Conference Recommendations on Child Abuse. Report of Representatives from Government, Media and the Academic Community.

The report presents recommendations from a November, 1978 national conference on child abuse. It is explained that groups of invited representatives from government, social service and public interest groups, the media, and the academic community discussed policies for treatment and prevention of child abuse. Summarized are recommendations on the following topics (sample recommendations in parentheses): defining child abuse (having separate definitions for legal, clinical, social service and research purposes); socially sanctioned abuse (ending corporal punishment in schools); legislation (developing interdisciplinary panels to review local laws); prevention (requiring parent education in school); the communications industries (increasing the use of public service announcements); research issues (integrating research on child abuse into the mainstream of scholarship in established disciplines); and child abuse and broader issues (working for reforms to provide decent medical care and a baseline standard of living for all families). Appended are group discussion guidelines, a list of conference participants, and a summary of child welfare amendments introduced in Congress. (CL)