The Families and Middle School Success Project (FMSS)

Preventing Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Middle School Youth At-risk of Disability After the Covid-19 Pandemic With the Family Check-up Online

The purpose of the proposed research is to conduct an efficacy trial of the Family Check-Up (FCU) Online to prevent emotional and behavioral disorders among middle-school students at-risk for disability during the transition back to school after the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health and behavior problems are at epidemic proportions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the highest rates in adolescents and children with disabilities. We propose to evaluate the efficacy of the FCU Online, a school-based, ecological approach to family intervention and risk reduction, across a group of students at-risk or identified with disability during the middle school years. The FCU Online for middle school youth has been evaluated in a randomized trial in prior research during the development of the program but has never been tested as a large-scale, school-based intervention or delivered by providers working in schools. It has recently been adapted for COVID-19 and includes new modules on coping with stress and home-to-school engagement to support the return to school after COVID-19 for students at-risk. Students in schools will be identified for services using indicators that are natural to the school environment (attendance, office discipline referrals, and grades), and will be followed for 2 years. We predict that engagement in the FCU Online will be associated with student reductions in emotional and behavior problems, improvements in academic skills, and improvements in attendance. Parenting skills such as home-to-school communication, positive parenting, and behavioral routines will be tested as mediators of intervention efficacy.

Parenting, Parent-Child Relations, Self-regulation, Problem Behavior in School, School Adjustment, Depression

Families will be assigned to treatment vs. a school as usual control. The investigators will assess families at baseline and at 3-, 6-, 12- and 24- month follow ups. Families in the treatment condition will receive the intervention between baseline and the 3-month follow-up.

Parents in this arm will receive access to the FCU app and telehealth coaching/ support provided by a trained mental health provider. The FCU app includes a brief 5-minute assessment, feedback on parents' responses, and online tools to support parenting in areas that were identified as challenges by the assessment. These tools include videos, animated videos, parenting tips, and interactives to help practice parenting skills. Telehealth coaching sessions will focus on Healthy Behaviors, Positive Parenting, Rules and Consequences, School Support, and Communication.

This intervention includes access to the Family Check-Up app and telehealth coaching provided by trained mental health providers. Parents can contact their Coach as often as they like and a minimum of 3 coaching sessions will be scheduled.

Inclusion Criteria: A caregiver must have a child between the ages of 11 and 14 The child must be a middle school student enrolled at a participating middle school including: Alder Creek Middle School in Milwaukee, Oregon, or Wilbur Rowe Middle School in Milwaukee, Oregon The caregiver must be the parent or legal guardian of the participating youth The caregiver must have a smartphone with text messaging capability and access to email The student must have one or more of the following risk factors: 1) two or more office discipline referrals; 2) grades below a 2.5 GPA; 3) poor attendance, i.e., missing more than 10% of school days; 4) IEP for emotional disturbance or related disabilities; or 5) concerns about the child on the behavioral and mental health screener (as indicated by a score of 3 on any one item, or a score of 2 or higher on at least two items). Exclusion Criteria: The caregiver is unable to read in either English or Spanish The child is unable to complete the survey without parent's help The family is already participating in another study of the University of Oregon's Prevention Science Institute

Per the terms of the funding contract from IES, de-identified study data will eventually be deposited at a public repository, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), to increase its utility to qualified individuals within the scientific community. Direct requests for data from other researchers and the public will be also considered, and data will be made available in accordance with local institution policies, IRB recommendations, local/state/federal laws and regulations, and considerations for publication. Any applicable data sharing will follow HIPAA rules.

In order to access these data, the ICPSR Data Archive will require a data use agreement (DUA), which will provide for (1) a commitment to using the data only for research purposes and not to identify any individual participant; (2) a commitment to securing the data using appropriate computer technology; and (3) a commitment to destroying or returning the data after analyses are completed. The data sharing agreement will also assure that the analysis being proposed is appropriate given the design and data available. This data will be shared with ICPSR and approved scientists without additional informed consent from the research participants.