A group of 60 children, who were under 2 years of age and had open Child Protective Services cases, were randomly assigned to a treatment or a control (non-treatment) group: half the children participated for 18 months in Childhaven's program (treatment group) and the other half received the existing social services available to CPS clients at that time (control group); e.g. regular child care, parenting classes, anger management, etc. The immediate research findings found that parents from the Childhaven program, when compared to the parents in the non-Childhaven group, were more positive, less abusive and sought more community help. Additionally, many of the children who received treatment at Childhaven changed dramatically during their 16-24 months of treatment—the withdrawn became outgoing, the agitated became calmer, and the angry became more peaceful.
Twelve years later, researchers revisited the children involved in the original research study. These children, now teenagers, were six times less likely to have committed a violent juvenile crime; they were better adjusted in school and less of a problem for the teachers. In addition, examination of their financial welfare records found that the Childhaven treatment group received half as much money in welfare cash grants, medical coupons and food stamps than the comparison group. The complete results of this study were published in the February 1998 issue of the journal Child Maltreatment.
