Research Areas
ICYFP research on children and child welfare has dealt with a range of issues, including adoption and foster care, child abuse, child care, prenatal care, children's mental health, child poverty, disability, immigration and homelessness. The impact of welfare reform on poor children in Boston was the subject of a large ethnographic study based at the Institute.
Using the synthesis of current knowledge on brain development, family context and community influences published in From Neurons to Neighborhoods, edited by former Heller dean Jack Shonkoff, Heller researchers facilitated the efforts of two Massachusetts agencies to assist children in abusive households through the provision of early intervention services. Current or recently completed projects include evaluations of substance abuse programs for women with children in the child welfare program, a study of the impact of the Early Intervention system on children's development, and a study of a program designed to reduce child maltreatment.
Click on the links below for more information about research projects in ICYFP's main areas of focus.