PI: Kristin Duppong Hurley
Funding Source: Boys Town
Research Design: Randomized Clinical Trial, 2012-2019
Objective: Examine the effectiveness of the Boys Town In-Home program serving families experiencing issues with child behavior or family functioning.
Program Description: The In-Home program provides individualized services to families of youth 5-14 years old to improve parenting, family functioning, child behavior, and the families' access to resources within the community. A trained family specialist works one-on-one with the family in their own home for weekly sessions that span about 3 months.
Study Aims: Investigate changes in parenting behaviors, family functioning, access to and utilization of resources, and child behavior at discharge and follow-up at 6 and 12 months.
Scope: We enrolled 300 families from the Omaha/Lincoln area with follow-up data.
Findings: Data were collected on constructs such as caregiver strain, family functioning, parenting, family resources, and parent report of child behavior. Piecewise analyses of the intake to post data indicated significantly greater reductions in caregiver strain for the treatment condition. Given the conservative corrections for the use of multiple tests, no other measures demonstrated significant differences. For the piecewise model of the maintenance phase, there were no significant differences between groups aside from caregiver strain that showed a significant improvement for the comparison condition. Supplementary dose-response analyses indicated that for most families there was an ideal dosage of about 25-75 hr to bring out the largest improvements in caregiver strain, parenting skills, and child behavior.
Published Manuscripts Related to this Study:
Duppong Hurley, K., Lambert, M. C., Patwardhan, I., Ringle, J. L., Thompson, R. W., & Farley, J. (2019). Parental report of outcomes from a randomized trial of in-home family services. Journal of Family Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000594
Patwardhan, I., Duppong Hurley, K., Lambert, M., & Ringle, J. (2019). An examination of the psychometric properties and validation of the Family Resources Scale for families seeking assistance with their child’s behavioral difficulties. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 37(3), 372-381. doi.org/10.1177/0734282918769486
Patwardan, I., Duppong Hurley, K., Thompson, R., Mason, W. A., & Ringle, J.L. (2017). Child maltreatment as a function of cumulative family risk: Findings from an intensive family preservation program. Child Abuse & Neglect, 70, 92-99. DOI 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.06.010
Gross, T. J., Duppong Hurley, K., Ross, J., & Thompson, R. (2016). Comparing self-report and observations to assess the implementation of an in-home program serving at-risk families. Journal for Public Child Welfare, 10 (1), 96-116. doi:10.1080/15548732.2015.1114061
Current Status:We are conducting additional analyses and preparing for additional studies of this intervention.