The purpose of this competing continuation proposal is to extend a program of research that began in September 1992, and has included (a) consumer-oriented studies of actors influencing participation in family competency-training interventions, and (b) four waves of data collection in a prevention trail evaluating the efficacy of the Iowa Strengthening Families Program (ISFP) among rural families with sixth graders. Promising results from growth curve analyses and mixed model ANCOVAs of 1- and 2-year follow-up data underscore the importance of continuing the study as the youth in our sample enter the highest risk years for the presentation of problem behaviors.
The first aim of this proposal is to collect further prevention trial follow-up data, in order to examine long-term outcomes of the ISFP.
A second aim i s to model processes influencing ISFP outcomes, including mechanisms underlying intervention-related change in parent and child outcomes that are proximally and distally targeted by the ISFP.
These specific aims will be achieved through third and fourth year follow-up data collection, along with analyses of these and prior waves of data from the ongoing prevention trial. This trial began with the random assignment of 33 rural schools having a sixth grade and meeting the criteria for the federal school lunch program. Multi-informant, multi-method measurement procedures at pretesting involved 667 families from these schools; posttesting, 1- and 2-year follow-up assessments have been completed; retention rates have been slightly better than predicted. Data analyses to date have shown (a) support for models of factors influencing ISFP participation; (b) significant, positive effects of the ISFP on effective parenting, child competencies, and child problem behaviors; (c) differences in problem behavior trajectories in intervention and control groups; and (d) support for models of intervention-related mechanisms of change in family processes. Comparisons between intervention and control groups will be conducted at the planned follow-up data collection points. Growth curve modeling will be employed to examine whether the increasing divergence of intervention and control group outcomes observed on key child outcomes to date is sustained, and whether outcomes differ among risk-related subgroups. Planned modeling of intervention change-related mechanisms will include multi-sample structural equation models of interrelationships among targeted parenting and child outcomes.
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