Evaluation of the Parental Support Intervention For Our Children's Sake in Prisons in Sweden

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Evaluation of the effects of the parental support intervention For our children's sake on positive parenting outcomes when conducted with incarcerated parents in prisons in Sweden.

Detailed Description
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Children of incarcerated parents comprise a greatly disadvantaged group in society with elevated risk of ill-health, behavioural problems, and own delinquency and unemployment later in life. Positive parenting comprise an important factor for children's positive and healthy development. Incarcerated parents may have difficulties to engage in positive parenting due to disadvantaged situations affecting parenting negatively such as drug addiction, poverty, or lack of experience of positive parenting in their own childhood. Previous research has suggested that interventions to prevent the intergenerational effect of criminality should be targeting family factors where positive parenting has been emphasised. Internationally developed parenting interventions for incarcerated parents suggest an impact on parenting outcomes such as positive parent-child interaction, parenting knowledge, empathy, parent stress, increased child contact and active parenting, However, the majority of the programmes evaluated to date have been conducted in the US, with a prison and probation context with limited generalisability to the Swedish system. In Sweden, the parenting programme for incarcerated parents, For our children's' sake (FOCS) was developed in 2012-2014 with the aim to support positive parenting for the child's healthy development and is currently delivered in Swedish prisons. The aim of this project is to evaluate the effects of the FOCS parenting programme on parenting outcomes through a controlled trial with a parallel implementation process evaluation.

Official Title
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Children of Incarcerated Parents - Evaluation of Parental Support Programme in Prison to Promote Positive Parenting and Prevent Children's Ill-health and Delinquency Later in Life

Conditions
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Parenting, Parent-Child Relations

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: For Our Children's Sake
* Other: Active control


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Serving a sentence at any of the included prisons Having at least one child in the ages between 0-18 years. Parents of children aged 0-2 and 13-18 years will not be included in the primary outcome measure, as the measure is not developed for these age groups. These parents will be included in the mediator measurements. Are in contact with their child/children in any form. If not, these parents are included in the mediator measurements, as the primary outcome: relationship quality, is not applicable. Having the legal right to contact the child Not committed either a crime against the child or any violent crime against the other parent Exclusion Criteria: Not fulfilling inclusion criteria
Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Interventional Model Description: Controlled trial
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Intervention<br>Participating in the For our children's sake intervention, 10 group sessions, 2 hours each | Behavioral: For Our Children's Sake<br>* Parental support with the aim to support positive parenting and promote healthy child development. Conducted in group-format with weekly 2.hour sessions conducted by trained group leaders according to a programme manual.<br>|
| Active Comparator: Control<br>Participating in everyday activities that may include parenting activities in the control prisons | Other: Active control<br>* Participating in everyday activities that may include parenting activities in the control prisons<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 7-items sub-scale Closeness in the Child Parent Relationship Scale | Parent-reported quality in relationship between parent and child on a 5-point scale ('complete agree' to 'completely disagree') | Positive change in mean score of all 7 items between baseline (pre-intervention) and end of intervention, after 10 weeks. Measurements will also be conducted at mid-intervention to investigate mediated effects, and a 3-month post intervention follow-up. | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Contact frequency and type between parent and child | Parent-reported frequency (weekly, monthly, less, no contact) and type (letter, telephone, visit/permission, other | Change in mean score of items between baseline (pre-intervention) and end of intervention, after 10 weeks. Measurements will also be conducted at a 3-month post intervention follow-up. | 
| Eight items chosen from the sub-scale antisocial intent in the Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates scale | Parental attitude to criminality self-reported on a 5-point scale ('complete agree' to 'completely disagree') | Change in mean score of items between baseline (pre-intervention) and end of intervention, after 10 weeks. Measurements will also be conducted at a 3-month post intervention follow-up. | 
| Parent interest in other treatment programmes in prison | One item self-reported on an 11-point scale (0 no interest, 10 very high interest) | Change in item score between baseline (pre-intervention) and end of intervention, after 10 weeks. Measurements will also be conducted at a 3-month post intervention follow-up. | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Prison, Criminality, Child