Engaging substance-affected families in child welfare: parent perspectives of a parenting intervention at program initiation and completion

Families affected by substance abuse are at an increased risk of child welfare involvement and poor child welfare outcomes. One strategy to improve outcomes among these families is evidence-based parenting interventions. While these interventions show the potential for advancing the child welfare field, they have not been widely and rigorously evaluated with birth parents, especially those affected by substance abuse, who face marked vulnerability and marginalization. We sought to draw on parents’ expertise and to understand their first and changing impressions throughout involvement in a parenting intervention, as well as overall impressions at program completion. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 10 parents who were involved in child welfare and a family drug treatment court. All parents were affected by parental substance use and had recently completed the Strengthening Families Program. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed for prominent themes. The study’s findings showed that parents described four key themes that influenced their perspectives of the parenting intervention: program reputation as communicated by peers, relevance and applicability of the program, children’s involvement and enjoyment of the program, and program structure issues that pointed to the need for high-quality group facilitation. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

The Parent University Program: Factors predicting change in responsive parenting behaviors

Few evidence-based parenting programs exist for children under the age of three and even fewer have been rigorously evaluated in comparison to parenting programs for older children. The Parent University Program (PUP), was developed to serve parents with children birth through three who lived in southwest Baltimore. Parent-child dyads (N = 86) participated in the parenting program with the goal of increasing responsive parenting skills.Participants of the PUP showed a significant increase in responsive parenting behaviors. Participants in this open trial study who completed pre-test, post-test, and follow-up assessments showed a significant change from clinical to non-clinical status after attending the PUP. Neither the type of facilitator nor the number of hours attended showed an association with changing parenting behaviors. The age of the child was associated with the change in responsive parenting. Parents of older children in the birth to three age range had higher scores at pre-test and showed less change over time. The results of this study suggest that the Parent University Program was associated with positive change in responsive parenting behaviors for parents with children birth through three years of age.     

Effects of a video feedback parent training program during child welfare visitation

Behavioral parent training programs have documented efficacy for improving behaviors among parents and their children and are frequently used by child welfare agencies to prevent removal of a child from the parental home or to facilitate reunification. Although an ideal time for parent training might be during supervised visits where parents may practice skills with their children under the guidance and support of a therapist or caseworker, this is not typically the case. Most often, parents within the child welfare system receive parent training in small groups without their children present, and to date, few studies have examined effects of behavioral parent training interventions during supervised visitation. In this study, concurrent multiple baseline across behaviors design was used to examine effects of a behavioral parent training program, Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND), on parental skill acquisition with four mothers who had lost custody of their children but were being considered for reunification. Children emitted little or no problem behaviors during baseline or intervention, so parenting behavior was the primary dependent variable. Results obtained across participants documented a clear functional relation between implementation of the FIND intervention and increases in developmentally supportive parenting behaviors. Results of social validity and contextual fit measures suggest the intervention was perceived by mothers to be positive, feasible, and appropriate within the child welfare context. Practical and conceptual implications, limitations of this study, and directions for future research are discussed.     

The influence of concrete support on child welfare program engagement,progress, and recurrence

Families living in poverty are significantly more likely to become involved with child welfare services, and consequently, referred to interventions that target abusive and neglectful parenting practices. Program engagement and retention are difficult to achieve, possibly because of the concrete resource insufficiencies that may have contributed to a family's involvement with services in the first place. Various strategies have been used to enhance program completion, such as motivational interventions, monetary incentives, and financial assistance with concrete needs. This study examines the influence of adjunctive concrete support provided by home visitors on families' (N = 1754) engagement, retention, and satisfaction with services as well as parenting outcomes. Using propensity stratification, mixed modeling procedures revealed that increasing concrete support predicted greater engagement, satisfaction, goal attainment, and lower short-term recidivism. Results suggest that adjunctive concrete support is a potentially beneficial strategy for promoting service engagement and satisfaction and increasing short-term child safety.     

Parenting While Incarcerated: Tailoring the Strengthening Families Program for use with jailed mothers

Most incarcerated women are mothers. Parenting programs may benefit women, children and families, yet effectively intervening in correctional settings is a challenges. An evidence-based parenting intervention (the Strengthening Families Program) was tailored and implemented with women in a jail setting. Goals were to assess mothers' needs and interests regarding parenting while they were incarcerated, adapt the program to address those needs, and establish intervention delivery and evaluation methods in collaboration with a community-based agency. Women reported wanting to know more about effective communication; how children manage stress; finances; drug and alcohol use; self-care; and stress reduction. They reported high program satisfaction and reported reduced endorsement of corporal punishment after the intervention. Barriers to implementation included unpredictable attendance from session to session due to changing release dates, transfer to other facilities, and jail policies (e.g., lock-down; commissary hours). Implications for sustainable implementation of parenting programs in jail settings are discussed.     

