Implementing a School-Based, Trauma-Informed Resilience Curriculum for Parents

ABSTRACT

“Families OverComing Under Stress” (FOCUS) Resilience Curriculum for Parents (FRC-P) is a trauma-informed group parenting program adapted for school social workers to deliver to parents of racial/ethnic minority urban public schoolchildren, an under-researched group of parents in the literature. The objective was to describe implementation of the pilot FRC-P in terms of possible effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability. Social workers delivered FRC-P to parents at 16 schools. We analyzed (1) changes in parent well-being; (2) parent satisfaction; and (3) a focus group of participating social workers. Ninety-six of 261 parents (37%) who attended FRC-P completed pre and post surveys. Parents reported significant improvements (p < .01) in family functioning (Cohen’s d = 0.41), parent connectedness (d = 0.71), and social support (d = 0.66). Social workers linked parents to needed services. Parents and social workers found FRC-P feasible and acceptable. With refinement, FRC-P could help schools foster resilience in under-resourced parents.

KEYWORDS:

• Latino
• program development
• psychological resilience
• school health services
• urban health

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the UCLA CARES Center and the Pritzker Foundation.

Dr. Fein was supported by UCLA General Internal Medicine/HSR through the NRSA fellowship AHRQ NRSA T32 HP19001. He received funding for conference travel provided by the Lundquist Institute (AACAP).

Dr. Sheryl Kataoka receives funding from SAMHSA TSA Center for Resiliency, Hope, and Wellness in Schools, NIH Clinical and Translational Science, the Department of Education, DHHS/Health Resources and Services Administration, and is a consultant for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Dr. Ijadi-Maghsoodi receives funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number K12DA000357 and the UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families.

The other authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Our research was approved by the UCLA Institutional Review Board and all procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the IRB and the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

All participating social workers provided informed consent prior to participating in this study. Parents provided responses to survey questions directly to the partnering school district. The district then provided de-identified data to research partners for analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [AHRQ T32HP 19001]; National Institute on Drug Abuse [K12DA000357]; Los Angeles Unified School District; SAMHSA.