Session: Multi-Court Effectiveness Trial of the New Beginnings Program for Divorcing Parents (Society for Prevention Research 24th Annual Meeting)

Overview: Effectiveness trials play a critical role in the transition from studies of efficacy to broad dissemination of preventive interventions. This symposium presents findings from a multi-site effectiveness trial of the New Beginnings Program (NBP-10), a ten session parenting after divorce program that has demonstrated long-term effects to improve outcome for children in two randomized efficacy trials. The two efficacy trials of the NBP delivered the program to divorced mothers who were primarily non-Hispanic White and middle class. A long list of eligibility criteria needed to be met for parents to enroll in the trial. In the efficacy trials all group leaders were selected and trained by the program developers and continuously retrained and supervised throughout the trial. These conditions in the efficacy trial greatly limit generalizability of the findings to the population of divorcing families that could potentially receive the program when it is widely disseminated.  The effectiveness trial addressed critical issues about program effects that were not addressed in the efficacy trials and that have critical implications for large scale program delivery. First, could the program be delivered to the population of divorcing families as part of the normal process of receiving their divorce by community providers as part of a collaboration between the family courts, child service agencies and the University based program developers. This community based collaboration required the program needed to be offered to the broad range of ethnic groups and social classes served by the courts, fathers as well as mothers, and with children ages 3 – 18. It also required that a credible comparison group needed to be offered as part of the randomized trial. Finally, it required that the program be implemented by community-based agencies contracting for services using usual methods of service solicitation. This symposium will present findings concerning three issues studied in the trial. First, what are the effects of the program as compared to an active comparison condition on parents and children at post-test and 10-month follow-up?  Second how are program effects moderated by ethnicity and gender of parents, baseline levels of child problems and family functioning? Third, what are the effects of the ten session NBP program and the two session active control condition as compared with parent outcomes if parents received no program? Fourth, how does variability of implementation related to differential outcomes for participants in the NBP-10 program?