KEEP Connecting Kin

NCT ID: NCT06294392

Last Updated: 2025-09-22

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 192 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-02-13
• Study Completion Date: 2026-06-30

Brief Summary

The current study provides a unique opportunity to conduct a summative evaluation of the KEEP Connecting Kin (KEEP-CK) program by leveraging extant relationships with Oregon's Child Welfare System (CWS), Self-Sufficiency Program (SSP), and our community partners to address the needs of informal kinship families and the youth in their care. Specifically, a randomized "services-as-usual" (SAU) waitlist control design plus qualitative methods will be used to evaluate the immediate (post-intervention) and sustained (10 month) impacts of the KEEP-CK program on child, adult, and service utilization outcomes, and prevention of entry into the CWS.

Detailed Description

In the 2022 Oregon census, it was estimated that for every child placed in kinship foster care, there are 14 children being raised by kin outside of the child welfare system (CWS), with ~37,000 children being raised by kin and ~17,000 of those by grandparents. Kin caregivers, in particular those who are informal or voluntary, have fewer supports compared to non-relative (foster) caregivers and kin caregivers who are licensed by the CWS. Kin families are far less likely to access and utilize services in multiple systems. Thus, there is a great need to provide kin families with resources and keep youth who are living in kinship care out of the CWS.

"Keeping Parents Supported and Trained" (KEEP) was initially developed to focus on foster and kinship families involved in the CWS. In three prior NIH-funded randomized controlled trials, KEEP has shown positive impacts on youth and parent outcomes, and placement stability. KEEP has been scaled-up statewide in Oregon for CWS-involved families. The current study will focus on informal kinship care, thereby adding to an emerging body of evidence on the benefits of providing enhanced parenting and peer support to families by scaling-out the KEEP program to serve kin families outside of the CWS. This research builds on an initial study, "KEEP Connecting Kin" (KEEP-CK), where KEEP was adapted for informal kin, currently underway with participant recruitment ending in October 2023.

The proposed study (KEEP-CK#2) leverages our on-going relationships with state leadership in the CWS and SSP, and our community partners delivering KEEP-CK in Study #1 statewide in Oregon. In Study #2, a randomized "services-as-usual" (SAU) waitlist control design plus qualitative methods will be used to conduct a summative evaluation of the KEEP-CK program by recruiting N = 192 kinship families to examine the immediate (post-intervention) and sustained (10 month) impacts of the program on child, adult, and service utilization outcomes and prevention of entry into the CWS. Research questions include:

Aim 1 (impact on child and adult outcomes): The KEEP-CK program is posited to improve child and adult outcomes at the end of the intervention, and such effects are posited to be sustained at 6 months after the end of the intervention (10 months post baseline), compared to those who received SAU. Targeted child outcomes include (a) child well-being (i.e., behavioral and emotional functioning, including child internalizing and externalizing behaviors) and (b) child permanency (i.e., placement stability and permanency of placements). Targeted adult outcomes include (c) parenting practices and (d) parent/caregiver stress.

Aim 2 (impact on use of services): The KEEP-CK program is posited to increase parents' access to and use of services from multiple systems (e.g., Oregon Kinship Navigator, financial, educational, mental health, medical, legal) at post-intervention and follow-up compared to those who received SAU.

Aim 3 (impact on prevention of entry into the CWS): The KEEP-CK program is posited to reduce the likelihood that youth who are living in kinship care enter into the CWS by the 10-month follow-up assessment, compared to youth whose kinship caregivers received SAU.

Aim 4 (parent and youth perspectives): Qualitative methods will be used to evaluate families' satisfaction with and perspectives on the impact of KEEP-CK on child and adult outcomes.

Conditions

Internalizing Behavior; Externalizing Behavior; Child Permanency; Parenting; Parent Stress; Service Utilization

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

KEEP-CK

Participants who are randomly assigned to the KEEP-CK condition will participate in 16 weekly group sessions with 8-12 other informal kinship caregivers, and receive manualized content related to positive parenting skills, and peer-to-peer supports and recommendations for services.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

KEEP-CK

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The KEEP-CK model focuses on optimizing the role of kinship parents as the agents of positive change for children and youth. KEEP-CK groups for kinship parents are delivered by two co-group leaders for 16 weeks. Sessions are 90 minutes each week. The same group of 8-12 kinship parents attends each week. Each KEEP-CK group follows a manualized curriculum that emphasizes tailoring the content to the unique needs and cultures of the parent in the group and the youth in their care. The key parenting principles of the model include: (a) reinforce normative and prosocial behavior, (b) incentivize the behavior that parents want to promote, (c) build cooperation, (d) teach new behaviors, (e) use non-harsh effective limit setting, and (f) manage emotions while parenting. The key services connection elements of the model include: (a) parent discussions of services they are using or have used and (b) KEEP-CK group leaders share examples from a list of statewide and national services.

"Services as usual" (SAU) waitlist control

Participants who are randomly assigned to the "services as usual" (SAU) waitlist control condition will be eligible to receive SAU that are available to all informal kinship caregivers in Oregon. Participants who ask about receiving supports will be referred to the Oregon Kinship Navigator, which is a statewide kinship navigator program that is available to all informal kinship caregivers in Oregon regardless of their participation in this study. Participants in the SAU waitlist control condition will be offered the opportunity to participate in a KEEP-CK group after 10 months, with these participants only contribute data to the SAU control condition for the impact analyses.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

KEEP-CK

The KEEP-CK model focuses on optimizing the role of kinship parents as the agents of positive change for children and youth. KEEP-CK groups for kinship parents are delivered by two co-group leaders for 16 weeks. Sessions are 90 minutes each week. The same group of 8-12 kinship parents attends each week. Each KEEP-CK group follows a manualized curriculum that emphasizes tailoring the content to the unique needs and cultures of the parent in the group and the youth in their care. The key parenting principles of the model include: (a) reinforce normative and prosocial behavior, (b) incentivize the behavior that parents want to promote, (c) build cooperation, (d) teach new behaviors, (e) use non-harsh effective limit setting, and (f) manage emotions while parenting. The key services connection elements of the model include: (a) parent discussions of services they are using or have used and (b) KEEP-CK group leaders share examples from a list of statewide and national services.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Informal kinship caregivers in Oregon are defined as relatives or fictive kin who are caring for children between the ages of 4 to 18 years outside of the child welfare system with no birth/step parent living in the home.

Exclusion Criteria

• Informal kinship caregivers in Oregon who have previously participated in a KEEP or KEEP-CK group, or have a partner living in their home who has previously participated in a KEEP or KEEP-CK group.
• Focal child is not between the ages of 4-18 years at the baseline assessment.
• Focal child has been adopted by the kinship parent at the baseline assessment.
• Focal child is not living with the kinship caregiver full time (e.g., babysitting/weekends/vacations) at the baseline assessment.
• Focal child is in child welfare at the baseline assessment.
• Focal child is living with the kinship caregiver in a certified foster home at the baseline assessment.
• Focal child has a developmental disability or delay that impairs their ability to be responsive to the parenting content of KEEP-CK.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 4 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation

FED

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Oregon Social Learning Center

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Stacey Tiberio

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Stacey Tiberio, Ph.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Oregon Social Learning Center

Locations

Oregon Center Learning Center

Eugene, Oregon, United States

Countries

United States

Provided Documents

Document Type: Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

90FA3010

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id