Regional CARE events share findings from 5-year study

RCCP director Martha Holden addressing attendees

The BCTR’s Residential Child Care Project (RCCP) disseminates model techniques and systems to prevent institutional child abuse and neglect. The RCCP’s CARE Model guides childcare agencies to support safe environments, strong programmatic elements, and a wide-variety of treatment programs and interventions that are trauma-sensitive and developmentally appropriate.

Supported by The Duke Endowment, the RCCP is completing a 5-year multi-site study of the CARE Model by analyzing data and writing papers to disseminate study outcomes. Additionally, the RCCP set up a series of Community of Practice regional events to share the new information with their CARE agencies, allowing agencies and the RCCP to not only learn from the research, but from one another in a collaborative way through discussion and networking.

One such Community of Practice regional event took place on August 12, 2015 at Waterford Country School in Connecticut.  RCCP staff began by providing the context for the research. Specifically, Debbie Sellers (BCTR director of research and evaluation) gave a presentation explaining translational research (TR) and the RCCP approach to TR.  Charlie Izzo (RCCP research associate) described the CARE Theory of Change, which outlines the change processes RCCP facilitates at each agency, and how these relate to the expected measurable outcomes.

Next, RCCP staff summarized the results from three related CARE studies. Charlie Izzo described the results of a study conducted across 11 agencies demonstrating that CARE implementation led to an average decline in three types of behavioral incidents: aggression toward staff, aggression towards peers, and property destruction. Izzo also presented findings from a study across 13 agencies demonstrating that CARE implementation led to a significant improvement in youth reports of the quality of their relationship with agency direct care providers. Finally, Michael Nunno co-presented with representatives from an experienced CARE agency about a study they conducted together. These findings replicated and extended the findings of the Duke study, demonstrating that CARE led not only to fewer behavioral incidents, but also fewer physical restraints and less frequent use of psychotropic medication.

The Connecticut audience was a diverse group, including agency administrators, program managers, and supervisors, as well as board members and those in research/evaluation roles. Of particular interest to attendees was the finding that as relationship quality improved, behavioral incidents decreased.  This information would support, encourage and validate the efforts of front line staff.  

Attendees were actively involved throughout the day in helping to clarify the interpretation and practical significance of the findings, and proposing future research directions that would help inform their efforts to implement CARE and better meet the needs of children and families. For example, during a discussion about their unique roles in implementing CARE, clinicians realized that they are a natural group to educate agency direct care staff about applying CARE principles in their daily work.  RCCP staff is incorporating this clinician input into a tool in development that measures implementation quality across agency sectors.  Agency clinicians also stimulated discussion about developing a tool to specifically assess practices that clinicians use to strengthen CARE implementation and sustainability over time.

The day ended with a series of interactive small-group discussions about the essential elements within the CARE implementation process led by Lisa McCabe and Frank Kuhn that were most likely to lead to positive outcomes and long-term sustainability. The ideas generated through these discussions not only helped the CARE team refine its implementation processes, but also pointed the way toward several promising research questions.

William Martin, executive director for Waterford was particularly pleased with the opportunities that this event provided for his staff, “I want to say that being asked to host this event provided an opportunity for my staff that they never could have gotten any other way,” and that RCCP “continues to do things that change our lives here at Waterford Country School and I could not be more appreciative.”

Two additional Community of Practice regional events were held on May 20, 2015 in Statesville, NC and on October 15, 2015 in Brisbane, Australia.

CCE Summer Interns present their research findings

Katrina Simon next to her poster on her research with 4-H

This year's Cornell Cooperative Extension Summer Interns presented on their summer research on October 7th. Included in the group were four students who worked with BCTR researchers (listed below). This year each student gave a condensed one-minute presentation on their work. Presentations were followed by a poster session/reception where students could talk to attendees about their research.

Each year the Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Summer Internship Program connects undergraduates with faculty research projects, helping Cornell fulfill its land grant mission by engaging students in outreach. From research to education and program development, interns are involved in a wide spectrum of activities which they document by blogging.

This year's BCTR-connected projects, which collectively reached eight counties:

Building a Community Legacy Together Program Evaluation
Faculty: Karl Pillemer
Location: CCE Orange County and CCE Genesee County
Student blog by Masrai Williams

Parent Education in New York City: The Parenting A Second Time Around (PASTA) Project
Faculty: Rachel Dunifon
Location: CCE New York City
Student blog by Paisley Marie Terenzi

Refugee Family Child Care Provider Project
Faculty: John Eckenrode with Lisa McCabe
Location: CCE Madison-Oneida County
Student blog by Emily Nina Satinsky

Research for the Continuous Improvement of 4-H
Faculty: Stephen Hamilton
Location: Erie (base), Genesee, Orleans, Wyoming Counties
Student blog by Katrina Simon

Cooperative Extension interns report on statewide research - Cornell Chronicle

McCabe new consulting editor for the Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Lisa McCabe, director of the Early Childhood Program, has been invited to serve as a consulting editor for the journal Early Childhood Research Quarterly (ECRQ). In this role, she will be reviewing and overseeing reviews of manuscripts submitted for publication. This new position follows her contributions as a guest editor (along with Juliet Bromer of the Erikson Institute) for a special section of ECRQ focusing on research on family child care settings. The special section of 8 articles was published in the December 2013 issue of ECRQ.

For over twenty years, Early Childhood Research Quarterly has influenced the field of early childhood education and development through the publication of empirical research that meets the highest standards of scholarly and practical significance. ECRQ publishes predominantly empirical research (quantitative or qualitative methods) on issues of interest to early childhood development, theory, and educational practice (birth through 8 years of age).

Dr. Lisa McCabe is director of the Cornell Early Childhood Program and a research associate at the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. Her research focuses broadly on early childhood education and care issues for children, families, and child care providers. Currently she is part of a project ("Superstar Practitioners") that aims to identify common dimensions of practitioners’ interpersonal practices and skills that promote high quality program implementation and positive client outcomes across diverse settings, including child care.

Dr. McCabe is also part of the Residential Child Care Project where she contributes to evaluations of the Therapeutic Crisis Intervention training system and the Child and Residential Experiences program. In addition to research, she conducts trainings and outreach activities on topics such as addressing children’s challenging behaviors, play-based learning, and children’s stress in group care settings.

Before coming to the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, Dr. McCabe was a Research Scientist at the National Center for Children and Families, Teachers College, Columbia University where she specialized in policy oriented research focusing on early childhood education and emotional development. She has also worked as a center-based child care provider for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Dr. McCabe received both her M.A. (1995) and Ph.D. (1999) in Human Development from Cornell University.