New Beginnings (Intervention for Children of Divorce)

An Evidence-Based Practice

Description

New Beginnings is a group-based intervention program for divorced mothers and their children. The program focuses on changing environmental factors that directly affect the child and includes decreasing exposure to interparental conflict, improving mother-child relationships, and improving disciplinary strategies. The program consists of 10 two-hour sessions that involve learning skills through role-playing, presentations, and videotapes.

Goal / Mission

New Beginnings promotes resilience in children after parental divorce by providing mothers and their children with group and individual-based sessions.

Impact

The New Beginnings program improves post-divorce adjustment outcomes such as interparental conflict, mother-child relationships, and coping strategies by targeting predictive behaviors.

Results / Accomplishments

The mother program showed significant improvements compared to the control group on the following outcomes and mediators: internalizing and externalizing problems (Wolchik et al., 2000), child reported aggression (Wolchik et al., 1993), parent reported communication, positive routines, control, and willingness to change visitation (Wolchik at al., 1993), active coping, avoidant coping, support coping, and observed attending (compared to dual component program; Wolchik et al., 2000).

At the 6-month follow-up, the mother program showed significant improvements compared to the control group on externalizing problems and observed attending (Wolchik et al., 2000).

At the 6-year follow-up, compared to the control group, the mother program showed no significant main effects, while the mother and child program showed significant main effects on externalizing behaviors, number of sexual partners, and diagnosis of mental health disorders (Wolchik et al., 2002).

At the 15-year follow-up, the combined intervention groups (mother and dual component programs) showed improvements on internalizing disorders (Wolchik et al., 2013).

About this Promising Practice

Organization(s)
Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development
Primary Contact
Sharlene Wolchik
Prevention Research Center
Psychology North, Suite 205
Arizona State University
sharlene.wolchik@asu.edu
http://www.blueprintsprograms.com/allPrograms.php
Topics
Community / Social Environment
Organization(s)
Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development
Date of implementation
2000
Location
Arizona
For more details
http://www.blueprintsprograms.com/factSheet.php?pi...
Target Audience
Children, Teens, Women

Related Promising Practices

  1. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
  2. New Beginnings for Children of Divorce
  3. Parent-Child Home Program: Palm Beach
  4. Children of Divorce Intervention Program (CODIP)
  5. Adults and Children Together - Parents Raising Safe Kids (ACT-PRSK)
  6. Healthy Steps for Young Children: Palm Beach

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Related Content for: New Beginnings (Intervention for Children of Divorce)

An Evidence-Based Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures showing improvement in the outcome(s) of interest after the implementation of the program (i.e. increase in smoking cessation, not just the delivery of a smoking cessation program). The outcome measure(s) is/are compared at relevant time periods before and after the intervention or program implementation. Alternatively, the evaluation study compares the outcome(s) between an intervention group and an appropriate control group.
  3. The study is of peer-review quality and presents numbers in a scientific manner; measurements of precision and reliability are included (e.g. confidence intervals, standard errors), results from statistical tests show a significant difference or change in the outcome measure(s), and relevant point estimates and p-values are presented. Note: if the results from an evaluation of a program are presented in a scientific manner and the outcome measure is improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant, the practice is classified as effective and not evidence-based.