Publication Date

2014

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Department

School for Social Work

Keywords

Fatherhood-Alberta, Joint custody of children-Alberta, Couples therapy-Alberta, Psychotherapy-Outcome assessment, Marital conflict-Treatment, Parenting, Prevention/intervention, Preventing marital distress, Child outcomes, Replication

Abstract

To determine whether positive outcomes from two earlier clinical trials in California could be replicated, 50 couples from the Supporting Father Involvement program in Alberta, Canada participated in a post-intervention assessment 13 to 24 months following their baseline evaluation. Because couples in the California control condition experienced no benefits and some declines in adaptation, a control condition was not offered and assessed in the Alberta program. Data from the original California couples group (n=96) and controls (n=98) served as benchmarks for evaluating the current program. The central finding was that 7 of the 8 measures assessed showed positive Baseline to Post-2 changes that matched the direction of changes experienced by the benchmark intervention participants (increased father involvement, declines in parenting stress, stability in couple relationship satisfaction, improved couple communications in violent problem solving, children's aggression, hyperactivity and social isolation). Of these 7 measures, 1 revealed a significant positive change (decrease in parents' violent problem solving) compared to a "no change" benchmark result, and 1 showed a positive trend not found among the benchmark results (a near significant decrease in mothers' conflicts with their partners about their kids). Overall, the Alberta Supporting Father Involvement interventions produced positive results in terms of parents' and children's well-being, replicating results from previous studies of SFI. The current study strengthens the argument that programs should not be offered in separate family agency and government silos, but instead, should be combined to produce a greater impact for the entire family.

Language

English

Comments

iv, 124 pages. Thesis (M.S.W.)-Smith College School for Social Work, 2014. Includes bibliographical references (pages 56-64)

Limited Access until August 2019

Download

Share

COinS