Over the last three decades, researchers have made remarkable progress in creating and testing family-focused programs aimed at fostering the cognitive, affective, and behavioral health of children. These programs include universal interventions, such as those for expecting or new parents, and workshops for families whose children are entering adolescence, as well as programs targeted to especially challenged parents, such as low-income single teens about to have their first babies, or the parents of children with autism. Some family-focused programs have been shown to foster significantly better outcomes in children, including enhanced educational performance, and reduced rates of teen pregnancy, substance abuse, and child conduct and delinquency, as well as reduced child abuse. The favorable cost-benefit ratios of some of these programs are due, in part, to the multiple and far-ranging effects that family-focused prevention programs targeting children can have. Other family-focused programs have shown success in smaller academic studies but have not been widely applied, or have not worked as effectively or failed when applied to more diverse real-world settings.

Strategies for Scaling Effective Family-Focused Preventive Interventions to Promote Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health is the summary of a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine Forum on Promoting Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health to explore effective preventive interventions for youth that can modify risk and promote protective factors that are linked to mental, emotional, and behavioral health, and how to apply this existing knowledge. Based on the 2009 report Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People , this report considers how to build a stronger research and practice base around the development and implementation of programs, practices, and policies that foster children's health and well-being across the country, while engaging multi-sectorial stakeholders. While research has advanced understanding of risk, promotive, and protective factors in families that influence the health and well-being of youth, a challenge remains to provide family-focused interventions across child and adolescent development at sufficient scale and reach to significantly reduce the incidence and prevalence of negative cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes in children and adolescents nationwide, as well as to develop widespread demand for effective programs by end users. This report explores new and innovative ways to broaden the reach and demand for effective programs and to generate alternative paradigms for strengthening families.

Contents

• THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
• PLANNING COMMITTEE FOR THE WORKSHOP ON STRATEGIES FOR SCALING TESTED AND EFFECTIVE FAMILY-FOCUSED PREVENTIVE INTERVENTIONS TO PROMOTE CHILDREN'S COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE, AND BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
• FORUM ON PROMOTING CHILDREN'S COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE, AND BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
• Reviewers
• 1. Introduction
  • SELECTION OF FAMILY-FOCUSED PREVENTIVE PROGRAMS
  • ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKSHOP SUMMARY
  • REFERENCES
• 2. Scaled-Up, Evidence-Based Family-Focused Preventive Programs
  • NURSE–FAMILY PARTNERSHIP
  • THE INCREDIBLE YEARS^®
  • TRIPLE P-POSITIVE PARENTING PROGRAM
  • KEEPING FOSTER AND KIN PARENTS SUPPORTED AND TRAINED (KEEP)
  • REFERENCES
• 3. Emerging Settings for Implementing Family-Focused Preventive Programs
  • PEDIATRIC SETTINGS
  • SCHOOL AND HOME SETTINGS
  • ONLINE PROGRAMS
  • Familias Unidas Online
  • Autism Navigator^®
  • Triple P Online
  • Opportunities and Challenges
  • REFERENCES
• 4. Intermediary Organizations and Scale-Up
  • INVEST IN KIDS
  • EVIDENCE-BASED PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION SUPPORT (EPIS) CENTER
  • SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ADMINISTRATION STRATEGIC PREVENTION FRAMEWORK
  • PROJECT LAUNCH
  • PROSPER
  • NEW YORK STATE OFFICE OF MENTAL HEALTH CLINIC TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTER
  • REACH INSTITUTE
  • WASHINGTON STATE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY
  • SUMMARY OF INTERMEDIARY STRATEGIES TO AID SCALE-UP
  • REFERENCES
• 5. Expanding Programs Internationally
• 6. Scale-Up Challenges
  • LACK OF DEMAND
  • INSUFFICIENT ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY
  • LACK OF SUSTAINABLE FUNDING
  • FACTORS INFLUENCING DECISION MAKING
  • OTHER CHALLENGES
  • REFERENCES
• 7. Meeting Scale-Up Challenges
  • BUILDING DEMAND
  • BUILDING CAPACITY
  • PROVIDING A SUPPORTIVE INFRASTRUCTURE
  • ADAPTING AND IMPROVING PROGRAMS
  • MONITORING PROGRAMS
  • BUILDING SUSTAINABLE FUNDING
  • OVERCOMING ORGANIZATIONAL SILOS
  • OTHER SCALE-UP STRATEGIES
  • RESEARCHING IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES
  • REFERENCES
• 8. Sum Up and Way Forward
• APPENDIXES
  • A Workshop Agenda
  • B Speaker Biosketches

Rapporteur: Margie Patlak.

This activity was supported by contracts between the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Pediatrics (Unnumbered Award); the American Board of Pediatrics (Unnumbered Award); the Annie E. Casey Foundation (213.0427); Autism Speaks (Unnumbered Award); the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (200-2011-38807, TO #16); the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2013-MU-MU-0002); the National Institutes of Health (HHSN26300035); the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (71071); the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (HHSP233201300244P); and the William T. Grant Foundation (182528). Additional support came from the American Orthopsychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, the Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice, the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and the Society of Pediatric Psychology. The views presented in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the activity.

Suggested citation:

Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Research Council (NRC). 2014. Strategies for scaling effective family-focused preventive interventions to promote children's cognitive, affective, and behavioral health: Workshop summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

NOTICE: The workshop that is the subject of this workshop summary was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.