Blueprints
Promising Programs Fact Sheets
| 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), formerly the Iowa Strengthening Families
Program, 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, ISFP 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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