the most advanced concepts and methods derived from child maltreatment research and leverage numerous longstanding relationships within the child welfare community to make its impact. To achieve its objectives, TRANSFORM will utilize two Research Projects, a pilot study, and three mutually-informative and integrated Cores: a Dissemination and Outreach Core, a Resource Core, and an Administrative Core. This ‘team science’ model brings together professionals with different backgrounds including: basic and applied scientists who provide much of the theoretical grounding for project hypotheses, program developers who are the architects of evidence-based programs, research methodologists who advise on the appropriate experimental designs for testing the models, measurements for assessing key constructs, and analytical methods for evaluating results, and child-serving professionals who will participate in dissemination activities. TRANSFORM will be led by Drs. Sheree Toth and Jennie Noll, internationally-recognized leaders in the field of child maltreatment, whose work spans over four decades and provides a solid foundation for continuing to conduct groundbreaking longitudinal, intergenerational, and intervention research that will contribute to widespread engagement across multiple child-serving systems.