Evaluating a Strengths-based Community-grounded Intervention

Study Summary

Structural inequities and historical underinvestment in marginalized communities create developmental contexts that constrain access to high-quality education, healthcare, stable housing, and other critical resources. This study evaluates effects of a strengths-based, community-led intervention on young children and their families, which aims to buffer structural inequities while recognizing families' strengths. Between ages 18-36 months, English- and Spanish-speaking families consented and were randomly assigned to the intervention group (ParentChild+) or the active control group (FamilyNutrition+). Each group received 92 contacts from a specialist matched with their demographics. For the intervention group, contact focused on supporting parents and children's early learning, and families received a book or toy each week; for the control group, contact focused on supporting child nutrition, and families received a small food voucher each week. The current study evaluates whether the intervention altered parents' mental health, children's early environments, and/or children's test performance and brain development.

Primary Outcome

Parents will fill out the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 item scale (GAD-7), which asks seven questions about the extent to which parents have felt various symptoms of anxiety over the last two weeks (e.g., "not being able to stop or control worrying"). These are summed to create a score ranging from 0-21, with higher scores indicating more anxiety. This will be submitted to a factor analysis with the two other mental health scales to create a composite of mental health.

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL ParentChild+
• BEHAVIORAL FamilyNutrition+

Study Locations (1)