The overall goal of these Prevention Services Evaluation Partnerships is to contribute to the knowledge base regarding the effectiveness of mental health, substance abuse prevention and/or treatment, in-home parent skill-based, and kinship navigator programs and services in preventing foster care placements. Researchers are working in partnership with Title IV-E agencies, community entities, and other relevant individuals and groups with the aim of conducting well-designed and rigorous summative evaluations that align with Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse Design and Execution Standards for Moderate or High Support of Causal Evidence. Results of these studies are expected to contribute to the evidence base for programs and services intended to provide enhanced support to children and families and prevent foster care placements.
Award Recipients and Projects
|
Award Recipient |
Project Title |
Principal Investigator |
|
Arizona State University |
Evaluation of the Parenting in the Moment Program for Forcibly Displaced Families |
Abigail Gewirtz |
|
Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago |
Evaluating the Effects of Circle of Security Parenting (COSP) on Child Welfare Outcomes in Nebraska: A Quasi-Experimental Design |
Emma Monahan & Julie McCrae |
|
Evident Change |
A Quasi-Experimental Study of the Impact of Nurturing Families on Parenting, Child Safety, and Child Permanency |
Cynthia Burnson |
|
OSLC Developments |
KEEP Connecting Kin: Improving Outcomes for Informal Kinship Care Families via an In-Home Parenting and Peer-Support Program |
Stacey Tiberio |
|
University of Colorado-Boulder |
Evaluating Let’s Connect®: A Trauma-Responsive Parenting Skills Program |
Kimberly Shipman & Marcela Torres Pauletic |
|
University of Oklahoma |
Promoting Parent and Child Well-Being and Preventing the Need for Foster Care: An Evaluation of a One-Year, Home-Visiting and Case Management Program for People Using Substances During Pregnancy |
Erin Maher |
|
University of Vermont and State Agricultural College |
PRESERVE & CONNECT: Partnerships in Rigorous Evaluation of Services that Enhance family wellbeing in Rural VErmont, and urban Latine and Black communities in CONNECTicut |
Jessica Strolin-Goltzman & Matthew Price; CT PIs: Cristina Mogro-Wilson & Jon Philips |
Project Abstracts
Arizona State University
- Evaluation of the Parenting in the Moment program for forcibly displaced families
- PI: Abigail Gewirtz
The proposed study will be the first to test the effectiveness of Parenting in the Moment/PIM, an in-home, parent skill-based program for parents with experiences of forced displacement. PIM is an online parenting program for diverse families exposed to traumatic experiences related to or caused by their forced migration to the United States. PIM supports parents in identifying their parenting values, then creating goals aligned with their values. Components center on six key skills: teaching through encouragement, limit setting, positive involvement with children, problem solving, monitoring/supervision, and emotion socialization. We will examine whether assignment to PIM compared with a control condition is associated with improvements in child safety and wellbeing, adult wellbeing, and whether outcomes differ by language group and trauma exposure. In addition, we will examine recruitment strategies, program engagement (implementation) and program satisfaction.
Sample: For the proposed randomized trial, we will recruit 720 families with forced migration backgrounds and within 10 years of arrival in the USA; 360 families will be assigned to the PIM program and 360 to a resource list-only control group. Families (one parent and a child aged 6-12) will be recruited using stratified random sampling within the four PIM language groups (Spanish, Arabic, French, and English).
Design: Families in both the treatment and control groups will be interviewed online at baseline, posttest (4 months post baseline) and 16 months post-baseline. Standardized, reliable and valid measures in the four languages will be used to assess change in outcomes. Longitudinal growth curve analysis will be used to test PIM intervention effects.
The longer-term objectives are to build the evidence-base for in-home parent skill-based programs with strong empirical support (i.e., aims to contribute to the evidence reviewed by the Prevention Services Clearinghouse) and increase access to parenting programs for forcibly displaced families thereby improving child safety and wellbeing and strengthening their public health support.
Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago
- Evaluating the effects of Circle of Security Parenting (COSP) on child welfare outcomes in Nebraska: A quasi-experimental design
- PIs: Emma Monahan & Julie McCrae
Circle of Security™-Parenting (COSP) is an in-home parent skill-based program that is widely used by practitioners receiving referrals from child welfare agencies across the U.S. Yet there are no completed experimental or quasi-experimental studies with sufficient rigor and sample size to meet the standard for a well-supported, evidence-based program. COSP is designed to influence caregivers’ self-efficacy, emotional regulation, and attachment with their child; improvements in these outcomes are hypothesized to increase child safety and reduce the likelihood of out-of-home (OOH) placement. The objectives for this study are to build the evidence base for COSP as a child welfare prevention service by examining: (1) the relationship between COSP and OOH placement outcomes; (2) the relationship between COSP and child safety outcomes; and (3) how these relationships differ by level of COSP participation, geography, participant race, and ethnicity. This evaluation will rely on administrative child welfare and COSP program data from Nebraska to measure child and caregiver characteristics, child welfare history indicators, and placement and safety outcomes.
