STAYING CONNECTED WITH YOUR TEEN

OVERVIEW

Staying Connected with Your Teen is a family-based program aimed at preventing maladaptive behaviors in youth, including substance use, delinquency, and early-onset sexual activity. The intervention teaches parents how to successfully engage children in family-oriented tasks and encourages positive parent-child interactions. In an evaluation of the program, 331 adolescents and their parents were randomly assigned to one of the following three study conditions: 1) a self-administered intervention, 2) a group administered intervention, or 3) a no-treatment control group. Results indicated that the intervention had positive impacts on attitudes towards substance use for the full sample and positive impacts for black youth on reported violence and initiation of sexual activity.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: White and black adolescents and their parents.

Staying Connected with Your Teen is a family-based program geared at preventing substance use, delinquency, and early-onset engagement in sexual activity in adolescents. The program includes parenting, youth, and family components and is designed to teach parents how to engage children in family processes and relationships. The curriculum involves lessons about how parents can relate to their teens, identifying risk factors, protecting teens from harmful situations, supervision, and family problem-solving, involvement, and policies.

The program can be group- or self-administered. The group administered version is comprised of seven, two-hour sessions that meet on a weekly basis. The program requires families to meet together and view curriculum-based videos. Parents and teens then separate into different groups to practice specific skills. The last portion of the each session involves families and youth coming together to practice structured family interaction tasks.

The cost of implementation materials, including the Leader’s Package and the Leader’s Kit, is estimated at $1,841. There is an additional expense of roughly $897 per family, and this covers the cost of the videos/DVDs and the self-study workbook materials.

EVALUATION (S) OF PROGRAM

Haggerty, K.P., Skinner, M.L., MacKenzie, E.P., & Catalano, R.F. (2007). A randomized trial of Parents Who Care: Outcomes at 24-month follow-up. Prevention Science, 8, 249-260.

Evaluated population: 331 eighth graders and their parents served as the sample for the evaluation of this intervention. The sample was 49% black and 51% white. The mean age of the sample was 13.7 years. Eighty-seven percent of parents had a high school degree, and 40 percent of children came from single parent households.

Approach: Upon entrance into the study, youth provided baseline data on a series of indicators, including perceptions of drug use harm, favorable attitudes about drug use, frequency of delinquent and violent behaviors, and participation in cigarette smoking, alcohol and drug use, and sexual activity.

After completing baseline assessments, families were randomly assigned to one of the three following study conditions: 1) the self-administered Parents Who Care intervention, 2) the group administered Parents Who Care intervention, or 3) a no-treatment control group. Participants of the self-administered program were instructed to view the program videos and complete workbook activities over the course of 10 weeks. They also engaged in weekly calls with a program consultant who assisted the families with any intervention questions or problems. Participants in the group administered program attended two hour long sessions weekly, for a period of seven weeks. Both groups completed workbook activities on their own time.

Youth again completed the baseline assessment battery immediately following the intervention, and one and two years after the conclusion of the intervention. Measured outcomes included post-intervention assessments and changes from baseline to the two-year follow-up on the following indicators: perceptions of drug use harm, favorable attitudes about drug use, frequency of delinquent and violent behaviors, and participation in cigarette smoking, alcohol and drug use, and sexual activity.

Results: Results indicated that, between baseline and the two-year follow-up, participants in the self-administered Parents Who Care intervention group had a significant reduction in favorable attitudes towards substance use compared to the group-administered Parents Who Care program and control participants. There were no overall intervention effects for perceived harm of substance use, nonviolent delinquency, or violence over time.

At the 2-year follow-up, participants in self-administered (effect size = .39) and group administered (effect size = .22) intervention groups had significantly less favorable attitudes about drug use than participants in the control group. There were no overall group differences in violent behavior at the 2-year follow-up; however, black youth in the self-administered intervention group reported significantly lower levels of violence at this point than black youth in the other two study groups (effect size = .45). There were no program impacts at the two-year follow-up on perceived harm of substance abuse and participation in nonviolent delinquency.

Finally, analyses indicated that there were no overall significant impacts on the likelihood of having initiated drug use or sex at the two-year follow-up. However, black youth in the group administered intervention were significantly less likely to have initiated sexual activity at the two-year follow-up than black youth in the other two study groups.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Link to program website:

http://www.channing-bete.com/prevention-programs/staying-connected-w-your-teen/

References:

Haggerty, K.P., Skinner, M.L., MacKenzie, E.P., & Catalano, R.F. (2007). A randomized trial of Parents Who Care: Outcomes at 24-month follow-up. Prevention Science, 8, 249-260.

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: N/A

Evaluated participant grades: 8^th graders

Program age ranges in the guide: Adolescence

Program components: Clinic/Provider-Based, Parent or Family Component

Measured outcomes: Behavior Problems, Teen Pregnancy and Reproductive Health

Keywords: Adolescents, Middle School, Co-ed, White/Caucasian, Black/African American, Community-based, Parent Training, Skills Training, Sexual Activity, Aggression/Violence/Bullying, Delinquency, Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana/Illegal/Prescription Drugs

Program information last updated on 7/17/09.

		© Child Trends 2003