Competent Parents, Protected Children: Outcomes Evaluation of the "Viviendo en Familia" Program

• Main Authors: Esteban Gómez, Bernardita Cifuentes, Cecilia Ortún
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2012-12-01
• Series: Psychosocial Intervention
• Online Access: http://www.copmadrid.org/webcopm/publicaciones/social/in2012v21n3a3.pdf

"Viviendo en Familia" is a program aimed at strengthening a positive and well-treating parenting, which addresses situations of child abuse, neglect and domestic violence, from the ecosystem approach of Family Resilience. The study evaluated the program results in 543 cases treated between January 2008 and July 2010; using pre-post intervention measurements with the North Carolina Family Assessment Scale, NCFAS (Valencia and Gómez, 2010). All child protection indicators showed a statistically significant improvement (p less than .001), except couple violence, with greater outcomes in emotional abuse and parental neglect. In NCFAS global dimensions (environment, parental competencies, family interactions, family safety and child well-being), there was a significant shift (p less than .001) to the range of strength. Of the 31 variables evaluated, families averaged 5.9 moderate/serious problems at admission, decreasing to 2.2 at discharge (p less than .001). Of the cases that completed the intervention, the cumulative rate of relapse to SENAME network programs was 3.4% at 6 months, 4.7% at 12 months and 6.5% at 18 months follow up. We obtained higher levels of achievement based on the degree of staff´s fidelity to the program design, being a challenge to consider.