Maternal substance abuse and disrupted parenting: Distinguishing mothers who keep their children from those who do not

Women with substance abuse disorders typically have psychosocial characteristics that put them at risk for disrupted parenting. Prior research indicates that comprehensive, accessible services tailored to the mothers' needs can contribute to family stability. This study further explores the complicated interplay of how maternal risk and protective characteristics and service elements are associated with reunification. The study contributes to existing literature by following mothers for three years; examining service needs as identified by the mother herself; using a summary proportion score to reflect the totality of services received to matched service needs identified; and using logistic regression to examine interactions of services received with critical maternal characteristics. The sample is comprised of 458 substance-abusing mothers enrolled during pregnancy or postpartum in the Washington State Parent-Child Assistance Program (PCAP), an evidence-based case management intervention. Participants' custody status was well distributed among four categories based on continuity of parenting. Findings indicate that at program exit 60% of the mothers were caring for their index child. These mothers had more treatment and mental health service needs met, had more time abstinent from alcohol and drugs, secure housing, higher income, and support for staying clean and sober. Among women with multiple psychiatric diagnoses, the odds of regaining custody were increased when they completed substance abuse treatment and also had a supportive partner. Mothers who lost and did not regain custody had more serious psychiatric problems and had fewer service needs met. We discuss implications of our findings for child welfare policy and practices.     

The impact of parenting education on parent and child behaviors: Moderators by income and ethnicity

Parenting education has emerged as a promising resource for supporting parents, but the relative impact of parenting education among families facing higher versus lower risk remains unclear. The present study explored the effects of participating in an evidence-based parenting education series and examined whether those effects were moderated by families' socio-demographic contexts (income level and ethnicity status). Results indicated that parenting education series serving predominantly lower-income parents resulted in greater improvements in parents' parenting skills and their children's behaviors compared to series serving higher-income parents. Attending a parenting series with a higher proportion of Latino parents also significantly predicted greater improvements in child behaviors, but not parent skills. These findings provide preliminary evidence that parenting education may be most effective when it targets underserved populations. The findings further highlight the importance of continuing to explore the influence of parenting education adapted for low-income and Latino families to inform the design of evidence-based programs.     

Parental Depression and Child Outcomes: The Mediating Effects of Abuse and Neglect

Using longitudinal data on 1,813 children and parents from a nationally representative child‐welfare sample, National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well‐Being (NSCAW), this study investigated physically abusive and neglectful parenting as mediating the effects of parent depression on child mental health by developmental stage. Findings from latent growth models indicated that parental depression had a significant impact on child outcomes for all youths, but of the 2 types of parenting behaviors, only neglectful parenting mediated the relationship for preschool and school‐aged children. Neither parenting behavior mediated the effects of parental depression for adolescents.     

A multi-site evaluation of Parents Raising Safe Kids Violence Prevention Program

The Parents Raising Safe Kids Program (PRSK) is a research-based manualized violence prevention curriculum designed to decrease coercive parenting behavior, encourage positive discipline, increase media violence literacy, and increase child development knowledge. This study is a multi-site pre-post comparison evaluation of PRSK's effectiveness with diverse parents, including those who are incarcerated, in drug treatment and both English and Spanish speaking. Results indicate that PRSK was successful at improving media violence literacy, positive parenting behavior, child development knowledge, anger management, and prosocial problem solving. Additionally, PRSK was especially efficacious for Spanish speaking participants, who improved more than English speakers. Due to the need for appropriate and cost-effective programs for underrepresented groups, these results add to the growing evidence base supporting the use of PRSK with diverse parents. PRSK is effective in educating caregivers about nonviolent parenting behavior and child development. It is flexible, focuses on parents of very young children, and is cost effective. The program costs a fraction of other evidence-based practices yet statistical effect sizes for change over time are comparable.     

