A Financial Social Work Intervention for Families With Complex Financial Difficulties - A Randomized Controlled Trial (FinSoc)

University of Turku

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Financial Difficulties

Treatments: Behavioral: FinSoc

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07084389

VN/10969/2024 (Other Identifier)

FinSoc

Details and patient eligibility

About

The FinSoc study is designed to find out whether a structured financial social work intervention can help families in Finland who are experiencing serious financial difficulties.

As of 2022, about 12% of children in Finland lived in poverty. Many of these families face not only a lack of money but also stress, low confidence in managing finances, and limited access to financial guidance. This study aims to support these families by improving their financial skills and well-being through a practical and research-based program.

The intervention involves five sessions with a trained social service professional. These sessions focus on important topics such as household budgeting, financial decision-making, emotions concerning money and how money affects relationships. The goal is to help participants feel less anxious about money, improve their financial knowledge, and boost their confidence in handling financial matters. The sessions are also meant to help families talk more openly about money and set achievable financial goals. To understand whether this program is effective, we are conducting a randomized controlled trial (RCT). This means that participating families will be randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group will receive the FinSoc intervention. The other group will receive regular social work services as usual and after the final measurement material to promote their financial capability.

This allows us to compare outcomes between the two groups and see whether the new intervention leads to better results.

In total, at least 88 participants will take part in the study. All participants are families with at least one child under the age of 18, and all are currently dealing with financial challenges. We will collect information from participants at three points in time: before the intervention starts, after it ends, and again three months later. This will help us see whether the program leads to meaningful changes. We will use questionnaires to measure outcomes such as financial literacy, financial anxiety, self-confidence in managing money (economic self-efficacy), and health-related quality of life.

In addition to these questionnaires, we will conduct interviews with some families and social workers. These conversations will help us better understand their experiences with the program-what worked well, what could be improved, and how the sessions were received. This qualitative feedback is important for learning how to make the program more effective and meaningful.

We are also conducting a "formative evaluation," which means we collect feedback from families before and after each session. This helps us adjust and improve the program as it is being delivered. For example, families can tell us whether the topics made sense, whether the sessions helped them, and how they felt about the techniques used, such as motivational interviewing. Social workers will also report after each session to reflect on how closely they followed the intended approach and whether they used specific tools and techniques as planned.

The FinSoc intervention is being offered through public well-being services and private social service providers. The program was developed and is being implemented by an interdisciplinary research team with strong expertise in financial social work, social policy, and mental health.

By testing this intervention, we hope to create a model that can be used more widely to support families facing financial hardship. The study aims to improve the everyday lives of families, inform social work practices, and contribute new knowledge to the field of social and economic well-being.

Enrollment: 88 estimated patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Clients of child welfare services, family social work, or adult social work will be invited to participate in the FinSoc study through the project's partner organisations. Eligible participants are those who, within the past six months, have brought up one or more of the following challenges in managing their finances during their contact with social services:

  1. Difficulties paying bills, housing-related expenses, or repaying debts on time
  2. Difficulties meeting the basic needs of family members (e.g. food, medication, clothing)
  3. A perceived lack of sufficient knowledge, skills, or competence to manage financial matters
  4. Expressed feelings of anxiety or stress related to their financial situation In addition, the family must include at least one underage child. In cases of shared custody, the child must reside in the household for an average of at least half of the time in each calendar month. Families may have one or two parents. In two-parent families, one or both parents may take part in the intervention sessions, but only one parent per family will be enrolled as a study participant.

Parents can decide which one of them will participate in the research data collection

Exclusion criteria

1. There is an ongoing crisis or life situation in the family that, in the assessment of the social worker, prevents commitment to the intervention process.
2. There is an active criminal proceeding within the family.
3. The parents do not speak Finnish (all project materials are in Finnish, and there are no resources available to provide translations into other languages).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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88 participants in 2 patient groups

Experimental: FinSoc intervention

Experimental group

Description:

FinSoc intervention FinSoc intervention is delivered to the Experimental group by their social worker.

Treatment:

Behavioral: FinSoc

FinSoc control group

No Intervention group

Description:

No Intervention: Control The control group will receive the usual social work services. After the third measurement point, they will receive a materials package.