Blueprints
Promising Programs
| Strengthening Families Program For Parents and Youth 10-14 (SFP) |
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Program Overview:
The Strengthening Families Program For Parents
and Youth 10-14 (SFP), fomerly the Iowa Strengthening
Families Program (ISFP), is a universal, family-based
intervention which enhances parents’ general
child management skills, parent-child affective relationships,
and family communication. Based on a developmental
model, SFP assumes that increasing the family’s
protective processes while decreasing its potential
risk factors can alter a child’s future, so
that problem behaviors can be reduced or avoided.
In addition, the program seeks to delay the onset
of adolescent alcohol and substance use by improving
family practices.
Program Targets:
SFP is designed for use with all sixth-grade students
and their families. It has been successfully implemented
in 33 rural, Midwestern schools in which most of the
program families were white and middle-class and most
parents had obtained at least a high school education.
Program Content:
The seven-week intervention utilizes a biopsychosocial
model in which parents and children learn individual
skills, then are brought together to improve family
communication and practices.
- During the parent training sessions, held in groups with an average of eight families, parents are taught to clarify expectations of children’s behavior, especially regarding substance use; utilize appropriate and consistent discipline techniques; manage strong emotions concerning their children; and use effective communication.
- In the child sessions, adolescents learn similar skills, as well as peer resistance and refusal techniques; personal and social interaction skills; and stress and emotion management.
- In the combined parent and children classes, families practice conflict resolution and communication skills, and engage in activities designed to increase family cohesiveness.
Program Outcomes:
Both post-test evaluations of family processes and
follow-up studies of individual substance use have
demonstrated positive effects for SFP families and
adolescents, compared to control groups.
At post-test, SFP participants showed:
- Improved child management practices, including
monitoring, discipline, and standard setting;
- Increased parent-child communication;
- More child involvement in family activities and
decisions; and
- Strengthened family affective quality.
One- and two-year follow-up analyses revealed that
participating adolescents had:
- Lower rates of alcohol initiation at both years;
and
- 30-60% relative reductions in alcohol use, using
without parents’ permission, and being drunk.
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