Family Skills Training for Parents and Children

1 Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention John J. Wilson, Acting Administrator April 2000. e ng th e ni n g Family Skills il y S tr S. er m ie s Fa From the Administrator Training for Parents Often juvenile crime and violence are rooted in an array of interrelated prob- and Children lems, such as child maltreatment and neglect, drug and alcohol abuse, and youth conflict, that may originate within the Family . As part of its mission to pre- vent juvenile delinquency and protect Karol L. Kumpfer and Connie M.

2 Tait Children , the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delin- their Children avoid drug use. Program committed to working to enhance the quency Prevention (OJJDP) is dedicated to developers (Kumpfer and DeMarsh, 1983). positive influence of families through preventing and reversing trends of increased believed that, to reduce risk factors in proven Family -strengthening programs. delinquency and violence among adoles- Children of substance abusers, one must cents. These trends have alarmed the pub- improve the Family environment and the This Bulletin, one of OJJDP's Family lic during the past decade and challenged Parents ' ability to nurture and provide Strengthening Series, features the the juvenile justice system.

3 It is widely ac- appropriate learning opportunities for Strengthening Families Program. The cepted that increases in delinquency and their Children . SFP was initially tested program reflects research that indicates violence over the past decade are rooted in with clients who were participating in that the most effective interventions a number of interrelated social problems either outpatient treatment for drug build parent, child, and Family Skills . child abuse and neglect, alcohol and drug abuse or a methadone maintenance pro- Originally designed as a drug abuse abuse, youth conflict and aggression, and gram through community mental health prevention program to help drug- early sexual involvement that may origi- services.

4 The families in the experimental abusing Parents and their Children , nate within the Family structure. The focus group were randomly assigned to one of the Strengthening Families Program of OJJDP's Family Strengthening Series is to three groups, each of which attended a has developed into a Family -change pro- provide assistance to ongoing efforts across different type of session: a 1-hour parent gram that has served the needs of cul- the country to strengthen the Family unit by Training session; separate 1-hour Training turally and geographically diverse fami- discussing the effectiveness of Family inter- sessions for Parents and for Children .

5 Or lies and their Children across the Nation. vention programs and providing resources separate 1-hour classes for Parents and to families and communities. for Children , followed by a 1-hour session Several examples of such varied ad- for the entire Family . Families in the con- aptations of the program's strategy trol group received no treatment. Each are described in these pages. Sug- History group met for 14 weeks and received in- gestions for implementing the pro- The Strengthening Families Program (SFP) centives, including transportation, child- gram in communities are also pro- began in 1983 as a 4-year prevention re- care, snacks, and prizes for attendance vided, as are additional resources search project funded by the National In- and homework completion, to increase that should prove useful.

6 Stitute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Because of retention. the project's promising results, SFP has When we strengthen the Family , we The research results indicated that the strengthen the child and the future been replicated, revised, and adapted for intervention that combined all three com- of our Nation. diverse population groups throughout the ponents (parent Skills , child Skills , and Nation. The program was designed as a John J. Wilson Family Skills ) was the most successful. SFP. drug abuse prevention program for high- Acting Administrator increased Children 's positive behavior risk, drug-abusing Parents to help them and prosocial Skills , improved adults'.

7 Improve their parenting Skills and help parenting Skills , and enhanced the Family environment by improving communica- have been developed for English-speaking for announcements, and some programs tion, clarifying Family rules, and decreas- Australian families and French- and English- provide a snack or a small meal. Follow- ing Family conflict. speaking families in Canada. The Texas ing this group time, Parents and Children Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse spend the first hour in their respective (TCADA) is funding replications in Texas. groups. They spend the second hour to- Purpose NIDA has selected SFP as one of 10 exem- gether in Family Skills Training .

8 Research The Strengthening Families Program is one plary delinquency prevention programs has demonstrated that, for both the par- of the most powerful Family change pro- and funded research on SFP in the Wash- ents and Children , Family Skills practice grams in the Nation because it involves the ington, DC, area. helps families make and sustain improve- whole Family instead of the Parents or the ments in their interactions. Children alone (Kumpfer, 1994a). The initial goal was to design and test the relative Appropriate Target The SFP curriculum includes 6 manuals covering each of the 3 components of the effectiveness of three Family -based and Populations 14-session courses.

9 The manuals are the behavior-oriented prevention interventions The original Strengthening Families Pro- following: (a Parent Training Program, a Children 's gram has been culturally adapted and Skills Training Program, and a Family Skills tested with urban and rural families with A Parent Trainer's Manual and Parent Training Program) in reducing the risk elementary school-age Children . (Kumpfer, Handbook, which include behavioral that Children (ages 6 to 10) living with 1995; Aktan, Kumpfer, and Turner, 1996). and cognitive strategies and homework substance-abusing Parents would be- SFP has proven successful with high-risk exercises for 14 sessions, to help par- come substance abusers themselves.

10 Children whose Parents are not drug or ents improve their parenting, communi- alcohol abusers and with families of di- cation, and nurturing Skills . SFP was designed to reduce environmen- tal risk factors and improve protective verse backgrounds. Separate Training A Children 's Skills Trainer's Manual and factors with the ultimate objective of in- manuals have been developed for African Children 's Handbook, which include creasing personal resiliency and minimiz- American families. The African American life and social Skills Training and home- ing susceptibility to drug use in high-risk manuals contain the same basic content work exercises for 14 sessions, to help youth.