Erna Olafson

Child-Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE): An evidence-informed program for children with a history of trauma and other behavioral challenges.

Child maltreatment impacts approximately two million children each year, with physical abuse and neglect the most common form of maltreatment. These children are at risk for mental and physical health concerns and the ability to form positive social relationships is also adversely affected. Child Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE) is a set of skills designed to improve interactions of any adult and child or adolescent. Based on parent training programs, including the strong evidence-based treatment, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), CARE was initially developed to fill an important gap in mental health services for children of any age who are considered at-risk for maltreatment or other problems. CARE subsequently has been extended for use by adults who interact with children and youth outside of existing mental health therapeutic services as well as to compliment other services the child or adolescent may be receiving. Developed through discussions with Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) therapists and requests for a training similar to PCIT for the non-mental health professional, CARE is not therapy, but is comprised of a set of skills that can support other services provided to families. Since 2006, over 2000 caregivers, mental health, child welfare, educators, and other professionals have received CARE training with a focus on children who are exposed to trauma and maltreatment. This article presents implementation successes and challenges of a trauma-informed training designed to help adults connect and enhance their relationships with children considered at-risk.

Attachment Theory and Child Abuse: Some Cautions

Bolen’s paper (this issue) cautioning us about the susceptibility of contemporary attachment theory to sociocultural pressures is a welcome addition to the child sexual abuse field. From psychiatric theory in the mid-twentieth-century and family systems theory in the 1980s to the current potential of attachment theory, Bolen reviews the literature that formulates child sexual abuse primarily as incest and thus distorts the causes, course, and outcomes for child sexual abuse victims. To put it succinctly, in this half-century of literature about incest, the buck stops with Mom. In a paper Bolen cites, Olafson, Corwin and Summit (1993) summarized mid-century mother-blaming: “In the mother-based

A Review and Correction of the Errors in Loftus and Guyer on Jane Doe

There are so many errors among those facts that can be checked in the Loftus and Guyer articles under review that they cast doubt on the accuracy of the alleged facts in these articles that cannot be easily checked. Loftus’s and Guyer’s two articles, published in a newsstand magazine instead of a peer-reviewed journal, show a pattern of inaccuracy that casts doubt on their claims to have conducted a skeptical, objective inquiry. Some, but not all of these errors, were corrected in a 2009 article Geis and Loftus published in a peer-reviewed journal, although Loftus does not acknowledge in that article her earlier inaccuracies. This article corrects the record about the conclusions drawn in the Corwin and Olafson article published in 1997 and clarifies the history about Corwin’s involvement in the Taus case.