Sample: The treatment group in this study includes children of caregivers involved with Nebraska’s child welfare system statewide that are referred to COSP from October 2018 through March 2024 (approximately 1,500 participants). The control group will be identified from the universe of children with an open child welfare case and considered safe or conditionally safe at home during the same period of involvement as the treatment group.
Design: We will follow the sample and assess outcomes at 6, 12, and 18 months after COSP participation using administrative data. We will use quasi-experimental study design that involves entropy balancing and inverse probability weighting to create matched treatment and comparison groups, and regressions with family fixed effects and county random effects to identify the lasting impact of COSP. We will engage COSP program providers and a Parent Advisory Group throughout the study for input into study design, execution, and results interpretation. Program participation and child welfare outcomes will be evaluated according to geography, race, and ethnicity.
The overall goal of this outcome evaluation is to determine whether COSP results in improved child placement and safety outcomes, having the potential to build the evidence that may be reviewed by the Prevention Services Clearinghouse and establish COSP as an effective prevention program for child welfare-involved families. This study will build the evidence base for COSP, contributing to prevention science and our knowledge of what services work to keep children and caregivers together.
Evident Change
- A Quasi-Experimental Study of the Impact of Nurturing Families on Parenting, Child Safety, and Child Permanency
- PI: Cynthia Burnson
Nurturing Families is a parenting intervention designed for families with children ages birth to 19 for child welfare—involved families, and it is used in multiple states. Nurturing Families is an update from three evidence-based programs: Nurturing Parenting Program for Parents & Their School Age Children 5 to 11 (NPP 5-11), Nurturing Parenting Program for Parents & Their Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers (NPP-ITP), and the Nurturing Program for Parents and Adolescents. The aim of the program is to support and strengthen families and reduce the risk of child maltreatment and promote positive parenting practices. Nurturing Families has not yet been rated by the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse (Clearinghouse). It has been implemented in diverse populations and is available in English and Spanish. Evident Change recently collaborated with stakeholders in Texas to complete a feasibility study of the impact of Nurturing Families on child permanency and safety using pre-existing administrative data. This project builds on the feasibility study by carrying out two sub-studies: (1) a retrospective administrative data study using pre-existing data, similar to the feasibility study but with a larger sample size and extended timeframe to examine the impact of Nurturing Families participation on child welfare outcomes—including referrals, investigations, substantiations, and removals—within six and 12 months of service completion; and (2) a prospective study collecting self-reported parenting data pre- and post-service receipt in a Nurturing Families sample and a comparison sample of child welfare—involved families who received services as usual.
Sample: The sample for both studies will be parents involved in child welfare with at least one child in the home during service provision. All parents will have had at least one investigation shortly before referral to Nurturing Families or beginning in-home services. Parents in the comparison group will be those who received Nurturing Families services from one of the collaborating agencies.
Design: The methodology will align with standards as detailed in the Clearinghouse Handbook of Standards and Procedures version 1.0. This study will use quasi-experimental methods to examine the impact of Nurturing Families participation on child safety and permanency and parenting. It consists of two quasi-experimental sub-studies—one using pre-existing administrative data to conduct a retrospective study of parents and their child welfare outcomes, and one prospective study collecting parenting questionnaires before and after service receipt. Since individuals will not be randomly assigned, propensity score matching or weighting will be used for the statistical creation of (1) an intervention group (individuals who received Nurturing Families) and (2) a comparison group (individuals who received services as usual).
The objectives of this study are to investigate the impact of Nurturing Families on child safety and permanency. The methodology in both studies will align with Clearinghouse standards and aims to contribute to the available evidence that can be systematically reviewed by the Clearinghouse.
