Strong Families Strong Forces: Supporting Active Duty Families With Very Young Children

Sponsor

Boston University (Other)

Overall Status

Unknown status

CT.gov ID

NCT03045159

Collaborator

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (Other), RAND (Other)

300

Enrollment

Location

Arms

Duration (Months)

8.3

Patients Per Site Per Month

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the efficacy of the Strong Families Strong Forces Parenting Program compared to a parental self-care (Strong Parents) condition in a sample of 150 Active Duty Families with children ages birth to 5 years.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Deployment	Behavioral: Strong Families Strong Forces Behavioral: Strong Parents	N/A

Detailed Description

The overall aim of this research is to adapt and evaluate the efficacy of a parenting program compared to a parental self-care program for Active Duty families. A sample of 150 Active Duty families with young children who have a parent scheduled to deploy in the next six months will be recruited to participate. Families will be assigned either to receive the Strong Families Strong Forces Parenting Program, designed to reduce the impact of deployment separation on parenting stress and co-parenting, or to the Strong Parents Self-Care program, designed to support parents to focus on the importance of self-care throughout the deployment cycle. Investigators will compare the two groups on parenting stress, quality of parent-child relationships, parenting/co-parenting, and family and child well-being.

Study Design

Study Type:

Interventional

Anticipated Enrollment :

300 participants

Allocation:

Randomized

Intervention Model:

Parallel Assignment

Masking:

Single (Outcomes Assessor)

Masking Description:

outcomes assessor blinded to study condition

Primary Purpose:

Prevention

Official Title:

Supporting Military Families With Young Children Throughout the Deployment Lifecycle

Study Start Date :

Mar 1, 2016

Anticipated Primary Completion Date :

Mar 1, 2019

Anticipated Study Completion Date :

Mar 1, 2019

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Experimental: Strong Families parenting program	Behavioral: Strong Families Strong Forces Parenting program
Active Comparator: Strong Parents self-care program	Behavioral: Strong Parents self-care program

Arm

Intervention/Treatment

Experimental: Strong Families

parenting program

Behavioral: Strong Families Strong Forces

Parenting program

Active Comparator: Strong Parents

self-care program

Behavioral: Strong Parents

self-care program

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Parenting Stress Index (PSI) [Change from baseline to 24 months]
Assesses parenting stress in three domains: parental distress, parent-child dysfunctional interaction, and difficult child.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Coparenting Scale [Change from baseline to 24 months]
Assesses parents' perception of their own coparenting behavior.

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

18 Years and Older

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

Yes

Inclusion Criteria:

Cohabitating couple with at least one child age birth to 5 years old in which one parent is active duty and is scheduled to deploy within the next 6 months
Anticipated deployment time must be at least six months and excludes separations due to the Service Member attending a school
Anticipate that non-deploying parent will remain in the area during the deployment
Both parents are willing to consent to study participation
DEERS -eligible
18 years or older
English-speaking
The parent remaining at home to care for the children anticipates remaining within 30 miles of Fort Hood to be seen in home, otherwise will need to be seen in office
Anticipate that both parents will remain in the area for at least three months after redeployment to complete intervention and follow-up assessment

Exclusion Criteria:

Any family member with a significant medical or psychiatric condition requiring a higher level of care than can be provided by the study/comparison protocols
Active psychosis or mania