A Preliminary Evaluation of the 1-2-3-Magic Parenting Program in an Australian Community Services Setting

Cognitive-behavioural parenting programs provide caregivers with alternative strategies to harsh disciplining practices but the choice of programs that are evidence-based in Australia is limited. Australian community service workers suggest that having a choice of evidence-based programs is important when matching programs to client needs, and that 1-2-3 Magic is a program used widely in Australia despite its small Australian evidence base. The efficacy of the 1-2-3 Magic program has previously been shown in a controlled trial in an Australian university research setting but little is known about its effectiveness in a “real-world” setting. This study examined a three-session group-format of the Australian 1-2-3 Magic & Emotion Coaching program in a typical metropolitan community service setting. Thirty-eight caregivers with children aged 2–6 years reported a significant decrease in disruptive child behaviour (ECBI), permissive parenting (PS), and parental depression and stress (DASS) from pre- to post-intervention, with results maintained at 3-month follow-up. While these findings suggest that a brief 1-2-3 Magic program is beneficial, it is important to note that methodological limitations (intervention-group only study design and possible confounding variables) do not allow ruling out alternative causes for these improvements. Further research will be needed to confirm that this program can generalise to “real-world” settings.     

Using administrative data to reward agency performance: the case of the federal adoption incentive program

This article explores the history of the federal Adoption Incentive Program, the first federal child welfare outcome-based incentive program to rely solely on administrative data, and discusses it within the context of other prior and ongoing federal child welfare incentive programs. Various data-related issues are also examined, including the use of data to project program utilization and costs, set baselines for the number of adoptions, and award funds. Challenges in the legislatively required use of AFCARS data for determining the amount of incentive funds awarded and the impact of the program on AFCARS reporting are also discussed. The article concludes with a look at the impact of the Adoption Incentive Program on adoption and predictions for the future.     

Maternal experiences of intimate partner violence and adolescent delinquency: Pathways through parenting stress and harsh parenting behaviors

Abstract

Women with children in the home are more likely to report experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) compared to women without children in the home. Consistently, research has identified an association between maternal experiences of IPV and adolescent delinquency. While research has suggested that this link may be explained through parenting factors, there are limited studies exploring sequential mediators that may explain how maternal experiences of IPV are related to distal outcomes, such as adolescent delinquency. The present study investigated mechanisms that might explain the association between early maternal experiences of IPV and adolescent delinquency. Data were collected as part of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a longitudinal birth cohort study. Using a structural equation modeling approach, parenting stress and both physically and psychologically harsh parenting behaviors were examined as sequential mediators in the association between the latent construct of maternal experiences of IPV and adolescent delinquency. Findings supported one sequential mediation mechanism: maternal parenting stress at child age five and psychologically harsh parenting at child age nine mediated the association between maternal experiences of IPV and adolescent delinquency at child age 15. In contrast, support was not demonstrated for the other proposed sequential mediation mechanism: maternal parenting stress at child age five and physically aggressive parenting at year nine did not mediate the link between maternal experiences of IPV and adolescent delinquency child age 15. The present study suggests maternal parenting stress and psychologically harsh parenting behaviors should be examined when referred for psychological services for experiences of IPV.     

Replication of the KEEP foster and kinship parent training program for youth with externalizing behaviors

This article presents findings from Maryland KEEP, a replication of KEEP (Keeping Foster and Kinship Parents Trained and Supported), a foster and kinship parent training intervention. We examined child behavior change, changes in caregiver parenting style, and permanency and placement stability at baseline and then after the KEEP intervention. The KEEP intervention was provided to 65 foster and kinship parents providing care for children ages 4–12. Children who participated in the study were referred due to behavior problems, as reported by foster parents: they all scored in the clinical range for externalizing behavior on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Baseline and posttest analyses assessed for child behavior and parenting style changes. Permanency data, including placement moves and exits from child welfare were examined. Overall, foster and kinship parents reported significantly fewer child behavior problems at posttest; severity levels on the CBCL and scores on the Parent Daily Report decreased. However, there were not any changes in parenting styles from baseline to posttest. Placement stability significantly increased between baseline and post-KEEP intervention. The results provide support for the effectiveness of KEEP for a child welfare population with a high level of behavior problems and for the effectiveness of KEEP as a training program for foster and kinship parents.     

A multi-site study of the ACT Raising Safe Kids program: Predictors of outcomes and attrition

The present study examined the factors related to attrition and treatment outcomes in the ACT-Raising Safe Kids (ACT-RSK) program. ACT-RSK is a family violence and child abuse prevention program for parents and caregivers of young children. Sixty parents or caregivers of children aged 9 years or younger completed the ACT-RSK group program and the research measures. The study took place at 7 community-based sites in the midwestern United States. Program completers were significantly older than noncompleters, suggesting that parent age relates to attrition from this program. Pre/post comparisons indicated increased nurturing behavior, decreased harsh parenting, and decreased negative discipline, as well as decreased child behavior problems following completion of the ACT-RSK program. Parent age predicted children's outcomes, indicating better results for the children of older parents/caregivers. In addition, pre-test harsh parenting scores predicted children's outcomes, suggesting that families with relatively higher initial levels of parental psychological aggression and corporal punishment had more robust child outcomes following completion of the program.     

