Replication and Extension of KIN TECH 2.0: Randomized Controlled Trial of Kinship Navigation in Florida
Creators: name: Littlewood, Kerry
name: Cooper, Larry
name: Rosenthal, Michelle
name: Kirtman, Nisaa
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences

description: This study will test if a community-based kinship navigator program will reduce the incidence of a substantiated child maltreatment event at 12 and 36 months follow up. Core components of KIN TECH 2.0 include: 1) intake and assessment of family needs; 2) connection to community resources and supports; 3) assistance with application and enrollment to resources; 4) peer-to-peer support; 5) problem-solving with interdisciplinary team (IDT); and 6) follow-up. The intervention includes an intake phone session, weekly phone/in-person intervention for up to 12 weeks, and two follow-up post-intervention check ins at 12 and 36 months. The Control Group will receive Usual Child Welfare Service services and supports currently available to the community-based care organization in Hillsborough County when children are placed in the home of relatives. The participants in the Usual Care group will receive the following: 1) a packet of information explaining available services and supports, 2) a home study to ensure the environment is safe for the child, 3) in-home case management for the relative child, and 4) an opportunity to become a licensed foster home or Permanent Guardianship Placement. Both the intervention and control group interventions are administered by different organizations working on a contract to deliver services. During the planning phase, the study team will spend time interviewing child welfare staff and collecting data on how usual care is implemented at this particular time. We also plan to monitor this usual care group over time to ensure that there is no creep into the intervention. This seven-year study will have four phases, including: (1) a 9-month study planning phase, (2) a 27 month enrollment and random assignment phase, (3) a 51 month follow-up and data collection phase, starting 12 months after the start of enrolment and finishing 36 months after the end of the enrolment/random assignment phase, and (4) a 12 month data analysis and dissemination phase. We anticipate enrolling 600 kinship caregivers who will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1) a KIN-TECH group or 2) a usual care (child welfare as usual). The primary outcome measure will be safety operationalized by subsequent maltreatment from random assignment and follow up in 12- and 36-months. Subsequent maltreatment events are hypothesized to decrease with KIN-TECH compared to the usual care group. We will be using the child identification number, as we used in previous study, in the State Administered database, Florida Safe Families Network (FSFN), to track the proportion of children in the study who have experienced a substantiated maltreatment event by the 12 and 36 month follow up. To detect small differences between the two groups, using a t-test from an ANCOVA estimating cross-sectional impacts at each point of view at followof 0.80, the sample size needed in each group is approximately 300 for a total crude sample size of 600.