Effectiveness of the Strengthening Families Program 6-11 Years for Boys and Girls

Introduction and Objectives. Few published studies investigate the relative effectiveness of  substance abuse prevention programs for their differential effectiveness by gender (Kumpfer, Smith, & Summerhays, 2008). When sub-group gender analyses are conducted, there is often a statistically significant result for boys but not for girls because of reduced base rates of use.  Girls are more influenced by their families in terms of substance use and other problem behaviors according to the SEM-tested Social Ecology Model (Kumpfer, Alvarado, & Whiteside, 2003). Because a gender analysis for the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) has never been conducted, the aim of this research was to determine the relative effectiveness of SFP for girls and for boys. Because substance use and behavior problems have increased in girls in the past 15 years, it might be possible to detect significant positive results for SFP among girls as well as for boys.

Methods. An archival SFP 6-11 Years data base (n =1,700) of parent self-reported pre- and post-tests including 21 parenting (5), family (5) and youth risk and protective scales plus parent substance use was used to test a hypothesis that girls would have larger effect sizes than boys. Statistical analyses employing within- and between-groups 2 gender x 2 repeated measures ANOVAs compared the outcomes for girls versus boys. The outcome tables including means, SDs, Mean Change, F-values, p-values and Cohen’s d effect sizes.

Results.  The between-groups ANOVA that made comparisons of the outcomes for the large normative sample of USA girls and boys revealed no statistically significant difference in the positive outcomes of SFP for girls as compared to those for boys. The outcome effect sizes were somewhat larger for USA girls than for boys. The Portuguese girls also improved more than for boys the Family Cluster score (d = 71  vs .67) and, Parenting Cluster score (d . = .62 vs. .61). However, the boys improved more in the overall Child Cluster Score (d = 45 vs .53) largely because Portuguese boys were lower at intake in Social Skills and improved more.

Conclusion. This SFP analysis suggests SFP is equally effective for girls as for boys possibly because girls today have similar levels of behavioral problems compared to boys because girls are more impacted by family relationships. This is an interesting result because few drug prevention programs were as or more effective for girls, with most positive findings for girls occurring for cigarette initiation or use.