NCT05632237

Evaluation of a Family Strengthening Program Evaluation in Sierra Leone to Prevent Family Separation

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 226 (actual)
• Sponsor: Boston College · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 9 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

In Sierra Leone, poverty and challenges with family functioning can lead to family separation, and children may go to live on the street or enter residential care institutions/orphanages. Helping Children Worldwide (HCW), a non-profit organization with over 20 years of experience in Sierra Leone, has developed a two-part Family Strengthening Program delivered by their program partners in Sierra Leone, the Child Reintegration Centre, to improve families financial literacy and attachment between caregivers and children, with the ultimate goal of preventing family separation. The hypothesis of this study is that the Family Strengthening Program program is effective at (1) changing parenting behaviors, (2) improving emotional regulation, (3) improving caregiver-child attachment, and (4) improving financial literacy in dyads consisting of children ages 9-13 and their caregivers.

Conditions

• Parent-Child Relations
• Emotion Regulation
• Economic Problems
• Parenting

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Family strengthening program	Phase I: 2-day Family Strengthening Workshop. The specific topics included in the workshop include: emotions, Body Progressive Muscle Relaxation, body stretch, self care, apologizing, routines to promote attachment, teamwork, saving, delayed gratification, anticipating unexpected expenses, identifying family strengths and values. Phase II: Case management with family strengthening curriculum. Curriculum is delivered over the course of four visits (about 3 months), some of which involve both caregiver and child while others are just for the caregiver. Topics included are using appropriate discipline, effective communication for family problem-solving, and home budgeting.

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-10-16
• Primary completion: 2023-05-22
• Completion: 2023-05-22
• First posted: 2022-11-30
• Last updated: 2025-04-20

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Sierra Leone