Development, Implementation and Evaluation of a Foster Parent Intervention
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Sponsor
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel
- Enrollment
- 63
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Change in foster child's externalizing problems from baseline to post-intervention (3.5 months later)
Study Overview
Brief Summary
The hypothesis of the study is that the intervention leads to a reduction in foster children's externalizing problems and foster parents' parenting stress and that this in turn leads to a reduction in the number of breakdowns of foster placements.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Treatment
- Masking
- None
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 3 Years to 12 Years (Child)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •foster child has a borderline or clinical score on one of the small-band externalizing scales or the broad-band externalizing scale of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)
Exclusion Criteria
- •foster child:
- •has a mental retardation,
- •uses psychotropic medication in an inconsistent way,
- •behavioral problems are the result of medical problems or medication, foster parents:
- •have insufficient knowledge of Dutch,
- •have low cognitive abilities,
- •are already receiving professional support for the foster child's externalizing problems,
- •are divorcing.
- •Moreover, foster placements were excluded if at least two of the following criteria were present:
- •foster parents considered terminating the foster placement during the past two months
- •were experiencing psychological distress (measured with the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ; Koeter & Ormel, 1991) and defined as a score ≥ 2),
- •their foster child had a sum score above 3 (for children < 6 years) or 5 (for children ≥ 6 years) on the critical CBCL-items.
Arms & Interventions
Behavioral: Foster parent intervention
Foster parents receive a foster parent intervention consisting of 10 individual home visits and three group sessions. Duration of the intervention is four months
Intervention: Foster parent intervention (Behavioral)
Control
waiting-list control group who receive care-as-usual
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Change in foster child's externalizing problems from baseline to post-intervention (3.5 months later)
Time Frame: Assessed at two time points: at baseline (before the start of the intervention) en post-intervention (immediately after the intervention has ended, which is on average 3.5 months after the baseline measurement)
T-score for the externalizing subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)
Change in foster child's externalizing problems from post-intervention to follow-up (3 months later)
Time Frame: Assessed at post-interventio (immediately after the intervention has ended, which is about 3.5 months after the baseline measurement) and at follow-up (which is thee months later than the post-intervention measurement).
The T-score of the Externalizing scale of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)
Secondary Outcomes
- Change in foster parent's parenting stress from baseline to post-intervention (3.5 months later)(Assessed at two time points: at baseline (before the start of the intervention) en post-intervention (immediately after the intervention has ended, which is on average 3.5 months after the baseline measurement))
- Change in foster mother's parenting stress from post-intervention to follow-up (3 months later)(Assessed at post-interventio (immediately after the intervention has ended, which is about 3.5 months after the baseline measurement) and at follow-up (which is thee months later than the post-intervention measurement).)
- Client satisfaction(At post-intervention (immediately after the intervention has ended, which is on average 3.5 months later than the baseline measurment)
- Change in foster mother's parenting behavior from baseline to post-intervention (3.5 months later)(Assessed at two time points: at baseline (before the start of the intervention) en post-intervention (immediately after the intervention has ended, which is on average 3.5 months after the baseline measurement))
Investigators
Femke vanschoonlandt
PhD Student
Vrije Universiteit Brussel