Advances in Child Maltreatment Prevention

Todd Herrenkohl, Marion Elizabeth Blue Professor of Children and Families announces a new lecture series, Advances in Child Maltreatment Prevention. This is an annual lecture that focuses on global child maltreatment prevention.

The Advances in Child Maltreatment Prevention speaker series features the work of leading prevention and child welfare scholars engaged in efforts to strengthen and reform child‑serving systems. The series provides a forum for new and emerging knowledge from the social sciences and the helping professions that can improve the health and well-being of vulnerable children and their families.

Why is it So Hard to Prevent Childhood Sexual Abuse? Lessons Learned From a Universal Approach

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Childhood sexual abuse is a common, costly, and persistent problem worldwide. Survivors suffer a compounded convergence of mechanism that can set the stage for a host of deleterious outcomes including subsequent psychopathology, revictimization, substance abuse, teenage childbearing, and sexual dysfunction. Annual incidence rates have plateaued over the past few decades—an indication that preventions efforts have stagnated. Dr. Noll will outline the unique features that set sexual abuse apart from other forms of maltreatment and trauma in terms of its etiology, sequelae, and challenges for prevention. By showcasing a unique state/university partnership, Dr. Noll will present results, as well as implementation triumphs and challenges, from a statewide universal sexual abuse prevention effort. Dr. Noll will also discuss the activities of Penn State’s NICHD Capstone Center (P50HD089922, PI:Noll) which include: basic research on the biological embedding of child maltreatment; community-based-participatory research that directly benefits the child welfare system; and championing a National model for the Research-To-Policy collaboration where researchers compile relevant research, translate findings into products to educate and support policymakers, and facilitate evidence-based policies designed to protect and promote the wellbeing of children.

Jennie G. Noll, PhD

Jennie G. Noll, PhD., is Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. She directs Penn State's Child Maltreatment Solutions Network and is Principal Investigator of the NICHD P50 Capstone Center for Healthy Children as well as the T32 training grant Creating the Next Generation of Scholars in the Child Maltreatment Sciences. Through contiguous NIH funding over the past three decades, she has been the PI of several prospective, longitudinal cohort studies of the impact of abuse and neglect throughout development and across generations. Her primary research foci include: the bio-psycho-social consequences of childhood sexual abuse, pathways to teen pregnancy and high-risk sexual behaviors for abused and neglected youth, the long-term adverse health outcomes for victims of abuse, midlife reversibility of neurocognitive deficits in stress-exposed populations, the impact of high-risk internet and social media behaviors on teen development, and the primary prevention of sexual abuse.