OSLC Developments
- KEEP Connecting Kin: Improving Outcomes for Informal Kinship Care Families via an In-Home Parenting and Peer-Support Program
- PI: Stacey Tiberio
Kin caregivers, in particular those who are informal or voluntary, have fewer supports compared to non-relative (foster) caregivers and kin caregivers who are licensed by the child welfare system (CWS). Kin families are far less likely to access and utilize services in multiple systems. Thus, there is a great need to provide kin families with resources and keep youth who are living in kinship care out of the CWS. “Keeping Parents Supported and Trained” (KEEP) was initially developed to support and strengthen parenting skills of foster and kinship families involved in the CWS. In three prior NIH-funded randomized controlled trials, KEEP has shown positive impacts on youth and parent outcomes, and placement stability. KEEP has been scaled-up statewide in Oregon for CWS-involved families. The current study would focus on informal kinship care, thereby adding to an emerging body of evidence on the benefits of providing enhanced parenting and peer-to-peer supports to families by scaling-out the KEEP program to serve kin families outside of the CWS. This proposal builds on an initial study, “KEEP Connecting Kin” (KEEP-CK), where KEEP was adapted for informal kin, currently underway with participant recruitment scheduled to end in October 2023. The proposed study (KEEP-CK#2) leverages our on-going relationships with state leadership in the CWS and Self-Sufficiency Program (SSP), and our community partners delivering KEEP-CK in Study #1 statewide in Oregon. The study will examine the impact of the KEEP-CK program on 1) child and adult outcomes (e.g., child permanency, child wellbeing, parenting practices, parent/caregiver stress) at the end of the intervention compared to those who received services as usual (SAU); 2) parents’ access to, referrals for, and use of services from multiple systems (financial, educational, mental health, medical, legal) at post-intervention and follow-up compared to those who received SAU; and 3) prevention of entry into the CWS. Finally, qualitative methods will be used to evaluate families’ satisfaction with and perspectives on the impact of KEEP-CK on child and adult outcomes.
Sample: The proposed study would recruit a sample of N = 192 kinship parents caring for a child between the ages of 4 to 18 years to participate in the KEEP-CK groups. All parents will be invited to complete surveys about the targeted intervention outcomes and basic demographic information, and n = 40 kinship parents will be invited to participate in qualitative focus groups. Adolescents ages 11 years and older will be invited to participate and complete information about their internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and n = 30 adolescents ages 11 years and older will be invited to participate in qualitative interviews.
Design: A randomized SAU waitlist control design plus qualitative methods will be used to conduct a summative evaluation of the KEEP-CK program to examine the immediate (post-intervention) and sustained (10 month) impacts of the program on child, adult, and service utilization outcomes and prevention of entry into the CWS.
The current study provides a unique opportunity to conduct a summative evaluation of the KEEP-CK program by leveraging extant relationships with Oregon CWS, SSP, and community partners to address the needs of informal kin families and the youth in their care. Further, this study could contribute to the evidence base of in-home parenting support programs available for review by the Prevention Services Clearinghouse.
University of Colorado-Boulder
- Evaluating Let’s Connect®: A Trauma-Responsive Parenting Skills Program
- PIs: Kimberly Shipman & Marcela Torres Pauletic
The primary goal of this project is to evaluate Let’s Connect® (LC), a trauma-responsive and culturally grounded parent skill-based prevention program for parents and their children. LC is unique in the landscape of parenting programs because it is grounded in the understanding that parents’ own social and emotional competencies (SEC) have a powerful impact on parenting and that building parent SEC in combination with behaviorally-specific, emotion-focused parenting skills will promote supportive parent-child relationships and children’s social and emotional development, mental/behavioral health, and overall wellbeing and resilience. The three core skill areas targeted by LC include: 1) Parent emotional awareness, acceptance, and regulation; 2) Resilience-promoting family environments; and 3) Emotion-focused relationship skills. We will build the evidence for LC by implementing and evaluating it in alignment with the most recent version of the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse’s Handbook of Standards and Procedures, with the goal of making it eligible for review by the Clearinghouse upon completing the evaluation.
Sample: We will provide Let’s Connect® (individual family format) to parent-child dyads (children, 3-12 years of age). The sample will include 171 English- and/or Spanish-speaking parent-child dyads (children, 3-12 years at enrollment) who are historically underserved and/or have experienced significant risk factors (e.g., exposure to violence, trauma, poverty, other adverse life events) that increase the risk for parenting challenges and/or youth mental/behavioral health difficulties.
Design: We will conduct a summative, randomized study with waitlist controls of Let’s Connect®, delivered to parent-child dyads. We will evaluate LC by comparing parent-child dyads who receive the LC program (LC group) to parent-child dyads who do not receive LC (waitlist control group) at 3 time-points (baseline, post-assessment, 6-month follow-up from the end of treatment) to evaluate program effectiveness and maintenance of gains.
