Child Maltreatment Prevention Lab

The Child Maltreatment Prevention Lab seeks to prevent child maltreatment and mitigate its harmful effects. Current projects include:

the development of a novel measure of adolescent neglect,
collaborative research with the Philadelphia child welfare system to understand multilevel risk and protective factors for recurrent child sexual abuse, and
secondary data analyses examining the social determinants of child maltreatment.

The laboratory's expertise includes measurement development and psychometric analysis, qualitative methods, community-engaged research methods, and secondary analysis of complex longitudinal and administrative data.

Current projects

Shaping the Future of Neglect Science through Measurement Development

This project is to develop a measure of adolescent neglect based on the child-centered conceptualization. The child-centered conceptualization seeks to advance equity and increase the rigor of neglect science by defining neglect as critical unmet needs. The child-centered conceptualization is inclusive of critical unmet needs that are rooted in larger structural factors. This is in contrast with predominant definitions of neglect, which are based on the caregiver omission premise. The study includes the qualitative development of the measure, and the administration of the measure to adolescents to determine its psychometric properties. The long-term goal of this research is to develop prevention strategies for neglect that meet critical adolescent needs while reducing system involvement.

Recent publications:

Dubowitz, H. & Kobulsky, J. (2022). The neglect of children: Food for thought and action. International Journal of Child Maltreatment. 5: 337-349 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42448-022-00113-0
Kobulsky, J. M., Villodas, M., Yoon, D., Wildfeuer, R., Steinberg, L. & Dubowitz, H. (2022). Adolescent neglect and health risk. Child Maltreatment. 27 (2): 174-184. https://doi.org/10.1177/10775595211049795
Kobulsky, J. M., Dubowitz, H., & Xu, Y. (2020). The global challenge of the neglect of children. Child Abuse and Neglect, 110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104296
Kobulsky, J. M., Villodas, M., & Dubowitz, H. (2020). Psychometric properties of a self-report measure of neglect during mid-adolescence. Child Indicators Research, 13 (2): 533-550. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-019-09683-x
Dubowitz, H., Kobulsky, J. M., & Proctor, L. J. (2022). Recent research on child neglect. In R. Krugman & J. Korbin (Eds.). Handbook on Child Protection. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82479-2_2
Kobulsky, J. M. & Dubowitz, H. (2021). The nature of neglect and its consequences. In R. Geffner, J. W. White, L. K. Hamberger, A. Rosenbaum, V. Vaughan-Eden & V. I. Vieth (Eds.) Handbook of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Across the Lifespan: A project of the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence Across the Lifespan (NPEIV). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62122-7_9-2
Kobulsky, J. M. & Dubowitz, H. (2021). The etiology of child neglect and a guide to addressing the problem. In R. Geffner, J. W. White, L. K. Hamberger, A. Rosenbaum, V. Vaughan-Eden & V. I. Vieth (Eds.) Handbook of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Across the Lifespan: A project of the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence Across the Lifespan (NPEIV). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62122-7_325-2

Never Again: Advancing the prevention of recurrent child sexual abuse

This ongoing community-engaged research collaboration with the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance and Department of Human Services seeks to advance the prevention of child sexual abuse recurrence. It includes the creation of a highly unique dataset spanning nine years to study the multilevel risk factors for child sexual abuse recurrence. In addition, the project will include qualitative interviews with workers, caregivers, and survivors to further inform a theoretical model of child sexual revictimization and the conceptualization of prevention.

Recent publications:

Kobulsky, J. M. & Rock, J. (2023). Never again: Prevention child sexual abuse recurrence. In T. Huizar & P. Dilorenzo (Eds). Child Sexual Abuse: Practical Approaches to Prevention and Intervention. Child Welfare League of America. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379112326_Never_again_Prevention_child_sexual_abuse_recurrence
Wildfeuer, R., Kobulsky, J. M., & Reyes, J. N.* (2021). Child sexual abuse recurrence: A narrative review.CommonHealth 2 (2) https://doi.org/10.15367/ch.v2i2.486
Kobulsky, J. M., Patel, K., Wildfeuer, R., Newman, B., Della-Croce, D., O’Donnell, C., Miller, K. & Melvin, V. (2020). Child sexual abuse recurrence. Temple University and Philadelphia Children’s Alliance. https://www.nationalchildrensalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/PCA_Child-Sexual-Abuse-Recurrence-Brief.pdf

The Social Determinants of Child Maltreatment

This research involves secondary data analysis to operationalize the social determinants of health and to examine their contribution to children’s maltreatment exposure. This research further examines how child maltreatment, along with social determinants of health, impacts child health and development.

Recent publications:

Kobulsky, J. M., Schroeder, K., Schuler, B., Patrick, E.L., Lang, Y., & Wu, J. (2023). Developmental timing of child maltreatment in relation to obesity and substance use disorder in late adolescence. Psychology of Violence. 14 (1): 24-33. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/vio0000495
Kobulsky, J. M., Yoon, D., Villodas, M., Wildfeuer, R., & Reyes, J. N. (2022). Neglect, abuse, and adaptive functioning: food security and housing stability as protective factors for adolescents. Children 9 (3): 390. https://doi.org/10.3390/children9030390

Director

Julia Kobulsky

Assistant Professor

Social Work

View Profile

julia.kobulsky@temple.edu

Phone

215-204-2843

Office

1301 Cecil B. Moore Ave Ritter Annex #551

College of Public Health

Current projects

Director

Julia Kobulsky