Session: Context Matters--or Does It? Effectiveness of Family-Based Interventions in Diverse Settings (Society for Prevention Research 22nd Annual Meeting)

Family interventions are the key strategy for the prevention and treatment of behavior problems in early childhood. Although it is clear that such family-based programs can be successful for the majority of families, it is less clear which factors influence their effectiveness. Even with successful intervention programs, studies reveal substantial variability in outcomes and about a third to a quarter of families do not benefit. This symposium aims to present and discuss state of the art research regarding the relationship between study context and the effectiveness of family-based interventions. It elaborates on the conference theme ‘Development and Testing of Intervention’ by examining the extent to which contextual factors like setting (e.g., mental health clinic or community setting) matter for program effectiveness.

The first paper, “Effectiveness of Selective Prevention: A Trial of Parent Training for Mothers Being Released From Incarceration” starts with meta-analytic evidence for relations between study context and effects. The authors then present evidence that despite typically found relatively small effect sizes in selective prevention studies, substantial effect sizes can be obtained for highly specified populations, as illustrated by a trial with incarcerated mothers.

The second paper, “Effectiveness of the Incredible Years Parenting Program to Reduce Disruptive Behavior in Actively Recruited Ethnic Minority and Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Families” elaborates on this thought and presents recent findings on the extent to which referral status (i.e., children being referred to an outpatient clinic or being recruited for research purposes) matters for program effectiveness. In addition, the authors focus on the extent to which family characteristics such as socioeconomic status and ethnicity may influence program effectiveness.

The third paper, “Community and Clinic-based Modular Treatment for Children with Disruptive Behavior Disorders: Exploration of Predictors, Moderators, and Treatment Parameters” focuses on the effectiveness of family-based intervention in community versus clinical settings. Moderators (e.g., baseline child impairment and ADHD diagnosis) and predictors (e.g., history of interpersonal violence and parental depressive symptoms) of outcomes are examined across settings.

At the conclusion of the main presentations, the discussant will offer reflections on each paper and summarizes key themes across the papers in the session. It is expected that an examination of contextual factors that may (and those that may not) influence the effects of family-based programs will be appealing to the SPR meeting participants.