Grant: Foundation Grant

<html> <body> <p> <u>Program of Research.</u> The consequences of child maltreatment are profound and can have a negative impact on health across the lifespan. A serious gap remains between understanding the harms related to child maltreatment and effective prevention strategies. My goal is to prevent child maltreatment and thereby change a child&rsquo;s trajectory, improve health, and strengthen families. This requires understanding child maltreatment using Canadian data, developing evidence-based interventions aimed at preventing child maltreatment before it occurs, preventing child maltreatment recurrence, and preventing associated mental and physical health problems. <u>The program objectives</u> are to: 1) understand the size and scope of child maltreatment within a Canadian context and how it relates to health and health services; 2) identify protective factors associated with a decreased likelihood of child maltreatment and increased likelihood of improved health outcomes following child maltreatment; 3) apply this new knowledge to develop a new evidence-based intervention strategy or to modify an existing program; and 4) begin to evaluate this newly developed or modified intervention strategy to determine effectiveness in preventing child maltreatment and its associated mental and physical health impairment.<br> <br> <u>Advance knowledge and anticipated health outcomes.</u> The <em>short-term</em> goals are to advance child maltreatment knowledge in Canada, to identify protective factors related to prevention, and to develop (or modify) an intervention strategy. The <em>long-term</em> goals are to evaluate and implement strategies to prevent child maltreatment and to reduce the likelihood of poor health outcomes following child maltreatment. Importantly, this program will be the first to measure potential decreases in child maltreatment and mental and physical health conditions and health services use over time at the population level.<br> <br> <u>Expertise.</u> I have international expertise in child maltreatment research with in-depth knowledge of mental health, resilience, prevention, and knowledge translation (KT). I have published 65 peer-reviewed journal articles, presented at 68 conferences, and conducted over 100 media interviews resulting in over 1500 news stories worldwide. My work is highly cited (1808 citations) and has been used to inform policies on the use of physical punishment. I have received numerous awards and have been recognized as one of Canada&rsquo;s leading mental health researchers. My methodological expertise is in advanced quantitative methods for population-based data. My program experts are academics, knowledge users, and a trainee and provide further expertise in: child health; mental health; child maltreatment policy; children&rsquo;s rights and laws; child advocacy; data collection; administrative data; qualitative analysis; and development, implementation, and evaluation of intervention strategies.<br> <br> <u>Mentoring and Training Activities.</u> My mentorship provides comprehensive training and opportunities for further professional development. My plan includes partnering junior students with senior student mentors, working collaboratively, providing specialized teaching, meeting with students regularly, and involving students in grant writing, publishing, and KT. Success of my mentorship can be measured with my students having won research awards, published articles, been admitted to medical school, and been offered research placements at prestigious institutions (e.g., Harvard, Yale, Stanford).<br> </p> </body> </html>