Background

Adult substance use contributes to high rates of child maltreatment, adverse parenting, and poor child well-being outcomes. The Children’s Bureau in the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funded the Regional Partnership Grant (RPG) program to improve safety, well-being, and permanency outcomes for children at risk of or in out-of-home placements because of caregivers’ substance use.

Objective

This study estimates the effect of the RPG program on adult parenting and recovery outcomes, as well as child safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes.

Participants and setting

This study included samples from three RPG projects funded in 2014. A total of 437 families were included in the evaluation: 198 enrolled in RPG and 239 in the comparison group.

Methods

Outcomes included both administrative data and standardized instruments collected at program entry and exit. Impacts were calculated by comparing regression-adjusted differences between RPG participants and a well-matched comparison group.

Results

The RPG program showed two favorable and statistically significant impacts on adult outcomes: reduced trauma symptoms (ES = −0.25, p = 0.02), and depressive symptoms (ES = −0.25, p = 0.03). In addition, children enrolled in RPG had reduced behavior problems (ES = −0.31, p = 0.02) and reduced executive functioning deficits (ES = −0.31, p = 0.04). There were no significant impacts observed for child safety and permanency outcomes.

Conclusions

The RPG approach has produced several favorable impacts on key mental health needs of caregivers and children, establishing foundational evidence of program effectiveness. Additional evaluation research is necessary to understand the effectiveness on additional outcomes with a larger, more generalizable sample.

中文翻译：

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区域合作伙伴资助计划对成人康复和福祉以及儿童安全、永久性和福祉结果的影响

背景

成人物质使用导致虐待儿童、不良养育方式和儿童福祉不佳的发生率很高。美国卫生与公众服务部儿童和家庭管理局儿童局资助了区域合作伙伴赠款 (RPG) 计划，以改善有风险或在户外的儿童的安全、福祉和永久性结果由于护理人员使用物质而导致的安置。

客观的

本研究估计了 RPG 计划对成人养育和康复结果以及儿童安全、永久性和幸福结果的影响。

参与者和设置

本研究包括来自 2014 年资助的三个 RPG 项目的样本。评估中总共包括 437 个家庭：198 个家庭参加了 RPG，239 个家庭参加了对照组。

方法

结果包括在项目进入和退出时收集的行政数据和标准化工具。通过比较 RPG 参与者和匹配良好的对照组之间的回归调整差异来计算影响。

结果

RPG 计划对成人结果显示出两个有利且具有统计学意义的影响：减少创伤症状（ES = -0.25，p = 0.02）和抑郁症状（ES = -0.25，p = 0.03）。此外，参加 RPG 的儿童行为问题减少（ES = -0.31，p = 0.02）和执行功能缺陷减少（ES = -0.31，p = 0.04）。没有观察到对儿童安全和永久性结果的显着影响。

结论

RPG 方法对照顾者和儿童的关键心理健康需求产生了若干有利影响，为计划有效性建立了基础证据。需要进行额外的评估研究，以了解更大、更普遍的样本对额外结果的有效性。