This report presents findings from seven sessions of the Strengthening Families Program conducted from 2014-2018 by Cornell Cooperative Extension-Tompkins County (CCETC) for parents with open child welfare cases participating in Family Treatment Court.

1. PROGRAM BRIEF SERIES
November 2018
Strengthening Families in Drug Treatment Court:
Tompkins County, 2014-2018
Executive Summary
This report presents findings from seven sessions of the Strengthening Families Program conducted from 2014-2018 by
Cornell Cooperative Extension-Tompkins County (CCETC) for parents with open child welfare cases participating in
Family Treatment Court. Findings showed significant positive change over time in parenting qualities such as parent
communication and spending quality time with children. The report concludes with suggestions for future research.
Background: Strengthening Families Program
The Strengthening Families Program (SFP) is an evidence-
based, whole-family parent education program that
focuses on parenting skills, children’s life skills, and
family life skills for vulnerable families. More specifically,
parents and children work on communication skills, goal-
setting, setting limits, dealing with peer pressure,
substance use, and positive relationships among family
members. Meetings occur weekly for 14 weeks and each
meeting includes a family meal, one-hour concurrent
sessions for parents and children separately, and a one-
hour family session with all family members. The SFP has
a long history of supporting families vulnerable to
substance abuse. SFP was originally designed to reduce
vulnerability to drug abuse in 6- to 12-year-old children
of parents receiving methadone maintenance treatment
or other substance abuse outpatient treatment in the
early 1980s.i
Versions of SFP have since been developed
and implemented in settings as diverse as schools, drug
treatment centers, family and youth service agencies,
child protection and foster care agencies, community
mental health centers, housing projects, homeless
shelters, churches, drug courts, family courts, juvenile
courts, and prisons.
Randomized controlled trials of SFP, which randomly
assigned parents and children to treatment and control
groups, have documented significant improvements in
parenting skills and increases in protective factors and
resilience for drug abuse.ii
Children who have
participated in SFP had lower scores on conduct disorder
symptoms, oppositional defiance symptoms, and
behavior problems after the program than children in
the control group, while parents had lower scores on
inconsistent discipline and verbal abuse following
participation in SFP than control group parents.iii
SFP in Tompkins County
Since 2014, educators at CCETC have implemented SFP
for families with children ages 6-11 who are involved
with Family Drug Treatment Court and have open child
welfare cases. A small but growing body of recent work
documents that SFP can improve family reunification
after child welfare involvement in families dealing with
substance abuseiv,v
.
Data and Method
CCETC staff have diligently collected program data on
their participants and program implementation since
2014, which included seven total sessions and a total of
46 participating families (63 parents and 65 children).
Data included information from administrative records
and parental surveys about parents and children;
information from independent observers about fidelity
of implementation, and information from session leaders
about session logistics and participant engagement. In
spring and summer 2018, these hard-copy data were
entered electronically, cleaned, de-identified, and
transferred to a secure data server for analysis by the
Cornell Project 2Gen research team.
Data across the seven sessions were combined for all
analyses. Significant t-tests analyzing differences
between mean scores indicated a statistically significant
change in the measure. Z-scores indicated the
substantive amount of change in standard deviation
units. Of note, when the program was first implemented
in spring 2014, some evaluation measures were not yet
available, so fewer observations are included from this
session. Additionally, parents who begin the program but
do not complete, do not have post-test data so are
excluded from the analyses. This yielded 43 parents for
whom we have completed pre-tests and post-tests.

2. Results
Seven scales were developed internally to assess
parenting measures in the SFP Parenting Survey.
Spending quality time with child was measured using one
item. Scales included: Parental Efficacy (e.g., “I feel I am
doing a good job as a parent,” α = 0.87), Parent
Communication (e.g., “I talk to my child about his or her
friends, α = 0.75) , Family Organization (e.g., “We talk as
a family about issues/problems or we hold family
meetings,” a = 0.84), Family Conflict (e.g., “People in my
family often yell or insult each other,” α = 0.80),
Discipline (e.g., “I use appropriate consequences when
my child will not do what I ask,” α = 0.79), and Parental
Warmth and Affection (e.g., “I praise my child when s/he
has behaved well,” α = 0.81).
Large and statistically significant increases were
observed in all parenting domains (p < .001). The largest
changes occurred for Discipline and Family Organization,
each improving by just over 1 full standard deviation.
Effect sizes of about three-quarters of a standard
deviation were observed for Parent Communication
(among those with children in school), Parenting Stress,
and Spending Quality Time with Child. Parental Warmth
and Affection grew by about 0.60 of a standard
deviation, and Family Conflict lessened by half of a
standard deviation.
Conclusions
Parents in the Tompkins County Family Drug Treatment
Court who participated in the Strengthening Families
Program led by CCETC reported significant
improvements in parenting skills including
communication, warmth and affection, discipline,
spending time together, family organization, and family
conflict. Future studies should investigate which aspects
of Family Drug Treatment Court, which includes
participation in a range of activities along with SFP, drive
the changes observed. Additionally, a long-term follow-
up would allow us to see whether positive changes in
parenting skills gained through SFP translate into
meaningful child welfare outcomes and other changes to
the family environment.
Note. *** Significantly different, p < .001
References
i
Molgaard, V.K., Spoth, R.L., & Redmond, C. 2000. “Competency Training – The Strengthening Families Program: For Parents and Youth 10–14.” OJJDP Bulletin.
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
ii
Kumpfer, K.L. & Magalhães, C. 2018. “Strengthening Families Program: An Evidence-Based Family Intervention for Parents of High-Risk Children and Adolescents.”
Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, 27(3):174-179. https://doi.org/10.1080/1067828X.2018.1443048
iii
Maguin, E., Nochajski, T., DeWit, D., Macdonald, S., Safyer, A., & Kumpfer, K. 2007. “The Strengthening Families Program and children of alcoholic’s families: Effects
on parenting and child externalizing behavior.” Manuscript submitted for publication.
iv
Brook, J., McDonald, T.P., & Yan, Y. 2012. An analysis of the impact of the Strengthening Families Program on family reunification in child welfare. Children and
Youth Services Review, 34, 691–695. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.12.018
v
Johnson-Motoyama, M., Brook, J., Yan, Y., & McDonald, T. 2013. “Cost analysis of the Strengthening Families Program in reducing time to family reunification
among substance- affected families.” Children and Youth Services Review, 35, 244–252. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2012.11.008
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Parental Warmth/Affection
Discipline
Family Conflict
Family Organization
Parent Communication (All Children)
Parent Communication (Children in School)
Parental Efficacy
Spending Quality Time with Child
Parenting Scales
Pre Post
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