The Impact of Family Financial Support on Parental Stress

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Stress

Treatments: Behavioral: Referral to Social Services; Behavioral: Financial Coaching

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02723227

UCLASchickedanzFCS

Details and patient eligibility

About

The investigators have partnered with financial coaching organizations to establish what the investigators have termed a "Medical-Financial Partnership (MFP)" that offers financial coaching to improve financial and mental health. The investigators will evaluate the MFP's impact on family economic strain and parental stress.

Full description

Financial coaching is a new tool in the field of community development, but it has already demonstrated significant financial impact in a number of studies, including one randomized trial conducted by the Urban Institute. Financial coaching improves participant financial literacy, budgeting, saving for financial emergencies, and debt level. The investigators' project will help clinicians and the field of community economic development understand health and well-being through a new economic lens and assess the health-related impacts of the emerging field of financial coaching. The investigators have partnered with financial coaching organizations to establish what they have termed a "Medical-Financial Partnership (MFP)" that offers financial coaching to improve financial and mental health. The investigators will evaluate the MFP's impact on parental strain and stress.

Community-based participants will be recruited from South Los Angeles and randomized to receive either monthly financial coaching plus access to referral for social services (intervention) or access to referral for social services alone (control). Inclusion criteria include having dependents under age 18, having some form of income, and having a tax identification number (social security number or Individual Tax Identification Number). Participants will be surveyed quarterly regarding their economic strain using the Family Economic Strain Scale and their individual stress using the Parenting Stress Index.

Enrollment: 150 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Participants will include caregivers and parents with one or more dependents, some form of income, and a tax identification number.

Exclusion criteria

• Inability to partake in the financial coaching or primary language other than English or Spanish.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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150 participants in 2 patient groups

Financial Coaching & Social Service Referral

Experimental group

Description:

Enrollment in one-to-one financial coaching intervention to support savings, income, and credit while reducing debt using available tools in the community development field.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Referral to Social Services

Behavioral: Financial Coaching

Social Services Referral

Active Comparator group

Description:

Enrollment provides for access to referrals to social services.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Referral to Social Services