Teen mothers living under high-stress conditions with few resources are at particular risk of child neglect and abuse and their children all too often end up in foster care at public expense. But a program in Onondaga County, New York, has demonstrated that early intervention with at-risk teen mothers can have a significant pay-off, both in terms of neglect and abuse prevented and dollars saved.

The Teen Parents and Babies Program (TPBP) provides weekly home-based parenting education by early childhood professionals along with early infant education. For a study of the program's effectiveness in preventing abuse and neglect, researchers from Syracuse University and Georgetown University followed up on more than 200 families two to six years after their initial contact with the program (when the mothers were between the ages of 13 and 21), including 90 who were not admitted into the program because they were judged not to be at high risk for child abuse or neglect.

Among those admitted to the program, 81 of the families became program "graduates" after 18 to 27 months. Thirty-nine dropped out of the program early. In reviewing county child abuse and neglect reports, the researchers found that among those not admitted to the program (those judged not to be at high risk) 16.7 percent had confirmed incidents of child maltreatment, compared with 15.6 percent for the program "graduates" -- nearly identical. In contrast, the rate of confirmed child abuse or neglect among the program dropouts was 40.5 percent.

In terms of cost effectiveness, the mean program costs for home visitation were $3.83 per family, per day. Foster care costs in the same county were $23.75 per child, per day.

Presentation: "Longitudinal Evaluation of a Teen Parents and Babies Program" by Alice S. Honig, Ph.D., Syracuse University and Christine Morin, MA, Georgetown University Child Development Center. American Psychological Convention in Toronto, Canada, 1996.

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