The Happy Families Project: Testing the Effectiveness of a Conflict Resolution Program for Families

Effectiveness of an Empirically Supported Family Intervention: Mental Health Outcomes, Mechanisms of Effect, and Organizational Factors

This study is designed to test the effectiveness of a psychoeducation-based program to address communication and conflict resolution in families, thereby supporting mental health in children and their caregivers.

The goal of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a program to improve mental health in families by reducing stress and supporting effective communication and conflict resolution.

Families will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions: in the self-study condition, families will receive information to review on their own, paired with regular (weekly) contact from a family coach; in the second condition, families will receive information to review on their own, regular contact from a coach, and will participate in video sessions with a family coach who will provide feedback on their interactions and coaching on their use of a communication technique. Data collection, management and analysis will be conducted by researchers at the University of Notre Dame, but the intervention will occur through community organizations in three cities in Indiana, allowing for tests of the effectiveness of the program when it is implemented in community settings. Families will participate in a pre-test assessment, a four-week intervention, a post-test assessment, and a one-year follow up assessment. Also evaluated will be organizational factors and factors that impact ultimate implementation and scalability of the program in community settings.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Two parents or primary caregivers
• Child between 4 and 17 years old
• English literate
• Able/willing to participate through the 12-month follow up assessment.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Families who cannot communicate in English
• Single parent families