Design and evaluation of development programs for parents negligent parenting skills: A review and reflection

Parental neglect has been associated with lack of parental skills to educate, supervise and respond to the needs of their children, endangering their well-being. This article presents a brief theoretical framework of the phenomenon of parental neglect, its prevalence and social relevance in the Portuguese context. We also present some definitions of negligence, refer to some of its theoretical models as well as its main associated protective and risk factors. Then we briefly describe a set of intervention programs with neglectful families developed and implemented in Portugal. This analysis indicates that there are few programs presenting specific theoretical frameworks clearly defined methodologies and strategies and that are even more rare those using designs that allow the adequate evaluation and assessment of their effectiveness. At the end, and based on the literature and on the analyzed programs, we try to outline a general model of intervention in this context and present some proposals regarding the structure and content of training programs for neglecting parents as well as methodologies and procedures for the design and evaluation of their results.