Effectiveness of Sweden’s Contact Family/Person Program for Older Children

Abstract

Objectives: To estimate the impacts of Sweden's Contact Family/Person Program (CFPP) for older children on participants' long-term outcomes related to mental health problems, illicit drug use, public welfare receipt, placement in out-of-home care, educational achievement, and offending. Method: We analyzed longitudinal register data on more than 1,000,000 individuals born between 1973 and 1984, including 6,386 individuals who entered CFPP at 10-13 years of age, with a follow-up until 2008. The program impact was estimated by means of propensity score matching. Results: Outcomes for those who had received the intervention were not better than that for matched peers who did not receive the intervention. Conclusions: The results did not find support for CFPP effectiveness in reducing risks of compromised long-term development in older children.

Respite care from the child’s perspective – The Support Family Intervention in Finland

“…The effectiveness of CFI has been appraised in two studies. Brännström, Vinnerljung and Hjern (2015) charted the long-term outcomes of CFI for children who entered the service between the ages of 10 and 13 and found no evidence that it reduced the risk for compromised long-term development or out-of-home placement. Outcomes for recipients were no better than those for age-matched non-recipients.…”

“…Qualitative studies on Swedish contact family intervention (CFI) have revealed variation in the scope and nature of the support provided by contact families, including the duration of the intervention, frequency of visits and aims (Andersson, 2003;Br€ annstr€ om, Vinnerljung and Hjern, 2015;Regn er, 2006;Svensson and J€ agervi, 2020). Regn er and Johnsson (2007) found that many social workers consider the service to be vague and difficult to manage in that, although it is delivered to the child, social workers are aware that the underlying reason for the service is the parents' need for relief.…”

Experience of child welfare services and long-term adult mental health outcomes: a scoping review

“…For adults that received services, the prevalence of suicide attempt and psychiatric diagnoses was higher among women than men [92]. Two studies estimated the impact of Sweden's Contact Family Program, a routine welfare service where a volunteer family/adult external to the family provides support to a child experiencing a stressful or adverse situation [93,94]. Using latent class analysis and propensity score matching, there was little difference in risk of being in the outcome class characterised predominately by poor mental health for adults who received the service compared to matched controls [93,94].…”

“…Two studies estimated the impact of Sweden's Contact Family Program, a routine welfare service where a volunteer family/adult external to the family provides support to a child experiencing a stressful or adverse situation [93,94]. Using latent class analysis and propensity score matching, there was little difference in risk of being in the outcome class characterised predominately by poor mental health for adults who received the service compared to matched controls [93,94]. In variable-centred analysis, addressing poor mental health in isolation rather than grouped with other outcomes, risk of poor mental health was significantly higher for adults exposed to IHC compared to matched controls [94].…”

“…Using latent class analysis and propensity score matching, there was little difference in risk of being in the outcome class characterised predominately by poor mental health for adults who received the service compared to matched controls [93,94]. In variable-centred analysis, addressing poor mental health in isolation rather than grouped with other outcomes, risk of poor mental health was significantly higher for adults exposed to IHC compared to matched controls [94]. Three studies accounted for childhood abuse or neglect [90][91][92], but only one included a range of adult socio-economic covariates [91].…”