Outcomes and Mechanisms of Change of the Strengthening Families Program in a Clinical Sample of Children and Their Families in Austria.

Tanja Bleis,Elisabeth Stefanek,Markus Schwab,Georg Spiel

doi:10.3390/ijerph19031074

Abstract

Family context and parenting behavior have the greatest influence on children’s mental health and well-being, and interventions that take the whole family system into account are promising. This study aims to evaluate the outcomes, i.e., family strength, parenting behavior, and child behavior, of the Strengthening Families Program (SFP), developed by Kumpfer which was implemented in an outpatient clinic of a community-based non-governmental organization in Austria between 2012 and 2018. Furthermore, the program’s mechanism of change as formulated by the program authors (i.e., to what extent parenting behavior mediates the relationship between family strength and child behavior) was tested in this clinical sample. Instruments measuring family strength, parenting behavior, and child behavior were administered before, immediately after, and 6 months after participation in the SFP. To test the mechanisms of change, a half-longitudinal model was applied with two measurement points (before and after). A total of 62 families (50 boys, 24 girls, and 69 parents) participated in the culturally adapted SFP. Regarding the outcomes of the program, all variables yielded significant improvement in all variables. With respect to the mechanism of change, no significant association between the variables could be found. Implications for the implementation of the SFP in a clinical population and how further adaptation of the program could enhance the adherence of this target group are discussed.

Highlights

Accepted: 13 January 2022According to the latest available data from UNICEF [1], more than 13% of adolescents ages 10–19 years are estimated to live with a diagnosed mental disorder globally
Between 2012 and 2018, nine courses of the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) were implemented in the outpatient clinic of “Pro mente: kinder jugend familie”, which offers developmentally oriented diagnostics work as well as interventions and therapies for the individual child or for parents
Many clients from the two outpatient clinics of pm:kijufa are affected by mental health problems, with most of them externalizing problem behavior

Summary

Introduction

Accepted: 13 January 2022According to the latest available data from UNICEF [1], more than 13% of adolescents ages 10–19 years are estimated to live with a diagnosed mental disorder globally. Interventions that take the family context into account are especially effective for reducing mental health problems in children/adolescents. The. Strengthening Families Program (SFP) is a 14-session family group skills training program originally designed to help parents with substance use disorders to foster parenting skills, reduce family risk factors, and decrease problem behavior in children. It has been tailored to different age groups of children, from birth to 17 years of age; culturally adapted; and evaluated [3,4]. Between 2012 and 2018, nine courses of the SFP were implemented in the outpatient clinic of “Pro mente: kinder jugend familie” (pro mente: children youth families, pm:kijufa), which offers developmentally oriented diagnostics work as well as interventions and therapies for the individual child or for parents

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Conclusion