Positive Parenting Program in Foster Care

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Foster Care; Parenting; Child Behavior Problem; Child Behavior Disorders

Treatments: Behavioral: PriCARE

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03910491

18-015677

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of the study is to evaluate early implementation outcomes of a positive parenting program, Child Adult Relationship Enhancement in Primary Care (PriCARE), in the foster care setting and to assess the efficacy of PriCARE in promoting positive parenting and increasing empathy among foster caregivers.

Full description

Children in foster care have disproportionately high rates of mental and behavioral health concerns. Foster caregivers have reported challenges managing such difficult behaviors. Such behaviors are associated with placement instability. Child Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE), an evidence-based positive parenting intervention, has shown promising findings in the primary care setting and its curriculum has been enhanced (PriCARE). This positive parenting intervention offers a promising strategy to provide foster caregivers with the skills needed to address these behavioral problems. The objectives of this study are 1) to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of PriCARE, a positive parenting intervention, in the foster care setting 2) to assess the efficacy of PriCARE to promote positive parenting, increase empathy among foster caregivers, and improve parenting efficacy and satisfaction and 3) to identify best practices for implementation and dissemination of PriCARE in the foster care setting. Foster caregivers of foster children 18 months-6 years of age in the Philadelphia child welfare system will be enrolled in this study. Foster caregivers must be English-speaking and age 18 years or older. Foster caregivers will be recruited from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Fostering Health Program, CHOP primary care sites, CHOP Safe Place Care Clinics, direct referrals from social workers and medical providers, and from referrals from Philadelphia foster care agencies and organizations. Sixty foster caregivers will be enrolled in the study and will be assigned to the enhanced PriCARE program. Each approximately 9 hour CARE training group will be attended by approximately 4-12 caregivers without their children. An initial interview will be conducted prior to initiation of the PriCARE program and will include measures to obtain baseline data regarding demographic information, parenting attitudes and parenting strategies. A second interview will be conducted 4-10 weeks after PriCARE program completion and will include a semi-structured qualitative interview as well as measures of parenting attitudes and parenting strategies.

Enrollment: 60 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Foster caregiver is age 18 years or older
2. Caregiver is a foster parent of a foster child between 18 months and 6 years of age
3. English-speaking
4. Foster caregiver provides informed consent

Exclusion criteria

1. Foster caregivers who have previously completed CARE or PriCARE training.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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60 participants in 1 patient group

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

All participants who enroll in the study will be assigned to a PriCARE group program that will adhere to the approximately 9 hour PriCARE curriculum.The trainings are administered to groups of approximately 4-12 caregivers at a time and are led by 2 mental health providers trained in the PriCARE curriculum. The curriculum will be delivered in 2-6 sessions over a 2-20 week period.

Treatment:

Behavioral: PriCARE