A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of the Family Assessment and Feedback Intervention (FAFI): Effects on Mental Health Literacy and Attitudinal Engagement with Health Supports and Services

Overview

Journal Child Psychiatry Hum Dev

Specialties Pediatrics
Psychiatry

Date 2024 May 25

PMID 38796676

Authors

Masha Y Ivanova

Allison Hall

Stanley Weinberger

Sara L Buckingham

William E Copeland

Phoenix Crockett

Justin Dainer-Best

Casey DAlberto

Lauren Dewey

DeShan Foret

Maria Galano

Lisa Goodrich

Lindsay Holly

Nalini Emily Lane

Maureen Leahy

Mathew Lerner

Jasmine Marsh

Ellen W McGinnis

Melissa Paiva-Salisbury

Judith S Shaw

Pamela Swift

Rebekah Tinker

James J Hudziak

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

This randomized controlled trial tested the Family Assessment and Feedback Intervention (FAFI), a new intervention to enhance family engagement with emotional and behavioral health services. The FAFI is a guided conversation with families about results of their multidimensional assessment that is set in the context of motivational enhancement. It differs from other assessment-with-feedback interventions by extending the focus of assessment beyond the target child to parents and the family environment, addressing parental emotional and behavioral problems and competencies, spanning a broad range of children's and parents' strengths and difficulties, and being generalizable to many settings and practitioners. Participants were 81 families in primary care pediatrics. The FAFI was associated with a significant increase in parental mental health literacy and with an increase in parental attitudinal engagement with health supports and services that closely approached statistical significance (p = .052), while controlling for children's age and gender and family socioeconomic status.

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