Overview

The Center's Family Violence and Trauma Project (FVTP), now in its thirteenth year, represents another domain of military psychiatry. Through research to develop evidence for practice, the FVTP addresses the prevalence and trends of spouse abuse and child maltreatment in the U.S. Army. Funded by the U.S. Army, the FVTP provides support via briefings, papers, staff studies and a quarterly newsletter, Joining Forces Joining Families, to inform Army leadership and the Army’s Family Advocacy Program of the scientific and medical aspects of child and spouse abuse.

Program Director Dr. McCarroll, and CSTS scientists, examined long-term trends in child maltreatment and made the first observations on increased rates of child neglect in the US Army since the onset of the war on terrorism. These early observations were independently confirmed in two subsequent published papers. The Center's original findings were published recently in Child Abuse Review. This research has highlighted the importance of child neglect in the Army during periods of high family stress due to rapid and frequent deployments. In addition to the research on child maltreatment trends, the FVTP has continued to perform regular analyses of the rates of spouse and child maltreatment in the Army for each Army installation and performs special studies for Army leadership.

Additionally, FVTPs has contributed to the Center's literature database to improve the development of family violence research protocols and to further military and civilian social workers’ research education. From continuous analyses of child and spouse maltreatment statistics, to collaborations with academic institutions to develop evidence-based training, to publication of scholarly papers and books, to on site research, FVTP demonstrates the Center's unique ability to go from bench to bedside to bench.

FVT program has been a part of CSTS for the past thirteen years