Clinical trial NCT00701194: Early Intervention Foster Care: A Prevention Trial
Official title: Early Intervention Foster Care: A Prevention Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: School Readiness
Developmental Delays
Keywords: placement instability
disruptive behavior disorders
school readiness
developmental delays
cortisol
executive functioning
therapeutic foster care
prevention
early intervention
Lead sponsor: Oregon Social Learning Center
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
First posted: 2008-06-19
Enrollment: 177
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 3
Maximum age (years): 6
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The Early Intervention Foster Care \[EIFC\] project is an efficacy trial of the Oregon Social Learning Center Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care Program, a preventive intervention that targets 3 commonly co-occurring variables among young foster children: (1) behavioral problems, (2) physiological dysregulation within the neuroendocrine system (i.e., HPA axis activity), and (3) developmental delays.

Detailed description: The Early Intervention Foster Care project is an ongoing randomized efficacy trial to evaluate the Early Intervention Foster Care Program (EIFC). EIFC, also known at Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care-Preschool (MTFC-P), is a preventive intervention that is specifically designed to address the needs of preschool-aged foster children and their caregivers. Over the first 5 years of the project data was collected from 177 preschool-aged children, 117 of whom were in the Oregon foster care system and 60 of whom were living with their biological families for a community comparison sample. Foster children in the study were randomly assigned to the EIFC experimental intervention condition or a regular foster care condition (RFC). The following hypotheses are under investigation: (1) Relative to children in the RFC condition, children in the EIFC condition will show greater improvements in temporally proximal outcomes (e.g., behavioral/emotional, salivary cortisol, and developmental) and in temporally distal outcomes (e.g., behavioral functioning in the school setting; long-term placement stability, including reunification or adoption; and mental health status, including psychiatric diagnoses). (2) Proximal outcomes over the course of the intervention will predict distal outcomes during the early elementary school years. (3) Proximal outcomes will be mediated by caregivers' childrearing practices-specifically, engagement with and monitoring of the child in the home, the quality and consistency of parental discipline, and the use of positive reinforcement strategies. (4) The same childrearing practices will mediate the psychosocial adjustment of the child in the aftercare setting (i.e., return to family of origin, placement in adoptive home, or continued placement in long-term foster home). (5) The EIFC intervention will cost-effectively reduce the need for mental health and social services for children, decreasing the length of time that children spend in foster care and reducing the need for special education services for children.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* child age 3 to 6 years currently in foster care
* child has entered new foster placement
* child currently living in Lane County, Oregon

Exclusion Criteria:

* child is medically or developmentally unable to complete assessment tasks

Primary outcomes:
measure: placement stability
timeFrame: 6 months to 48 months post-intervention
Secondary outcomes:
measure: attachment and behavioral regulation
timeFrame: baseline through 48 months post-intervention
measure: neuroendocrine and executive functioning
timeFrame: baseline through 48 months post-intervention
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Eugene
country: United States
facility: Oregon Social Learning Center
state: Oregon
Study officials:
affiliation: Oregon Social Learning Center
name: Philip A Fisher, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: