AVANCE-Houston FRAMEWorks Program Evaluation

AVANCE-Houston FRAMEWorks Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Program Evaluation

AVANCE-Houston seeks to understand whether a standard or compressed schedule format for delivering the Survival Skills for Healthy Families curriculum better meets the needs of low-income adults to improve skill retention and, ultimately, to promote better outcomes for healthy family relationships and economic stability.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Adults
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Descriptive Intervention

Detailed Description

AVANCE-Houston's FRAMEWorks (Family, Relationship, and Marriage Education Works) Project seeks to promote healthy family relationships and economic stability by providing the Survival Skills for Healthy Families (SSHF) curriculum to cohorts of low-income adults. Developed by Family Wellness Associates, SSHF is an evidence-based curriculum delivered through a series of workshops that focus on communication skills, conflict resolution, knowledge of the benefits of marriage, stress and anger management, parenting skills, financial literacy, job and career advancement, and relationship skills to improve family and economic stability. In the past, AVANCE has offered two curriculum delivery models: recurring weekly workshops (standard schedule format) and intensive weekend retreats (compressed schedule format). Each model meets the needs of the target population in different ways, and participants consider factors such as childcare, work/school schedules, weekend availability, and geographic location when choosing their preferred model.

The key goal of this descriptive evaluation is to assess the extent that attitudes and behaviors related to parenting, partner relationships, and financial and job readiness change after participation in the SSHF curriculum. Though the program offers support services and economic stability resources, our analysis will only include outcome changes based on surveys taken at program enrollment, program completion, and one-year post-enrollment. Additionally, a secondary analysis will focus on the ancillary question of whether differences in outcomes exist between in-person and virtual format group participants, and subgroup analyses will be conducted.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 1403
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Houston, Texas, United States, 77092
      • AVANCE-Houston

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adult (age 18 and older)
• Reside in Harris County (Houston area), TX

Exclusion Criteria:

• Minor (under the age of 18)
• Reside outside of Harris County (Houston area), TX

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: AVANCE-Houston FRAMEWorks Program Weekly Workshop Format; A trained facilitator, supported by Career and Family Coaches, leads every HMRE parenting workshop for adults via multiple delivery models: in recurring weekly workshops (2 hours each workshop for 7 weeks) and intensive weekend retreats (totaling 16 hours). Additionally, AVANCE offers the weekly workshops either virtually via Zoom or in-person. All workshop models were offered to program participants who were able to choose whether the weekly (either in-person or virtually) or the weekend (in-person only) format worked best for them. Curriculum content is consistent across all delivery methods and target hours for all participants is 14 hours.

Other: Descriptive Intervention; A trained facilitator, supported by Career and Family Coaches, leads every HMRE parenting workshop for adults via multiple delivery models: in recurring weekly workshops (2 hours each workshop for 7 weeks) and intensive weekend retreats (totaling 16 hours). Additionally, AVANCE offers the weekly workshops either virtually via Zoom or in-person. All workshop models were offered to program participants who were able to choose whether the weekly (either in-person or virtually) or the weekend (in-person only) format worked best for them. Curriculum content is consistent across all delivery methods and target hours for all participants is 14 hours.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Parenting Behavior Measurement #1	How did parenting behavior outcomes change from program enrollment to 1 year after enrollment? Items measured include: Parenting behavior measured with: 4 items - frequency of support for child (4-point scale) Measured on the parenting behavior scale #1 as: 1 = Never, 2 = Hardly ever, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Often The higher the rating, the better the score. The 4 items are measured as a construct. All items are added together and divided by 4 to create the construct score. The higher the score, the better the outcome. maximum score of 4.0, minimum score of 1.0	Change from baseline in parenting behavior (frequency of support for child) at 12 months from enrollment.
Partner Relationship Behavior Measurement #1	How did partner relationship behavior outcomes change from program enrollment to 1 year after enrollment? Items measured include: Partner relationship behavior measured with: 3 items - frequency of key relationship behaviors (4-point scale) Measured on the partner relationship behavior scale #1 as: 1 = Never, 2 = Hardly ever, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Often The 3 items are measured as a construct. All items are added together and divided by 3 to create the construct score. The higher the score, the better the outcome. maximum score of 4, minimum score of 1.0	Change from baseline in partner relationship behavior (frequency of key relationship behaviors) at 12 months from enrollment.
Financial Readiness Measurement #1	How did financial readiness behavior outcomes change from program enrollment to 1 year after enrollment? Items measured include: Financial readiness measured with: 2 items - presence of a savings account and checking account (dichotomous) 1 = Yes, 0 = No, so the higher the rating, the better the score.	Change from baseline in financial readiness (presence of savings and checking accounts) at 12 months from enrollment.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Parenting Attitudes Measurement #1	4A) How did parenting attitude outcomes change from program enrollment to program completion? Items measured include: Parenting attitudes measured with: 4 items - frequency of supportive feelings toward child (5-point scale) Measured on the parenting attitudes scale #1 as: 1 = Never, 2 = Hardly ever, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Often, 5=always The 4 items are measured as a construct. All items are added together and divided by 4 to create the construct score. The higher the score, the better the outcome. maximum score of 5.0, minimum score of 1.0	Change from baseline in parenting attitudes (frequency of supportive feelings toward child) immediately after program completion (7 weeks)
Partner Relationship Attitudes Measurement #1	5) How did partner relationship attitude outcomes change from program enrollment to program completion? Items measured include: Partner relationship attitudes measured with: 5 items - level of agreement with how supportive partner is (5-point scale) Measured on the partner relationship attitudes scale #1 as: 1 = Strongly agree, 2 = Agree, 3 = Disagree, 4 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Not applicable The lower the rating, the better the score. The 5 items are measured as a construct. All items are added together and divided by 5 to create the construct score. maximum score of 5.0, minimum score of 1.0	Change from baseline in parenting attitudes (level of agreement with how supportive partner is) immediately after program completion (7 weeks).

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Midwest Evaluation & Research
• Collaborators: Avance Clinical Pty Ltd.
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Matt D Shepherd, PhD, Midwest Evaluation & Research

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 31, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): August 29, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 8, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 28, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): March 2, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 6, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 13, 2026
• Last Verified: February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: #2021/03/32

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: All participant data will be confidential and aggregated. No individual participant data will be released unless requested by the courts. This study looks at data as a whole.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No