|
The Strengthening Families Program for 10-14 Year Olds
The Swenson family lives on a farm
in southern Iowa. Their junior high school was offering
this family program at night in the winter. It meant packing
up all three kids and driving 50 miles back to the school
at night often in the snow, but they attended all of the
seven sessions. "With all the methamphetamine around,
I didn't want my kids becoming users. I also have a much
better idea now how to help my children to achieve their
dreams and goals–and it isn't for them to become a
meth user or dealer!." Jim Swenson 
The Center for Family Research in Rural
Mental Health at Iowa State University selected the SFP
for a randomized, clinical research study targeting 10-14
year old youth and their families in 19 economically disadvantaged
counties in rural Iowa. The ISFP was modified to incorporate
more emphasis on resiliency (Kumpfer,1994; Richardson et
al.,1990). To accommodate universal implementation in schools
for all sixth-grade families, the number of sessions was
reduced from fourteen to seven sessions. The same basic
SFP content was incorporated and the same format was used
including parenting and youth sessions the first hour and
the family session in the second hour. The modified program
included greater focus on protective factors in families
associated with seven basic resiliency characteristics in
youth (optimism, empathy, insight, intellectual competence,
self-esteem, direction or purpose in life, and determination
or perseverance) and seven coping or life skills (emotional
management skills, interpersonal social skills, reflective
skills, academic and job skills, ability to restore self-esteem,
planning skills, and life skills and problem solving abilities).
The total parenting program was put on video tape so that
only one parent trainer is needed to conduct the discussion
and exercise sections of the program. Another version was
developed with new video tapes for multi-ethic families
and was evaluated in Des Moines.
To avoid contamination problems resulting
from the frequent interaction of families in small rural
communities, schools were chosen to either get the program
or to serve as control schools. They were matched on the
basis of high percentages of families participating in a
free or reduced-price school lunch program. Families in
the control condition received four Cooperative Extension
Service leaflets, which gave information on developmental
changes of preteens and teens in physical, emotional, cognitive,
and relational domains.
Results. The retention
rate was very good given that the only time the program
could be implemented in rural farm families was in the dead
of the winter (January to February). Approximately 94% of
pretested participants completed at least five or more sessions,
88% attended at least six sessions, and 62% attended all
seven sessions.
Program fidelity to the designed program
was high and the results measured up to three years after
participation show significant reductions in tobacco and
alcohol initiation compared to the control, no-treatment
youth (Spoth,1998).
References
Kumpfer, K.L., Molgaard, V., & Spoth, R. (1996). The
Strengthening Families Program for prevention of delinquency
and drug use in special populations. In R. DeV Peters, &
R. J. McMahon, (Eds.) Childhood Disorders, Substance Abuse,
and Delinquency: Prevention and Early Intervention Approaches.
Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Molgaard, V., Kumpfer, K. L. & Spoth, R. (1994). The
Iowa strengthening families program for pre and early teens.
Ames, IA: Iowa State University.
Spoth, R. & Molgaard, V. (1999). Project Family: A
partnership integrating research with the practice of promoting
family and youth competencies. In T.R. Chibucos & R.
Lerner (Eds). Serving children and families through community-university
partnerships: Success stories (pp.127-137). Boston: Kluwer
Academic.
Spoth, R. (1998, September). Results of ISFP over 2 years.
Presentation at the National Prevention Network Research
Conference, San Antonio, Texas.
Back to Special Populations
page
|
