None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
This school trial investigates how family-school partnerships can improve education and mental health outcomes for children in primary school. The project will investigate the effect of family-school partnerships, and how best to increase parent recruitment into evidence-based programs and research studies. Families with children in Grades 2 and 4 in primary schools across Geelong and surrounding municipalities will be asked to participate by completing surveys. We will also gather school-wide (not individual) outcomes related to student academic achievement and readiness using school administrative data. We plan to analyse how family and school influences can improve education and mental health outcomes for primary-school aged children, and how parent engagement can impact these outcomes. The hypotheses are that schools randomised to receive a family-school partnership intervention will show improvements in parent-reports of child academic achievement and parent school engagement (primary outcomes), and in school-wide indicators of student academic achievement, school readiness, and parent-reports of child behaviour problems and child adherence to nutrition and physical activity guidelines (secondary outcomes). We may also conduct further analyses that are aligned to these outcomes in the future using this data.
Interventions
A primary school-based program delivered to families (parents & children) to improve communication, relationships and parenting. This will consist of two intervention components:
1) Strengthening Family Connections (SFC) Program: The SFC is a manualised program adapted from the original Strengthening Families Program (SFP) to align with the Australian school term. The SFC program provides family skills training in communication techniques and family behaviours to enhance family relationships an
A primary school-based program delivered to families (parents & children) to improve communication, relationships and parenting. This will consist of two intervention components: 1) Strengthening Family Connections (SFC) Program: The SFC is a manualised program adapted from the original Strengthening Families Program (SFP) to align with the Australian school term. The SFC program provides family skills training in communication techniques and family behaviours to enhance family relationships and healthy child development. The SFC will be delivered by Barwon Child Youth and Family (BCYF) as a routine program in 7 primary schools in the Geelong region. BCYF will recruit parents with children aged 8-12 years using their routine service procedures. The SFC will be delivered face-to-face or online by two trained facilitators in eight 2-hour sessions with groups of 3 to 7 families run over 8 weeks. In the first hour of each session families are separated into two groups, one comprised of children the other of parents. Facilitators of each group overview skills to be covered in the session. These skills are then practiced in the second hour, when family groups are bought together to complete practical tasks involved in sharing a meal. Topics covered across the 8 weeks for parents include: setting goals, self-care, communication and relationships, setting limits, problem-solving, and family management to prevent drug and alcohol use. For children, topics include: goals and dreams, communication, identifying and coping with feelings, seeking support, problem-solving, handling change, and psychoeducation on drugs, alcohol and healthy lifestyle choices. Adherence is monitored by supervisors checking activities against program content lists. (2). Parenting Resilient Kids (PaRK) is an individually-tailored online parenting intervention for the prevention of depression and anxiety problems suitable for primary school age children. PaRK comprises two components: a) a personally-tailored feedback report highlighting parenting strengths and providing specific parenting strategies for further improvement; b) up to 12 interactive online modules are offered with the feedback report highlighting specific strategies and modules tailored to identified areas for parent improvement. The interactive modules use a training strategy involving online text followed by comprehension testing questions and feedback. The content of the interactive modules includes strategies to: improve parent-child relationships, family rules and consequences, conflict management, healthy lifestyle behaviours, coping with stress, managing anxiety, and help seeking. Adherence to the PaRK intervention is monitored by analysis of online utilisation of the interactive content and parent self-report of whether they have read and acted upon their feedback reports. Parents will be offered PaRK at the same time as SFC.
Sponsors
Deakin University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
8 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Parents/primary carers/guardians of children in either grade 2 or 4 and aged between 8-12 years.
Exclusion criteria
Schools outside the target geographic areas and families with children who attend schools not participating in the trial.
Outcome results
None listed