Parenting services for families affected by substance abuse

This article describes the development, implementation, and replication of a group-based parenting program for families affected by substance abuse. The Nurturing Program for Families in Substance Abuse Treatment and Recovery improves parenting, as measured on objective scales; enhances parents' satisfaction and competence, as measured by participant reports; and is based on principles demonstrated to be effective in reducing risk of both child abuse and neglect and substance abuse for both parents and children.     

Complex inequality: A contextual parenting framework for Latino infants

Latino infants and toddlers are rapidly becoming the most represented ethnic group within the overall U.S. child population, underscoring the importance of a comprehensive conceptual framework informed by the factors that affect their well-being, including their lived environments. Research that explores parenting among Latino families is limited or tends to portray a homogenized Latino experience, without accounting for within-group differences. This paper presents a contextual parenting framework for Latino infants that incorporates a more nuanced understanding of culture as well as its complex and reciprocal relationship with environment. It highlights the multi-level, multisystemic, contexts affecting these families on the present day. This framework hypothesizes that cultural beliefs around family and child rearing, as well as the environment — constituted of physical environment and social opportunities — influence parenting. Further, institutional and structural inequalities can significantly affect the environmental conditions that Latino families experience and are therefore examined in the model. The way parenting behaviors are understood and interpreted by researchers and practitioners has serious consequences for parents engaged in the child welfare system. This paper explores how vulnerable Latino families with young children engaged in this complicated system experience the factors described by the parenting framework.     

Promoting birth parents' relationships with their toddlers upon reunification: Results from Promoting First Relationships® home visiting program

Birth parents, once reunified with their child after a foster care placement, are in need of in-home support services to prevent reoccurrence of maltreatment and reentry into foster care, establish a strong relationship with their child, and enhance child well-being. Few studies have addressed the efficacy of home visiting services for reunified birth parents of toddlers. This study reports on the findings from a randomized control trial of a 10-week home visiting program, Promoting First Relationships® (Kelly, Sandoval, Zuckerman, & Buehlman, 2008), for a subsample of 43 reunified birth parents that were part of the larger trial. We describe how the elements of the intervention align with the needs of parents and children in child welfare. Although the sample size was small and most of the estimates of intervention effects were not statistically significant, the effect sizes and the pattern of results suggest that the intervention may have improved both observed parenting sensitivity and observed child behaviors as well as decreased parent report of child behavior problems. Implications are that providing in-home services soon after a reunification may be efficacious in strengthening birth parents' capacity to respond sensitively to their children as well as improving child social and emotional outcomes and well-being.     

Social support,family competence,and informal kinship caregiver parenting stress: The mediating and moderating effects of family resources

Informal kinship care is the most common form of care of related children and it occurs without the oversight or assistance of the child welfare system. This study examined whether and how social support, family competence, and family resources were related to parenting stress in a sample of 207 informal kinship caregivers. Results of GEE analysis supported the hypotheses that social support, family competence, and adequacy of family resources have direct effects on parenting stress in these families; and, adequacy of family resources mediate and moderate the effects of social support and family competence on parenting stress. Implications for practice, future research and policy are discussed.     

A confirmatory factor analysis of the evidence-based practice attitudes scale in child welfare

Despite the emphasis on evidence-based practice (EBP) in child welfare services (CWS) as an emerging and inevitable trend, implementation factors such as child welfare worker attitudes towards implementing EBP have received little attention in CWS. Aaron's (2004) Evidence Based Practice Attitudes Scale (EBPAS) has been used in multiple studies across mental health and healthcare settings. However, it has rarely been used in CWS. A-Mid Atlantic State implemented the EBPAS in all child welfare jurisdictions to measure workers' performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the EBPAS applied in a large urban child welfare services setting using a confirmatory factor analysis. Based on prior literature, three models were tested: a four factor model, a five factor model, and a second order four factor model. The second order model provided the best fit to the data, suggesting the EBPAS can measure workers' global attitudes, as well as four attitude types, towards EBP in a CWS setting. This study validates the use of the EBPAS with child welfare workers. Implications for effective evidence based practice in child welfare are discussed.