Evaluation of a Family Strengthening Program Evaluation in Sierra Leone to Prevent Family Separation

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

226 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2022-10-16

Study Completion Date

2023-05-22

Brief Summary

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In Sierra Leone, poverty and challenges with family functioning can lead to family separation, and children may go to live on the street or enter residential care institutions/orphanages. Helping Children Worldwide (HCW), a non-profit organization with over 20 years of experience in Sierra Leone, has developed a two-part Family Strengthening Program delivered by their program partners in Sierra Leone, the Child Reintegration Centre, to improve families financial literacy and attachment between caregivers and children, with the ultimate goal of preventing family separation. The hypothesis of this study is that the Family Strengthening Program program is effective at (1) changing parenting behaviors, (2) improving emotional regulation, (3) improving caregiver-child attachment, and (4) improving financial literacy in dyads consisting of children ages 9-13 and their caregivers.

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Detailed Description

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Conditions

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Parent-Child Relations Emotion Regulation Economic Problems Parenting

Study Design

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Allocation Method

NON_RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

PREVENTION

Blinding Strategy

NONE

During baseline data collection, participants were not yet assigned to arms, so all parties were masked.

Study Groups

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Family strengthening program

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Family strengthening program

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Phase I: 2-day Family Strengthening Workshop. The specific topics included in the workshop include: emotions, Body Progressive Muscle Relaxation, body stretch, self care, apologizing, routines to promote attachment, teamwork, saving, delayed gratification, anticipating unexpected expenses, identifying family strengths and values.

Phase II: Case management with family strengthening curriculum. Curriculum is delivered over the course of four visits (about 3 months), some of which involve both caregiver and child while others are just for the caregiver. Topics included are using appropriate discipline, effective communication for family problem-solving, and home budgeting.

Care as usual

These participants have already been receiving case management from the Child Reintegration Centre prior to the study, and they will continue to receive care as usual, which is to receive normal case management visits without this added Family Strengthening Program component. Case management consists of a social work staff alternating between visiting children at home or at school each month to provide supervision, coaching, counseling, assessments, and identification of additional support needs.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

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Family strengthening program

Phase I: 2-day Family Strengthening Workshop. The specific topics included in the workshop include: emotions, Body Progressive Muscle Relaxation, body stretch, self care, apologizing, routines to promote attachment, teamwork, saving, delayed gratification, anticipating unexpected expenses, identifying family strengths and values.

Phase II: Case management with family strengthening curriculum. Curriculum is delivered over the course of four visits (about 3 months), some of which involve both caregiver and child while others are just for the caregiver. Topics included are using appropriate discipline, effective communication for family problem-solving, and home budgeting.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

1. Dyads must consist of a principal child (the one whose situation initiated their involvement with the Child Reintegration Centre) and their primary caregiver (as defined by the Child Reintegration Centre as the person in the family primarily responsible for the health and wellbeing of the principal child and is noted as such in their case file)
2. Primary child is ages 9-13
3. Dyad is actively participating in Child Reintegration Centre services (i.e., child must have been seen by the case manager in the last month)
4. Dyad lives in the Bo area.

Exclusion criterion:

(1) Family has been assessed by the Child Reintegration Centre to be in active crisis, i.e., specific concerns about the child being at-risk or unsafe (suspicions of abuse or neglect).

Minimum Eligible Age

9 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes