CARE – 2
By Kathryn Seifert, Ph.D.
The CARE is available at Dr. Kathy Seifert.
The CARE-2 is a major revision of the CARE and is now available. It can be administered as a paper and pencil test or online. It was developed with 2 purposes in mind. One was to identify youth who were at risk for family, community or school violence and aggression and to determine the interventions needed to prevent any future risk of aggression.
Most violent and aggressive youth have been raised in chaotic, violent, neglectful and abusive environments. Many have been raised in homes where there is chronic domestic violence. For that reason, family therapy may be needed. We must look at this process as a preventive one and these children as youth in need of services. In developing an intervention plan, it is not sufficient to look at only the child’s needs, but also the family and environmental needs, such as school, agency, and community. With all the pieces of the puzzle in place, a youth has a chance to become a positively pro-social functioning member of society. As an adult, he has a chance to not be domestically violent with his own family.
Another perspective to keeping mind is that many of these youth have developmentally delayed skills. Identifying where skills need to be strengthened is very important to the entire process. The CARE-2 can be a communication tool to allow various agencies to coordinate their efforts, reduce duplication, and increase effectiveness. And finally, risk and needs in children and teens changes quickly. This means that youth should be re-assessed every 6 months to 1 year to see if there is progress and if the efforts of the agencies are on target.
There was a small prospective study of the CARE-2. However, the research on the CARE-2 has been primarily retrospective. The sample is over 1,000 young people. For this reason, this edition has used the following wording, “This youth is (not similar to/moderately similar to/highly similar to/very highly similar to) other youth who have committed chronic (more than 3) assaults against others.” These categories were statistically derived using group means and standard deviations.