Family Time Research
Designing an Evidence-Based Intervention for Parents Involved with Child Welfare
With over 400,000 children in foster care in the United States and parenting services being the most frequently ordered service to try to remediate parental deficiencies and to support reunification efforts, it is imperative that this service not only has a high relevance to the parents it is trying to reach, but has evidence to support effectiveness (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). However, most of the evidence-based parenting programs being offered to parents have neither high relevance to this population nor have they been rigorously studied. Additionally, they are costly to implement and attrition rates are of great concern. In this paper, we describe a process used to inform the development of a parenting intervention that would have high relevance to child welfare involved parents and could then work towards proving its effectiveness.
Orlando, et al., (2021) Responding to COVID-19’s Impact on Supervised Family Time: The Supportive Virtual Family Time Model. Developmental Child Welfare; 3 (1), 1–17.
Responding to Covid-19’s Impact on Supervised Family Time: The Supportive Virtual Family Time Model
COVID-19 has put child wellbeing at risk, perhaps especially, for children and youth involved in the foster care system. For these children and youth, any stability they may have experienced since entering care has been disrupted and their contact with parents limited. A sudden shift to virtual only contact meant both parents and caregivers were in need of support to navigate these changes. This study reports on the rapid development and implementation of an eLearning and structured practice guide for visitation supervisors to help them facilitate virtual visits that promote parent-caregiver collaboration in support of the child.
Orlando, et al., (2021) Responding to COVID-19’s Impact on Supervised Family Time: The Supportive Virtual Family Time Model. Developmental Child Welfare; 3 (1), 1–17.
Strive to enhance supervised family time visits for children in foster care: Outcomes from a pilot study with randomization
Child welfare system reforms are needed to help support families and prevent removal of children who may safely remain in the home. For those children who have been removed from their parents’ care, parent–child visits are a way to help maintain bonds and attachment and may help mitigate the trauma of removal. The primary goals of this randomized, controlled study were to assess the effects of the Strive Supervised Family Time Program on parental engagement, attendance, parenting skills in visits and the quality of the visits among parents involved with the child welfare system. Parents within Washington State having supervised visits with their children (from newborns to age eight) were randomly assigned to either the Strive program (n = 58) or a ‘supervised visitation as usual’ comparison group (n = 50) and then recruited to participate in the study. Survey data were collected from parents at the beginning and at the end of program. Strive Navigators documented program fidelity, and child welfare agency visit report forms provided data on visit attendance. Overall, the Strive program was well received by parents and showed promise in increasing the quality of parent–child visits through parent engagement, support, and skill development in areas associated with safety and attachment, stress management and communication. Strive provides a promising program of engagement and support uniquely tailored to the needs of parents involved in the child welfare system at a critical time. The contribution of the Strive program may, in addition to benefiting individual families, represent an important family time practice improvement for child welfare systems.
Barkin, et al., (2024). Strive to enhance supervised family time visits for children in foster care: Outcomes from a pilot study with randomization. Children and Youth Services Review; 160: (107531).
