Supporting appropriate parenting practices. A preventive approach of infant maltreatment in a community context

Abstract

Child maltreatment may be defined in terms of parenting practices that are either potentially harmful towards or actually harmful to the child’s optimum development. It is, by definition, an interactional issue and one of the products of severe global interactional disturbances in the family relational matrix. Moreover, (a) the view of parenting practices as a continuum from competent to incompetent practices, and that parenting behaviors mix both adequate and inappropriate practices, and (b) the trend to develop and strengthen the positive aspects, compensatory factors, for presenting the occurrence of child maltreatment, provided anchor points to design the 'Mother-Child Psychological Support Program'. This program is aimed at decreasing the risk of maltreatment by promoting appropriate parenting practices. The rationale for this preventive approach to infant maltreatment, on an individual basis, in a community context and some of its more relevant results on two specific areas: the risk of abuse and the developmental quotiënt, are presented.