Project Activities
This project involves an iterative process to further refine the original Family Check-Up intervention for school threats of violence. The research team will obtain stakeholder feedback, conduct feasibility testing, and use a randomized study to pilot test the promise of the model on family management, home-school collaboration, school management, and student violence risk and behavioral outcomes.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The research will take place in public middle schools in Wisconsin.
Sample
The sample includes middle school students with or at risk for serious emotional disturbance who made a substantive threat of school violence, and their caregivers, student services personnel, and threat assessment team members. Phase 1 includes a needs assessment conducted with four focus groups (caregivers, students, student services personnel, school-based threat assessment team members) across three middle schools (12 groups total, 6 per group) to determine needs with the initial intervention prototype. Seven students, their caregivers, school personnel, and threat assessment team members will be involved in phase 2 feasibility tests. For the phase 3 pilot study, 36 caregivers, their students, and threat assessment team members will participate. Intervention consultants will be project-trained school district student services personnel.
Intervention
The Family Check-Up Threat Assessment will be an individualized intervention, adapted from the established Family Check-Up model and aligned and integrated within a school threat assessment protocol. The original Family Check-Up is a family-centered, strengths-based, adaptable intervention that engages families using motivational interviewing in a three-session assessment and intervention process. With a multi-tiered framework and implementation over the course of a school year, Family Check-Up improves the use of effective parenting strategies, reduces family conflict and behavior concerns, and improves student social-behavioral competencies. In the Family Check-Up Threat Assessment, a Family Check-Up consultant joins the school threat assessment team and works with the team to increase understanding of student violence risk, improve social and emotional systems and practices in place to support students and families, as well as support structures that promote family–school collaboration in threat assessment and intervention.
Research design and methods
In phase 1, the research team will conduct focus groups and interviews and distribute surveys to design and develop the intervention based on modifications to the original Family Check-Up. In phase 2, they will conduct small-scale feasibility tests with the intervention. In the final phase, the team will conduct a pilot study using a randomized block design to evaluate the promise of the model. Time of study entry is used as a blocking variable and students are randomly assigned to the intervention group or a school-as-usual control condition, with the next eligible student deterministically assigned to the opposite condition. Data will be collected at pre-test, post-test, and 6-month follow up.
Control condition
In the pilot study, the schools in the control condition will include their typical school-based threat assessment and intervention.
Key measures
Qualitative (interviews, focus groups) and quantitative (surveys) responses from participants and researchers will be used to design, develop, and assess the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of the intervention. An implementation fidelity measure will be developed by the research team. Family demographic information will be gathered using a project-developed demographic questionnaire. Parents will complete a series of established rating scales and questionnaires to provide information on family management and functioning, family stressors, parental substance use, parental wellbeing (anxiety, depression), family conflict, parental involvement and support, and home–school communication and connection. In addition, videotaped home observations of parent–child interactions will be used to assess the quality of the parent–child relationship and parenting skills. To assess student behavior, caregivers and students will complete the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and a threat assessment team member will complete the Monthly Report to identify problem behavior. Student attention control will be rated by caregivers, students, and a threat assessment team member on the Children's Behavior Questionnaire. Measures of classroom and school outcomes include the Teacher–Student Relationship Scale, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System–Student Report, and the School Connectedness Scale. Teacher/staff and student perceptions of school climate with be rated with the Delaware School Climate Survey.
Data analytic strategy
The research team will use mixed methods approaches to analyses during design and development, with qualitative analysis of focus group and interview data and providing descriptive statistics for quantitative measures. During feasibility testing, the research team will use qualitative methods to understand participant experiences with the intervention and quantitative methods to examine outcomes. During the pilot study, the research team will use qualitative methods to understand participant experiences with the intervention, and a two-level hierarchical linear model, grouped by pairs of observations at time of study entry, with covariates to examine intervention effects.
Cost analysis strategy
Cost data will be examined using an ingredients-based approach and a cost-effectiveness ratio will be computed for student social and behavioral outcomes.
Products and publications
Products: The primary products of this project include a fully developed model and associated implementation protocols for the Family Check-Up Threat Assessment. The project will also result in peer-reviewed publications and presentations, as well as dissemination of products that will reach educators, policymakers, and families.
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigator: Mauricio, Anne Marie
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.