Cultural Adaptation and Results of the Strengthening Families Program 12-16 for Spanish Families: The Family Competence Program

Introduction: The Family Competence Program (FCP) for 12 to 16-year-old teenagers is the Spanish adaptation of the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) (Kumpfer & DeMarsh, 1985). This EBI consisted of 14 sessions that target improving family relations, parenting skills, teens’ social skills, and reducing drug consumption. This SFP 12-16 has been very successful in other countries with both girls and boys. So we hypothesized that with cultural adaptation, SFP would also work in Spain.

Method: The experimental group included 81 families from 9 different cohorts. Of these 81 families, 69 of them (85.19%) graduated from all 14 sessions. Using a pre-, posttest and 6-month design, the measurements included the Spanish-validated version of Kumpfer’s standardized SFP survey and the Behavioral Assessment System for Children (BASC). The results were analyzed using SPSS.

Results: The parent surveys revealed significant improvements in family resilience (t= -3.382; p= 0.001), family cohesion (t= -3.390; p=0.001), family organization (t= -2.438; p= 0.016); positive parenting (t= -5.538; p= 0.000), parenting skills (t= -5.538; p=0.000), effective parenting skills (t= -5.393; p= 0.000). Significant improvements were found in youth attention problems (t= 2.219; p= 0.028), depression (t= 2.093; p= 0.038), internalization (t= 2.540; p= 0.012), and adaptive skills (t= -2.072; p= 0.040).

Conclusion: The Spanish SFP 12-16 was successful with high family engagement and retention (85%) with large positive change scores for family relations, parenting skills and youth internalizing and externalizing risk factors. Future plans are to determine maintenance of these positive effects long-term. On the whole, results are coherent with the developed intervention model and are consistent with results of other international SFP 12-16 cultural adaptation