Florida Initiative for Family Engagement FIFE

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Florida Initiative for Family Engagement (FIFE)

• Melissa Radey, Ph.D.
• Karen Randolph, Ph.D.
• Kathleen Roberts, M.S.

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Sponsored By

• State of Florida, Department of Children and
  Families
• Acknowledgements
• Skip Forsyth and the Substance Abuse Prevention
  Team at the Florida Department of Children and
  Families

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FIFE Overview

• Three-Year Demonstration Project
• Aim Coordinated, multi-level population-based
  approach to engaging families in preventing youth
  alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use
• Change Mechanisms Environmental strategies
  (e.g., social marketing)
• To change community standards, norms, and
  attitudes that shape individual behavior.
• Research Question
• How do we create an environment that makes
  prevention-principled parenting practices the
  community norm in Florida?

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Background

• National Parent Movement
• SAMHSA
• Strategic Prevention Framework
• National Outcome Measures
• Population-Based Strategies for addressing
  underage drinking

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FIFE Annual Goals

• Year 1 Needs Assessment
• Determine stakeholder perspectives Assess
  current parenting practices among Floridas
  families Conduct literature review
• Year 2 Model Development
• Propose population-based model of family
  engagement in prevention-based parenting
  practices
• Year 3 Model Test
• Examine impact on a) engagement in
  prevention-based parenting practices and b)
  coordination between state and local stakeholders

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Parent Focus Groups Overview

• Purpose
• To determine parent perspectives on strategies
  for family engagement and their own level of
  involvement in prevention activities
• Methodology
• Focus groups (2)
• Sample
• Ten parents of youth attending the 2007 Florida
  Youth Leadership Conference

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Parent Focus Groups Findings

• Types of Family Engagement
• Knowing childs friends and friends parents
• Listening to their children
• Engaging in casual conversations (e.g., talking
  about songs on the radio on the way to the mall)
• Including childs friends in outings
• Reasons for Family Engagement
• To commit to child and to the role as parent
• To counteract risk factors, particularly for
  youth substance use
• Barriers to Family Engagement
• Work
• Other caregiving needs (e.g., needs of aging
  parents)
• Lack of knowledge about parenting and dangers of
  youth substance use

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Parent Focus Groups

• Parameters
• Exploratory
• Participant biases (e.g., highly engaged parents)
  
• Timing of the focus groups relative to the
  development of the projects foundation

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Parent Focus Groups

• Implications and Next Steps
• Confirm themes with more parents
• Develop and formalize parent involvement in the
  development of the initiative

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Stakeholder Study Overview

• Purpose
• To determine stakeholder perspectives on
  environmental strategies for engagement in
  prevention-principled parenting and multi-level
  collaboration
• Methodology
• Web-based semi-structured questionnaire
• Sampling
• Purposive snowball procedures
• Sampling frame N 35 Sample size N 17
  Response rate 49

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Stakeholder Study Findings

• Sample Description
• Directors, managers, policy makers, researchers,
  and trainers in high level administrative
  positions
• 49 reported association with Floridas community
  coalitions

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Stakeholder Study Findings

• Perspectives on Environmental Strategies
• Most reported no direct experience
• Knowledge of other campaigns
• e.g., Back to Front, Back to Sleep, Buckle Up,
  MADD, Parent Pilot Kit, Partnership for a
  Drug-Free America, Red Ribbon, Safe Home/Safe
  Parties, Truth Campaign

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Stakeholder Study Findings

• Suggestions on Intervention Development
• Process Work with schools to deliver message
  Focus on parents of young children Recognize
  positive parenting parents as experts Engage
  parents during daily routines Recognize
  Floridas diversity
• Strategies Use expert testimony Social
  marketing Media Advertising (e.g., television,
  radio, email, text message, interactive web
  advertising)
• Potential Challenges Reaching busy parents
  Capturing parents attention Bureaucracy
  Limited resources Lack of coordination among
  stakeholders

