Testing Relationship Skills Education Services With a Robust Economic Security Component (TPC)

Testing the Effectiveness of Offering Relationship Skills Education Services With a Robust Economic Security Component to Low-income Couples Raising Children.

The Parenting Center (TPC) offers the Empowering Families program, which integrates a relationship education curriculum (Family Wellness) into a comprehensive set of services that includes case management, employment services, and financial coaching. The evaluation will test the effectiveness of offering relationship skills education services with a robust economic security component to low-income couples raising children.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Family Relations
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Empowering Families

Detailed Description

The evaluation of Empowering Families will test the effectiveness of offering relationship skills education services with a robust economic security component to low-income couples raising children. The program is built on Family Wellness, a relationship education curriculum that has not yet been rigorously studied. The Parenting Center (TPC) has integrated Family Wellness into a comprehensive set of services that includes case management, employment services, and financial coaching. The evaluation will test the effect of this full package of services on couples' relationship and employment outcomes. The evaluation will also examine effects on outcomes related to child well-being, such as co-parenting and father involvement.

The Empowering Families evaluation will be conducted with low-income couples raising children. To be eligible for program services, both members of the couple must: (1) be age 18 or older, (2) report that they are in a committed relationship with their partner; (3) speak a language in which programming is being offered; (4) be interested in participating in a program that offers both relationship skills and economic stability services; (5) be available to participate in programming for the next six months; (6) pass a domestic violence screen; and (7) not have an open case with child protective services. In addition, at least one member of the couple must have a biological or adopted child who is under age 18 and lives with them at least half time. The Parenting Center will aim to recruit couples who are economically disadvantaged and likely to want both relationship skills and employment services.

The evaluation plan for the Empowering Families program calls for the enrollment and random assignment of 1,000 couples over the course of two years. This target requires The Parenting Center to recruit approximately 42 couples for the study each month. Half of these couples will be randomly assigned to the Empowering Families program; the other half will be assigned to a control group that is not eligible for program services.To document the outcomes of study participants, survey data will be collected at two time points: (1) a baseline survey administered at study enrollment and (2) a follow-up survey conducted about a year later. The investigators will also conduct a process study to document how Empowering Families was implemented.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 1758
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Fort Worth, Texas, United States, 76107
      • The Parenting Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria: (Necessary for eligibility)

1. age 18 or older
2. report that they are in a committed relationship with their partner
3. speak a language in which programming is being offered
4. be interested in participating in a program that offers both relationship skills and economic stability services
5. be available to participate in programming for the next six months;
6. pass a domestic violence screen
7. not have an open case with child protective services.
8. at least one member of the couple must have a biological or adopted child who is under age 18 and lives with them at least half time.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Ineligible if do not meet any of the above.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control; Not eligible for program services
Active Comparator: Empowering Families; These couples will be eligible to participate in the "Empowering Families" program.	Behavioral: Empowering Families; A program that integrates the healthy relationship curriculum, Family Wellness, into a comprehensive set of services that includes case management, employment services, and financial coaching. The program will have four core components: (1) 20 hours of core workshop sessions using the Family Wellness curriculum; (2) case management; (3) employment services; and (4) financial coaching. The core component of Empowering Families will be a 20-hour group workshop, organized into eight two-and-a-half-hour weekly sessions (Table 1). The main content of these sessions will be based on the Family Wellness relationship education curriculum which will be covered in six sessions. These six sessions will be led by two trained facilitators employed by The Parenting Center. The core workshops will be supplemented with two additional sessions on financial planning and employment topics that will designed to be useful to all participants, regardless of their level of financial and employment needs.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Employed or taking steps to find a job	a binary variable equal to 1 if a respondent was ever employed at any time during the first year after study enrollment or indicates that in the past year he/she has done any of the following: Created or updated a resume; Looked for a job; Submitted a job application; Gone on a job interview	1 year after random assignment
Monthly earnings	This continuous variable uses survey data and is based on average monthly earnings from all jobs in the first year following study enrollment. It will be analyzed separately for men and women.	1 year after random assignment
Family economic hardship scale	This scale represents how many of six economic hardships the family experienced in the past year.	1 year after random assignment
Quality of co-parenting relationship	This 10-item scale (α = 0.94) is the average level of agreement-from "strongly disagree" (= 1) to "strongly agree" (= 4)-with statements about the respondent's partner, constructed by averaging across partners' responses.	1 year after random assignment
Couple married to each other	This is a binary variable equal to 1 if both partners report that they are married to each other	1 year after random assignment
Couple married or romantically involved	This is a binary variable equal to 1 if both partners report that they are married to each other or in a romantic relationship with each other	1 year after random assignment
Support and affection	This 12-item scale is the average level of agreement-from "strongly disagree" (= 1) to "strongly agree" (= 4)-with statements about the respondent's partner, constructed by averaging across partners' responses	1 year after random assignment
Avoidance of destructive conflict behaviors	This eight-item scale (α = 0.92) is the average frequency-from "never" (= 1) to "often" (= 4)-that a respondent reports experiencing destructive conflict behaviors with his or her partner, constructed by averaging across partners' responses	1 year after random assignment
Constructive conflict behaviors	This seven-item scale (α = 0.87) is the average frequency-from "never" (= 1) to "often" (= 4)-that a respondent reports experiencing constructive conflict behaviors with his or her partner, constructed by averaging across partners' responses	1 year after random assignment
Relationship commitment	This continuous variable ranges from 0 to 10, with higher values indicating that both partners are more committed to their romantic relationship. The measure is the average across the two partners' responses.	1 year after random assignment
Relationship happiness	This continuous variable ranges from 0 to 10, with higher values indicating that both partners report greater happiness with their romantic relationship. The measure is the average across the two partners' responses.	1 year after random assignment

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
• Investigators: Study Director: Robert Wood, PhD, Mathematica Policy Research

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): December 1, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 12, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 14, 2016
• First Posted (Estimate): September 15, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 22, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 20, 2022
• Last Verified: April 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: MPR-500098-TPC

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO