|
PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS
Ages of Children
Outcomes
Settings Where SFP is Implemented
Program Contents
Cultural Adapations and International
Dissemination of SFP
SFP for Diverse Ethnic Populations
The Strengthening Families Program is a
14-session, science-based parenting skills, children's life
skills, and family life skills training program specifically
designed for high-risk families. Parents and children participate
in SFP, both separately and together. Group Leader Manuals
contain a complete lesson for every session. Parents' and
children's Handbooks/ Handouts are also provided for every
session.
For detailed tables of contents of SFP3-5, SFP6-11 and SFP12-16
group leader manuals,
click here.
.
Ages of Children:
- Pre-school children, SFP 3-5 years, higher
risk: SFP3-5 parallels SFP6-11 and can easily
be delivered at the same time.
- Elementary school children, SFP 6-11 years,
higher risk: Use the original SFP6-11, available
in English and with Spanish language handouts for parents.
For more information click
here.
- Junior high students, SFP 10-14, general/universal
population: Use the seven-session plus four booster
session SFP10-14 (Molgaard and Kumpfer, 1994) available
in English and Spanish. Course materials and training
are available through the Iowa State University at www.extension.iastate.edu/sfp.
• Early Teens and High School, SFP 12-16,
higher risk: Use SFP12-16, available in English.
Note: Master sets of all
SFP3-5, 6-11,and 12-16 course materials are distributed
on CD with license to be copied as needed for use by implementing
agencies.
The Strengthening Families Program (SFP 6-11, SFP 3-5,
SFP 12-16) is an evidence-based prevention program for parents
and children ages 3-5, 6-11 and 12-16 in high risk families.
SFP consists of parenting skills, children's life skills,
and family skills training courses taught together in fourteen
2-hours group sessions preceded often with a meal that includes
informal family practice time and group leader coaching.
SFP was designed for high risk families; hence, it is longer
than the universal 7-session SFP 10-14 version for all parents
in schools to assure sufficient dosage to promote behavior
change.
.
Outcomes
SFP has been evaluated many times by independent researchers
in randomized control trials or health services research
with very positive results in preventing substance abuse
and delinquency risk factors by improving family relationships.
Hence, SFP is rated at the top of the list by international
and national review groups including the prestigious World
Health Organization, Cochrane Collaboration Reviews in Oxford,
United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime in Vienna, White
House, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) that supported
most of the SFP research, Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). SFP is now being tested
for the prevention of child abuse as an evidence-based program
on Administration for Children and Families (ACF) grants
to several states and tribes.
Outcomes include increased family strengths and resilience
and reduced risk factors for problem behaviors in high risk
children, including behavioral problems, emotional, academic
and social problems. SFP is now widely used also as a universal
primary prevention intervention in schools, churches, and
communities offering SFP 3-16 for all families, but hoping
to attract high risk families. SFP builds on protective
factors by improving family relationships, parenting skills,
and improving the youth's social and life skills.
.
Settings Where SFP is Implemented
Over more than twenty years SFP 6-11 has been implemented
in schools, drug treatment centers, family and youth service
agencies, child protection and foster care agencies, community
mental health centers, housing projects, homeless shelters,
churches, and drug courts and prisons.
Program Contents
SFP sessions include all the critical core components
of effective evidence-based parenting programs (CDC, 2008)
including: parent and child practice time in the family
sessions learning positive interactions, communication,
and effective discipline.
The parenting sessions review appropriate developmental
expectations, teach parents to interact positively with
children (such as showing enthusiasm and attention for good
behavior and letting the child take the lead in play activities,
increasing attention and praise for positive children’s
behaviors, positive family communication including active
listening and reducing criticism and sarcasm, family meetings
to improve order and organization, and effective and consistent
discipline including consequences and time-outs.
The children’s skills training content includes
communication skills to improve parents, peers, and teacher
relationships, hopes and dreams, resilience skills, problems
solving, peer resistance, feeling identification, anger
management and coping skills.
The family practice sessions allow the parents and children
time to practice what they learned in their individual sessions
in experiential exercises. This is also a time for the four
group leaders to coach and encourage family members for
improvements in parent/child interactions. The major skills
to learn are: Child’s Game similar to therapeutic
child play where the parent allows the child to determine
the play or recreation activity, Family Meetings and effective
communication exercises, and Parent Game or effective discipline.
Home practice assignments improve generalization of new
behaviors at home.
.
Cultural Adapations and International Dissemination of
SFP
SFP fully meets all US federal agencies' standards for
science-based prevention programs and is in 17 countries.
SFP is culturally sensitive rather than culturally specific,
but has also been successfully adapted for African American,
Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and American Indian families,
and is available in Spanish Portuguese, Russians, Dutch,
Swedish, and Thai languages. A cultural adaptation protocol
has been developed and published on SFP see Publications
(Kumpfer, Pinyuchon, de Melo, & Whiteside, 2008).
.
SFP for Diverse Ethnic Populations
Culturally specific or culturally
sensitive? In the 1990s African-American and First
Nations culturally-specific adaptations of SFP produced
results no better than the core version of SFP, but both
made recruitment and retention of families much easier.
Similar results were found for other culturally specific
adaptations (International Journal of Addictions, Journal
of Substance Use and Abuse, Aktan, Kumpfer, and Turner).
Unfortunately, federal funding to update these and other
culturally specific adaptations to match revisions in 2000
and 2006 of the core SFP6-11 has not been available and
none of these adaptations is now available or recommended.
Multicultural and culturally sensitive:
In response, in 2000 the core SFP6-11 course materials were
extensively revised to be both multicultural and culturally
sensitive. All SFP group leader trainings stress the necessity
in implementation of adapting to the needs and culture of
participating families. Both culturally sensitive and culturally
specific versions of the SFP6-11 curriculum have been found
extremely successful with African-American, Hispanic-American,
Asian-American and First Nations families. Multiple European
implementations of translated and culturally specific versions
have met similar success.
SFP in Spanish: A fresh
Spanish translation in 2007 of SFP6-11 parent handbooks/handouts
makes SFP6-11 accessible for implementing agencies with
bi-lingual staff serving Hispanic families. (Children’s
handbooks/ handouts contain little text and children are
typically bi-lingual.) Parents’ handbooks/handouts
in Spanish on CD are available for sale.
Asian and Pacific Islander Families:
Also on a CSAP Grant, the Coalition for Drug-free Hawaii
Developed the Strengthening Hawaii's Families Program. This
program is substantially modified and includes 10 sessions
of family values followed by 10 sessions of the original
SFP modified to be more culturally specific. The outcome
results, however, were actually somewhat better for the
standard 14-session SFP than for the more culturally specific
SFP Hawaiian version (Kameoke). These curriculum manuals
can be purchased through the Coalition for Drug-free Hawaii.
For information on the Strengthening Hawaii Families Program
go to
www.strengtheningfamilies.org.
|
