Preventing the abuse of little children: The Parents' Center Project for the study and prevention of child abuse.

Forty-six families with 73 children between the ages of six months and four years were treated in a project developed to preserve the integrity of the family while protecting the child from physical abuse. Improvement in the rate of growth and development was found among the children. There was much less improvement in the domestic functioning of their parents. However, it appeared that the parents would not have kept their children in the project if they had not been in concurrent treatment.