Family-based Prevention of Offending: A Meta
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Transcript Family-based Prevention of Offending: A Meta
Family-based Prevention of
Offending: A Meta-Analysis
David P. Farrington & Brandon C. Welsh
2003
Jenna Ayers
Radford University
Overview
Review of the effectiveness of family-based
prevention programs in reducing offending and
antisocial behavior by children and adolescents.
Family-based programs typically target family risk
factors.
Goal: aims to prepare and maintain systematic
reviews and to make them available electronically.
Previous Research
Narrative reviews of effect of family-based
interventions to prevent delinquency and
later criminal offending
Serketich & Dumas (1996)
Cochrane review completed by Woolfenden,
Williams, & Peat (2002)
Systematic Review
Why?
Use rigorous methods for: locating, appraising, and
synthesizing evidence from evaluation studies
Explicit objectives
Explicit criteria for inclusion and exclusion of
studies
Wide-ranging methods for searching for studies that
are designed to reduce bias
Method
Selection of Evaluations (Inclusion)
1. The family and family factors
2. Outcome measure of delinquency or
antisocial child behavior
3. High quality methodologically
4. Original sample size
Searching Strategies
Original aim: to update the review of family-based
crime prevention in the 1997 Maryland Report
Began searches in 1997
1. Recent reviews
2. Articles in major journals
3. Youth Update
4. Contacts
Measuring Effect Size
Aimed to measure 4 different effects in each
study:
1. Short-term effect on delinquency
2. Short-term effects on child antisocial
behavior
3. Long-term effects on offending
4. Long-term effects on antisocial behavior
Main Measure of Effect Size
The standardized mean difference d, which
summarizes the difference between the
experimental and control groups in standard
deviation units:
D= (Mc-Me)/s
Positive value of d indicates a desirable
effect of the intervention
Family-based Prevention
Programs
Home Visiting (4)
Day Care/Preschool programs (5)
Parent Training programs (10)
School-based programs (7)
Home/Community programs with Older
Children (8)
Multi-systemic Therapy Programs (6)
Meta-Analysis
Mean Effect Sizes
Category
A
B
C
D
E
F
Total
Low CI
.111
.147
.274
-.014
.056
.281
.278
High CI
.360
.371
.517
.149
.306
.548
.269
Mean
.235
.259
.395
.068
.181
.414
.223
Sig
2/4
4/5
5/10*
3/7
3/8
2/6*
19/40*
Mean Effect Sizes
Delinquency
Short-term
Long-term
Total
Low CI
.132
.281
.250
High CI
.315
.464
.391
Mean
.224
.372
.321
Sig
5/12
6/10
10/19*
.157
.016
.146
.252
.201
.246
.204
.109
.196
11/26
2/7
11/27
Antisocial
behavior
Short-term
Long-term
Total
Results of Meta Analysis
Suggest that prevalence of offending could
be reduced by about 10-15% by
implementing such programs.
More than half of all evaluations found a
significant decrease in delinquency
Effects on delinquency persisted in long-term
evaluation studies
Results
Most effective types of programs used
behavioral parent training
Least effective were those based in schools
All other types of family-based programs
were effective
Conclusions
40 of the highest quality family-based crime
prevention programs were reviewed
Programs grouped into 6 categories
These family-based programs had desirable
effects in reducing delinquency and
antisocial child behavior
Future Research
More large-scale evaluations are needed using
randomized experiments
Ideally, programs focusing more clearly and more
narrowly on family risk factors should be
implemented and evaluated
More efforts should be made to determine links in
the causal chain between family processes and
offending
More long term follow ups should be carried out to
establish the persistence of effects
Future Research
Important to investigate why effect sizes are
greater in smaller scale studies than in larger
scale ones.
Future experiments needed that attempt to
disentangle the different elements of
successful programs
Know more about the economic efficiency of
family-based crime prevention programs
Bottom Line
Existing evidence suggests that family-based
prevention programs are effective in
reducing offending.
More of these types of programs should be
implemented and evaluated.