Marcia Baker and Karol Kumpfer
University of Utah, USA
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Psychol Abnorm Child
Background: Oppositional Defiant Disorders have increased in children and mental health disorders including SUDs in adolescents. Unfortunately lower SES parents are spending less time with these high risk children. This session will begin with a review of family risk, protection and resilience factors that make family based interventions the most successful prevention programs according to many independent reviews (e.g., the Oxford University Cochrane Reviews, NIDA, UNODC, WHO). The most effective family interventions for prevention and early intervention will be presented based on authors�?? reviews for last 20 years for our government and United Nations. One of the most effective is the Strengthening Families Program (SFP), a family skills training program where in 7 to 14 weekly group classes, parents and youth have separate classes first and then a joint practice session which teach parenting, family and youth social skills. SFP is cost effective at $11 saved per dollar spent, yet costly to administer-$500 to $1000/ family for a 7-14 week group. Recent epigenetic 10-year longitudinal studies have found that SFP can reduce genetically inherited behavioral health disorders related to short alleles of the 5-HTTLPR serotonin gene and the 7-repeat dopamine gene (i.e., diagnosed depression, anxiety, SUDs, HIV and delinquency) by 50%. Because of these positive results, culturally adapted SFP versions are now in 36 countries with similar positive results to its 14 RCTs, half by independent research teams. Methods: To reduce costs to $5/family, a new universal 10-14 session SFP 7 to 17 Years DVD was created for home and clinic use in English and Spanish audio tracks. It was evaluated with families who completed a confidential online survey to win prizes. A10- 14 session SFP family group version was also created and tested with high-risk families in schools and agencies as a comparison condition in a quasi-experimental repeated measures 2 group�?2 (pre-and post-test) design. 21 parent, family and child behavioral outcomes were measured using the SFP questionnaire composed of standardized clinical instruments. Within and between group results were analyzed using 2�?2 ANOVAs and compared to the SFP 10- and 14-session norms. Results: Compared to the group version, the Home Use DVD outcomes revealed 18 of 21 statistically significant outcomes and almost as large Cohen�??s d effect sizes for parenting (d=0.48 vs. 0.65) and family outcomes (d=0.69 vs. 0.70) but better youth results (d=0.54 vs. 0.48). The best youth results were for the DVD family group version that were better than the EBP SFP 3-16 Years age versions. Conclusions: Because of the positive results on positive parenting, child maltreatment and reduced depression and behavioral disorders, the new DVDs and family group curriculum are being widely disseminated at cost to have a broader behavioral health and public health impact. This presentation could include DVD video clips and interactive role plays, plus questions and answer period.
Marcia Baker is the Business Owner of Advanced Training Third Coast which provides substance abuse prevention training and consultation/evaluation. She is a PhD candidate in Health Psychology with a projected graduation of Dec. 2015. She has extensive experience supervising programs in the substance abuse treatment, prevention and behavioral health field. She is a Trainer for Strengthening Families Training Certification and Towards No Drug Abuse Certification program for substance abuse prevention professionals and teaches/trains adjunct in the field of substance abuse, prevention and mental health for numerous colleges and educational institutions. She is currently a Lecturer/Mental Health Program Coordinator with Springfield College in Houston, Texas. Her awards and accomplishments include: 2007, Hope Award in Houston from Sierra Tucson, 2008, Addiction Professional of the Year, Houston, 2008, appointed by the Mayor of Houston to Drug Policy Task Force for Prevention, 2009, Vice President of Texas Association of Addiction Professionals Houston Chapter and in 2013 nominated for White House Champion of Change for Public Health and Prevention.
Email: marbak1@comcast.net
