Highlights
Treatnet Family (TF) had a positive significant impact in reducing alcohol use.
After participating in the TF, the adolescents were engaged with significantly fewer friends who consumed substances and participated in antisocial behaviours.
The two most reported life events (i.e., “got in a lot of arguments or fights” and “had problems with drugs or alcohol”) before the intervention were significantly decreased at the follow-up assessment.
Based on parent’s/family member’s reports, there was a significant decrease in mental health problems across time.
Highlights
It is acceptable and feasible to deliver a family-based intervention training (Treatnet Family) via a digital platform.
Practitioners who participated in the Treatnet Family training showed an increase in knowledge about family-based intervention.
Most practitioners reported that they have confidence in conducting Treatnet Family and in applying the core skills of a family-based intervention.
To tackle the spread of COVID-19 globally, countries around the world have responded by implementing measures such as lockdowns, social distance maintenance, temporary school closures, and remote working and learning. COVID-19 social isolation has been found to increase stress, and potentially have long term harmful effects on both mental and physical health. Stress and compromised parenting often place children at risk of violence and abuse. In parallel, times of hardship might also provide an opportunity to build stronger relationships with our children. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) joined many other agencies and international organizations in recognizing the threat the pandemic might have on individual and family wellbeing, and has thus availed a number of light-touch parenting resources. One such tool is the ‘Caring for your child in response to the COVID-19 lockdown’ booklet, developed to enhance parenting skills, and to build family harmony as challenged by the COVID-19 context. This short communication reflects on a feasibility study that took place in Indonesia during the implementation of this booklet with 30 parents in five cities. Thematic analysis identified challenges in parenting during COVID-19, as well as reported positive experiences of engaging in the parenting resource. The findings are discussed with regard to the usefulness of light-touch parenting information, adding to the context of the feasibility and global scalability of reaching families. The implications pave the way to the engagement and implication of more intensive parenting information interventions in high-stress contexts. Despite the challenge, there is promising news for families globally, as agencies and policy-makers begin to recognize the importance of supporting families with the appropriate skills to navigate extreme stress contexts with effective strategies.
Highlights
There was a high level of agreement between practitioners’ and supervisors’ ratings on the practitioner’s use of family-based therapeutic skills.
In working with adolescents who are affected by substance use disorders, the practitioners showed very good adherence to the Treatnet Family approach.
There was a good level of agreement between the adolescents and their family member in terms of how interactive they found the Treatnet Family session.
Background
Family is one of the most influential social institutions and caregivers act as the main protective factors for children’s mental health and resilience skills. Family skills programmes support caregivers to be better parents and strengthen positive age-specific and age-appropriate family functioning and interactions. We developed a universal, brief and light programme for implementation in low-resource settings; the Family UNited (FU) programme and conducted a pilot study to show feasibility of implementation, replicability and effectiveness in improving family functioning, child behaviour and resilience.
Methods
We recruited caregivers with children aged 8-14 years through schools in East Java, Indonesia and Dhaka, Bangladesh to the FU programme. Demographic data, emotional and behavioural difficulties of children, child resilience and parental skills and family adjustment measures were collected from children and caregivers before, 2 and 6 weeks after the intervention. Outcome was assessed through the SDQ (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), PAFAS (Parenting and Family Adjustment Scales) and CYRM-R (Child and Youth Resilience Measure).
Results
We enrolled 29 families in Bangladesh and allocated 37 families to the intervention and 33 to the control group in Indonesia. Overall, there was no effect over time in the control group on any of the PAFAS subscales, whereas significant reductions in scores were found on six of the seven subscales in either country in the intervention group, most prominently in caregivers with higher scores at baseline. We found highly significant reductions in total SDQ scores in the intervention group in both countries, whereas there was no effect over time in the control group in Indonesia. Boys in the intervention group in Indonesia and in Bangladesh seemed to have benefitted significantly on the SDQ as well as the total resilience scale. Overall, on the CYRM-R, particularly children below the 33rd percentile at pre-test benefitted substantially from the programme.
Conclusions
The implementation of a brief family skills programme was seemingly effective and feasible in resource-limited settings and positively improved child mental health, resilience and parenting practices and family adjustment skills. These results suggest the value of such a programme and call for further validation through other methods of impact assessment and outcome evaluation.
Trial registration
Clinical Trial Registration: ISRCTN (number pending payment, technically approved), retrospectively registered, 22 September, 2022.
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