Clients who received services between 1984 and 1986 were evaluated. They were referred to the program by public health social workers, social services, teen parent programs, and different agencies serving high-risk mothers and pregnant women. Clients completed the Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI) before and after six months of program services by paraprofessionals. An average of 17 tasks were accomplished, as mutually assessed by parenting consultants and clients. Overall, 49 percent of the tasks were accomplished by parenting consultants, 41 percent by clients alone, and 9 percent by parenting consultants and clients together. The 6 months of services resulted in lower CAPI scores, indicating a reduction in child abuse risk from a high to a moderately high level. Relationships between the number of contacts, task accomplishment, goal achievement, client satisfaction, and CAPI scores provide support for a task-centered child abuse prevention program. 25 references, 4 tables.