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Stakeholder Study Findings

• State and Local Collaboration
• Barriers to collaboration
• Too few opportunities Independent funding
  streams Lack of shared priorities
• Suggestions to improve collaboration
• Single reporting, Accountability mechanisms,
  communication across state and local entities
  Increased state assistance to local agencies for
  program development, service delivery
  Opportunities to network with others to recognize
  common visions and enhance each others work

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Stakeholder Study Parameters

• Exploratory
• Sampling biases

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Stakeholder Study Implications

• Disseminate to promote dialogue and education
• Develop and formalize stakeholder involvement in
  development of the intervention

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Parenting Study

• Purpose
• To determine current parenting practices among
  Floridas families with at least one child 10
  years old or younger
• Instrument is grounded in the prevention
  literature based on key principles linked with
  child well-being
• Hawkins and Catalano Promote childs bonds with
  the family by a) providing opportunities to be
  involved with the family in meaningful ways b)
  teaching necessary skills to be successful and
  c) recognizing and rewarding contributions to the
  family.
• Sanders Ensure a safe and engaging environment
  Create a positive learning environment Use
  assertive discipline Have realistic
  expectations.

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Parenting Study Methodology

• Telephone and mail survey strategies
• Stratified random sample of counties based on
  population density, region, and coalition
  strength
• Randomly selected sample of parents from Leon,
  Holmes, Suwannee, Wakulla, Volusia, Orange,
  Collier, Miami-Dade counties

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Parenting StudySample Description

• 1,153 parents (69 mothers and 31 fathers)
• Roughly equally divided between mail and
  telephone respondents
• Roughly evenly distributed between the six areas
• Demographically-advantaged sample White,
  married, highly-educated parents were
  overrepresented while Black, single parents with
  low levels of education were underrepresented

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Parenting StudyRace and Ethnicity of Respondents
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Parenting StudyEducation Level of Respondents
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Parenting StudyRespondent Categories

• How often in the past 6 months, have you
  participated ina friendly talk with your child

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Parenting StudyFrequency of Parenting Practices
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Parenting StudyInformation Sources for Parenting

• Have you received information about parenting
  from the following sources

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How did parenting practices vary by demographics?

• Mothers reported more frequent positive parenting
  practices, more parental involvement, more
  non-corporal discipline, and more inconsistent
  discipline than fathers.
• Older parents reported practicing less positive
  parenting, less non-corporal discipline, less
  inconsistent discipline and less spanking than
  their younger counterparts.
• Parents of girls and parents of older children
  reported using less non-corporal discipline, less
  inconsistent discipline, and less spanking
  relative to parents of boys and parents of
  younger children, respectively.
• Parents of older children also reported less
  positive parenting practices.

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Parenting Study Parameters

• The survey is a self-report survey in which we
  rely on parents reports of their behaviors.
• The cluster sampling technique does not allow for
  the generalizability of these findings to other
  parents in Florida.
• Respondents did not represent the demographic
  diversity of their respective counties.
• The findings are not indicative of
  cause-and-effect relationships

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Parenting Study Implications

• Targeted surveying techniques, such as outreach
  through churches, community centers, and
  after-school programs, should be used to reach
  families not represented.
• Interventions should emphasize the importance of
  continued positive parenting as children enter
  elementary school and adolescence.
• Given respondents are committed to their
  childrens success through both their practices
  and their eagerness to utilize parenting
  resources, future interventions should recognize
  parents efforts and offer concrete strategies to
  increase prevention-principled parenting
  practices among Floridas families.

