Session: Abstract of Distinction: The Legacy of Tom Dishion and the Development of the Family Check-up, Looking Back and Looking Forward (Society for Prevention Research 27th Annual Meeting)

Over the course of Tom Dishion’s career, he worked to decrease health disparities among many different populations of children and families, from early childhood to adolescence. The cornerstone of this work was the Family Check-Up, an ecological approach to prevention and intervention with at-risk and high-risk children and families. There are many aspects of the FCU that make this model unique, including the tailored, adaptive approach to intervention and motivational interviewing techniques embedded in this model. His many projects and subsequent publications with colleagues in this area documented the effects of the FCU on problem behavior, substance use, self-regulation, depression, academic outcomes and health outcomes spanning from early childhood through adolescence and adulthood.

Since the development of the Family Check-Up in the 1990’s, there have been many different variations of the model, populations targeted, and community partnerships that served as a context for this research.

In this session, 3 papers will be presented with research findings from the Family Check-Up. Importantly, and following in the footsteps of Tom’s pioneering spirit, each of the investigative teams has adapted and re-tailored the focus of the original FCU to serve a specific population or community target. We will discuss key partnerships with community systems that have facilitated the uptake of the FCU in these settings and a variety of outcomes associated with the FCU across different populations.

The first paper discusses an online adaptation of the FCU -- the FCU online. The paper will review results from the FCU online study, a randomized trial with 300 middle school youth and families. The second paper describes the use of the FCU in pediatric settings in early childhood and early adolescence, as well as ongoing implementations at Family Support Centers, Early Head Start and Head Start serving young children and families. The last paper will discuss the Classroom Check-Up and findings associated with this program, designed to improve teacher performance and classroom behavior derived from the original intervention model of the FCU.

Discussion at the end of the session will focus on the legacy of Tom Dishion and the FCU program of research and future plans for expanding the range of settings and populations that the FCU can serve in the coming years.