Project

Project Family Iowa

Start Dates: 1991

PI(s): J. David Hawkins

Co-PI(s): Richard Spoth

Project Director: Kevin P. Haggerty

Funding: National Institute on Drug Abuse

Project Description

SDRG is teaming with Iowa State University to implement and evaluate the “Preparing for the Drug Free Years” (PDFY) parent training program as a strategy to increase family protective factors while reducing risk factors for drug and alcohol abuse in rural youth. This research is directed toward the evolution, refinement, and diffusion of interventions to increase the proportions of competent caregivers to youth through university-school-community partnerships. It consists of a series of interrelated investigations addressing four goals across several phases of intervention research:

To conduct needs assessments for preventive interventions through surveys of prevalence of protective and risk factors for youth problems.
To examine factors influencing participation in preventive interventions.
To evaluate the efficacy of universal family interventions using findings to clarify intervention-related change mechanisms.
To develop strategies for university-school-community collaboration in the diffusion of empirically supported family interventions.

The focus of SDRG’s collaborative analyses with Iowa State University is on testing the efficacy of Preparing for the Drug Free Years (PDFY). Results are available from the earlier experimental study that includes follow-up assessments at three-and-one-half years post intervention. The sample consists of 424 sixth-grade students and their parents who were randomly assigned to a PDFY intervention or control condition. Data were collected from both parents and students at pretest, posttest, and 1-, 2- and 3.5-year follow-ups. The experiment involved extensive data collection with in-depth written questionnaires and videotapes of families involved in two structured interaction tasks. Among parents assigned to the PDFY curriculum, intervention-targeted parenting behaviors showed significant improvement for both mothers and fathers, consistent with PDFY objectives. More recent findings on long-term follow-up indicate that improvements in parent behaviors were sustained over time, and that there were subsequent reductions in children’s smoking and drinking behaviors. Latent growth models showed that PDFY significantly reduced the growth of alcohol use and improved parent norms regarding adolescent alcohol use over time (Park, Kosterman, Hawkins, et al., 2000).

Overview of the PDFY Intervention

Preparing for the Drug (Free) Years is a five-session, multimedia skills training program for parents of children ages 8 to 14. Each weekly parenting session lasts two hours. Sessions are conducted by trained workshop leaders from the community. The curriculum consists of a Workshop Leaders Guide, videotapes for each session, and a Family Activity Book. The Workshop Leader’s Guide provides session objectives, materials needed, and a well-scripted overview of the curriculum material. In addition, the guide provides detailed information on how to conduct the parenting workshops and provides a sample recruitment brochure for distribution to parents. The companion videotapes are used with the curriculum to model a variety of the skills and provide a succinct summary of the curriculum material. The Family Activity Book is designed to summarize the curriculum material and provide extension activities for the family. It also contains pull-out pages for families to post in their home. After each session, families receive an assignment to complete a family meeting related to the session topic during the course of the week. In each session, parents have an opportunity to practice holding a family meeting. The five sessions are:

Session 1, “Getting Started: How to Prevent Drug Abuse in Your Family,” provides an overview of the program and describes risk factors for substance abuse, including family management problems, family drug use and positive attitudes toward use, alienation and rebelliousness, friends who use drugs, and early first use of drugs or alcohol. Participants learn that family bonding is a protective factor for preventing adolescent health and behavior problems and that, as parents, they can strengthen bonds by providing children opportunities for involvement in the family, skills to be involved successfully, and reinforcement or rewards for prosocial family involvement. In this session, parents practice the steps for conducting a family meeting to plan a fun family activity as one mechanism for increasing family bonding.

Session 2, “Setting Clear Family Expectations on Drugs and Alcohol,” focuses on reducing the risk factors of poor family management, favorable attitudes toward substance use, and early first use of drugs or alcohol. Parents are trained to clarify their own expectations about alcohol and other drug use. They are taught how to develop family guidelines and monitoring strategies, as well as clear consequences for following or breaking the stated family rules on alcohol and other drug use. Parents learn to enhance protective factors by involving their children in creating a family policy about alcohol and other drugs in a family meeting.

Session 3, “Avoiding Trouble,” focuses on the risk factors of friends who use drugs, antisocial behavior in early adolescence, and early first use of alcohol or other drugs. Children attend this session with their parents. Using the five steps of “Refusal Skills,” both children and parents learn skills to resist peer influence to use drugs or alcohol or to engage in antisocial behavior. The skill is taught using cognitive behavioral techniques of introduction, discussion, role play, and feedback. Well-developed skills in peer resistance increase protection against problem behavior.

Session 4, “Managing Family Conflict,” is aimed at reducing the risks related to family conflict, poor family management, and alienation and rebelliousness. Parents learn skills to express and control anger without damaging family bonds.

In Session 5, “Strengthening Family Bonds,” parents explore ways to strengthen protection by expanding opportunities for involvement in the family. Parents learn skills to express positive feelings and love to teenagers, and they are provided with a process for developing a parenting support network to continue beyond the Preparing for the Drug (Free) Years sessions.