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Literature Review Goals

• To inform the intervention phase
• Ensure use of rigorous scientific methodologies
• Use information to develop and implement the
  intervention component of this initiative
• Focus of the review
• Understand methods employed
• Understand the impact of environmental strategies
  on health behaviors

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Literature Review Methodology

• Outcome evaluations of environmental strategies
  promoting healthy behaviors
• Understanding most and least promising methods
• Initial search N 510
• Screening
• Initial quality assessment N188
• 14 evidentiary criteria based on strength of
  employing scientific methods
• Cluster analysis
• To classify multidimensional data
• Developed 5 groups to review based on scores
  assigned
• N103
• In depth review

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Findings Overview

• Two prevention-based parenting models
• Social Development Model (Hawkins Catalano)
• Universal Triple P (Sanders)
• Typology of environmental strategies
• Community Outreach, Entertainment Education,
  Internet-Based Education, Mass Media Advertising,
  Policies and Regulations, Social Marketing,
  Community Coalitions

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Environmental Strategies

• Community Outreach Provider Training
• Training professionals others to disseminate
  health information to vulnerable populations
• Commonly used in developing countries
• Entertainment Education
• Educating populations through the entertainment
  medium (e.g., drama, film, radio television
  soap operas, talk shows)

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Environmental Strategies

• Internet-Based Education
• Delivering health-related information through the
  World Wide Web and other Internet-based venues
• Mass Media Advertising
• Communicating health promotion messages to large
  audiences through television, radio, and print

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Environmental Strategies

• Policies and Regulations
• Efforts to formally control the environment in
  which behaviors are most likely to occur (CSAP,
  2005)
• Must be enforced in order to be effective
• Social Marketing
• Use of business marketing principles
  advertising techniques to promote healthy
  behaviors
• Goal is to increase the acceptability of a social
  idea or practice in a target group (Kotler
  Andreasen, 2007)
• Community Coalitions
• Community leaders work together to identify the
  communitys needs then develop environmental
  strategies to address them
• Change efforts require active citizen involvement

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Substantive Findings

• Environmental strategies have been used to
  promote a wide range of health behaviors
• Empirical evidence for some strategies (e.g.,
  internet) is not well developed
• About 50 of the studies identified a theoretical
  framework to guide intervention
• Results showed mixed success RE individual
  behavior change
• Path models to individual change were not tested
• Few evaluations of impact on social norms (i.e.,
  long-lasting change)

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Methodological Findings

• Generalizability
• Results cannot be generalized to other groups
• Lack of random selection in sampling
• Few replication studies
• Evaluated health promotion efforts using more
  than one strategy
• Unable to determine the relative impact of each
  strategy
• Most did not examine effects of strategies
  separately

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Environmental Strategies for Family Engagement

• Internet-based strategies
• Several efforts (e.g., Parent Chronicles)
• Little information about impact
• Triple P Positive Parenting Program (Sanders
  others)
• Multi-level intervention to enhance family
  protective factors and reduce risk factors
• Targeted toward families of children aged 0-12
• Universal Triple P Positive Parenting Program
  (Sanders others)

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Universal Triple P Positive Parenting Program

• Population-based parenting intervention
• Environmental strategies included
• Television radio PSAs Newspaper columns
  Parenting information sheets Infomercial
  television series
• Findings
• Infomercial (Sanders et al., 2000 2007)
• Increases in parents sense of competence,
  reduced stress, and fewer child behavioral
  difficulties among the participants

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Universal Triple P Positive Parenting Program

• More Findings
• Set of Environmental Strategies (Sanders et al.,
  2006)
• Mass media advertising (newspaper columns, radio
  programs, and PSAs) social marketing community
  outreach with provider training
• Combined with individual level strategies.
• Decreases in disruptive child behavior
  reductions parental depression, stress, and
  coercive parenting

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Literature Review Implications

• Gaps noted in the literature should be addressed
• Develop theoretical framework to inform and
  implement intervention
• Look at unique effects of individual strategies
• Evaluate mediating outcomes awareness,
  knowledge, attitude change
• Use sampling techniques that allow
  generalizabilty beyond sample population
• Examine impact of intervention on long term
  changes
• i.e. changes in social norms
• Incorporate evidence based strategies with
  diverse populations

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Next Steps Intervention Phase

• Logic Modeling Process
• Incorporate Theory of Change to increase
  prevention-based parenting practices
• Deliver intervention
• Test intervention