Purpose

The Strengthening Families Program is one of the most powerful family change programs in the Nation because it involves the whole family instead of the parents or the children alone (Kumpfer, 1994a). The initial goal was to design and test the relative effectiveness of three family-based and behavior-oriented prevention interventions (a Parent Training Program, a Children's Skills Training Program, and a Family Skills Training Program) in reducing the risk that children (ages 6 to 10) living with substance-abusing parents would become substance abusers themselves.

SFP was designed to reduce environmental risk factors and improve protective factors with the ultimate objective of increasing personal resiliency and minimizing susceptibility to drug use in high-risk youth. The program is theoretically based on the Values-Attitudes-Stressors-Coping (VASC) Skills and Resources Model theory of drug abuse (Kumpfer and DeMarsh, 1985) and the social ecology model of adolescent substance abuse (Kumpfer and Turner, 1990–91). These models suggest that family environment is an important factor in deterring the use of alcohol and/or other drugs in youth. Family climate and parenting factors are the major determinants of self-efficacy and the second major determinant, after peer pressure, of alcohol and other drug use. Recent research (Ary et al., 1999) finds family attachment, supervision, and family norms are strategies and pathways that protect youth from drug use. Because family environment influences every aspect of a child's life, improving parent-child relations should be a major goal of any prevention/intervention program.

SFP has been tested, evaluated, and replicated in a variety of settings. Positive results have been documented in inner-city Detroit, MI; rural Alabama and Iowa; Hawaii; and urban Utah. SFP has been modified to provide culturally appropriate interventions for African American, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and low-income rural families. These modifications have been funded by a series of independent Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) Federal grants to prevention/treatment agencies that target different ethnic populations. New versions of SFP have been developed for English-speaking Australian families and French- and English-speaking families in Canada. The Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA) is funding replications in Texas. NIDA has selected SFP as one of 10 exemplary delinquency prevention programs and funded research on SFP in the Washington, DC, area.

Family Skills Training for Parents and Children	Juvenile Justice Bulletin • April 2000