Our ultimate goal is to increase accessibility of LC throughout our state and nationally and reduce health disparities, particularly for marginalized and historically underserved families, including monolingual Spanish-speaking families.
The University of Oklahoma
- Promoting parent and child well-being and preventing the need for foster care: An evaluation of a one-year, home-visiting and case management program for people using substances during pregnancy
- PI: Erin Maher
The proposed project seeks to achieve four objectives that will, collectively, evaluate the effectiveness of a one-year version of the Parent-Child Assistance Program (PCAP-1) —a model for a home visitation and case management program for parents who used substances during pregnancy. First, the proposed project aims to estimate the causal impact of PCAP-1 on preventing the need for foster care and promoting reunification. Second, the project will estimate PCAP-1’s effectiveness in achieving other program goals: parent recovery, parent’s connection with needed comprehensive community resources, and preventing future children from being exposed to drugs and alcohol prenatally. Third, the project intends to estimate any cost savings from the perspective of the state. Finally, causal evidence of program effectiveness across the prior three objectives would enable PCAP-1 to be rated according to strength of evidence on relevant federal registries (i.e., Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse and Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness).
Sample: Eligibility for PCAP-1 includes the following criteria: a) resides within 40 miles of the PCAP-1 metro area, b) at least 18 years old, and c) pregnant or up to 24 months post-partum with at-risk alcohol or drug use during pregnancy OR with a child with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder with current at-risk alcohol use in childbearing years. We seek to enroll 40 eligible people into PCAP-1 at a new PCAP site in OK.
Design: All four objectives will be pursued by leveraging an ongoing randomized control trial (RCT) of PCAP. This project will use a quasi-experimental design and recruit 40 new participants to receive PCAP-1 and will recruit existing participants from the existing trial for the control group to collect one-year outcome data. This design will facilitate an unbiased estimation of one-year program effectiveness while also enabling a comparison of the differential effectiveness of PCAP-1 and the original three-year PCAP model as a secondary benefit.
The evaluation of PCAP-1 will contribute to a knowledge gap in the field for in-home program models serving a highly vulnerable population with high rates of child welfare involvement and use of foster care.
University of Vermont and State Agricultural College
- PRESERVE & CONNECT: Partnerships in Rigorous Evaluation of Services that Enhance family wellbeing in Rural VErmont, and urban Latine and Black communities in CONNECTicut
- PIs: Jessica Strolin-Goltzman & Matthew Price
- CT PIs: Cristina Mogro-Wilson & Jon Philips
Project PRESERVE & CONNECT aims to establish a powerful collaboration among researchers, Title IV-E agencies, and community service providers to test the impact of the Breakthrough Parenting Curriculum: Navigating Trauma Across Generations (BPC) on traditionally underserved families, including those in rural areas, Black/African American families, and Latine families in CT and VT. The BPC is an in-home parent skill-based program that leverages the expertise of a parent co-facilitator to enhance knowledge, skills, and social connections in a trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and accessible format for parents involved with the child welfare system (CWS). The primary goal of this project is to conduct a randomized control trial (RCT) of the BPC, expanding the evidence base and access to trauma-informed services. Anticipated outcomes of this project include empirical evidence of the BPC's effectiveness in improving child safety, child permanency, child well-being, and adult well-being. Additionally, we will explore the BPC's efficacy in underserved communities and across different delivery modalities, such as in-person or online formats. Ultimately, this rigorous study aims to contribute to the body of knowledge reviewed by the Prevention Services Clearinghouse, paving the way for trauma-informed services that prevent child maltreatment and out-of-home placements.
Sample: Participants will be parents who self-identify as primary caretakers, involved with CWS (VT & CT), and are seeking services from our partner organizations, Vermont Care Partners (VT) and Wheeler (CT). BPC will not be mandated as part of CWS case plans. Parents are eligible for inclusion if they are involved with the CWS and have at least one child who is in, or at-risk for, out- of-home placement.
Design: The project will be a two-arm parallel RCT to determine the efficacy of the BPC. One arm will be BPC + Treatment as Usual (TAU), while the other arm will be TAU. Participants will complete baseline, mid treatment, post treatment, and 6 mo. follow-up assessments via online software.
Overall, we seek to engage with diverse communities, evaluate the effectiveness of the BPC, disseminate research findings and resources widely, and apply for review by the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse.