Randomized Effectiveness Trial of the New Beginnings Program for Divorced Families with Children and Adolescents

Abstract

This study presents findings from a randomized effectiveness trial of the New Beginnings Program (NBP), which has demonstrated efficacy in 2 prior randomized efficacy trials. Family courts in 4 counties facilitated recruitment of divorcing and separating parents, and providers in community agencies delivered the program. Participants were 830 parents of children ages 3-18 who were randomized to receive either the 10-session NBP or an active 2-session comparison condition in which parents learned about the same parenting skills but did not complete home practice of these skills. Parents were ethnically diverse (59.4% non-Hispanic White, 31.4% Hispanic, 9.2% other race or ethnicity). Multiple rater assessments of parenting, interparental conflict, and child mental health problems were conducted at pretest, posttest, and 10-month follow-up. The results indicated positive moderated effects of the NBP as compared with the active control condition to strengthen parenting at posttest and to reduce child mental health problems at posttest and 10 months. Many of these moderated effects showed positive benefits for non-Hispanic White families but not for Hispanic families. The findings indicate support for the effectiveness of the NBP when delivered by community-based agencies but also indicate the need for further adaptations to make the program effective for Hispanic parents.

Multigroup Propensity Score Approach to Evaluating an Effectiveness Trial of the New Beginnings Program

“…The analytic framework contrasted parents who participated in the NBP or active control condition to parents who did not participate in either condition. The study supplements the ITT analyses of the RCT data that contrasted parents randomized to the NBP to parents randomized to the active control condition, regardless of attendance (Sandler et al, 2017). We discuss the study findings based on limitations of the ITT approach, information provided by supplementing the ITT approach with the propensity score approach, implications for program evaluation, and limitations of the study.…”

“…The efficacy trials involved rigorous implementation under ideal circumstances in which the experimenters retained tight control over all aspects of implementation (e.g., resource-intensive settings, homogeneous study population, rigorously trained providers, and standardized intervention procedures). However, the effectiveness trial involved collaboration with the family courts to recruit participants, program delivery using community agencies, heterogeneous study population (fathers and mothers, broad age range of children), and fewer eligibility criteria for families (Sandler et al, 2017). For a variety of reasons, each of these natural service delivery factors had the potential to diminish program effects (Schoenwald & Hoagwood, 2001).…”

“…and (3) were the intervention effects on parenting and child mental health problems moderated by child age, parent gender, parent ethnicity, or baseline status on the outcome? Sandler et al (2017) presented the results of the ITT analyses comparing the NBP and active control. In the present study, we hypothesized that the intervention elements covered by the active control might produce small changes on parenting or parent and child outcomes.…”

“…The study complements the intention-to-treat (ITT) approach, which compared families randomly assigned to the NBP to those randomly assigned to the active control (see Sandler et al, 2017). In randomized control trials (RCTs) with an active comparator, an ITT approach can under- or over-estimate an intervention effect relative to no intervention when either experimental condition suffers from non-attendance (Hernán & Hernández-Díaz, 2012) or when the active control group is either beneficial or harmful.…”

Targeting Parenting Quality to Reduce Early Life Adversity Impacts on Lifespan Cardiometabolic Risk

“…Some examples of established parenting interventions include the ABC intervention mentioned above (Bernard et al, 2019a ) and the Promoting First Relationships program, an attachment theory based program which focuses on enhancing positive parent-child relationships (Kelly et al, 2008 ). Another intervention, the New Beginnings Program, is a parenting-focused program designed to prevent problems in children who experience adversity such as parental divorce (Sandler et al, 2020 ). Thus, an urgent research question concerns whether existing parenting interventions that are effective in improving child socioemotional well-being and parent-child relationship outcomes, are also effective in reducing ELA impacts on child cardiometabolic health.…”