Identifying High-Needs Families in the U.S. Air Force New Parent Support Program

Abstract

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) New Parent Support Program (NPSP) is a voluntary family maltreatment prevention program for expectant parents and parents of young children. NPSP mothers are classified as “low needs” (LN) or “high needs” (HN) based on their Family Needs Screener (FNS) responses and NPSP service providers’ clinical judgment. Using data from 112,478 mothers, we analyzed classifications based on FNS scores, classifications based on NPSP service providers’ clinical judgments, and whether these classifications predicted mothers’ subsequent maltreatment of a child. Overall, 75% of mothers were classified as LN based on their FNS responses. Clinical judgments resulted in overrides for the classifications of 6% of cases and, when overrides occurred, mothers’ classifications were more likely changed from LN to HN than vice versa. Further, both FNS-based HN classifications and clinical overrides from LN to HN predicted subsequent child maltreatment. These data suggest FNS and clinical overrides are useful for predicting child maltreatment within USAF families.