A Multiple Family Group Intervention for Sheltered Families: Outcomes of the Weekend Retreat

Timothy Davey
School of Social Work
Virginia Commonwealth University
P.O.Box 842027
Richmond VA 23284-2027
(804)828-0403
FAX: (804)828-0716
tldavey@vcu.edu
Purpose:  Research indicates that families with children are among the fastest growing segment of the homeless population.  For families living in shelters, the familial boundaries are often fragmented, and children must often watch parent(s) become less able to fulfill the roles of caretakers, providers, and protectors.  Research on homeless children in particular has indicated a number of problems in physical, psychological, and social functioning including: higher rates of physical ailments, anxiety, depression, insecurities, emotional, behavioral and learning problems as well as lower self-esteem.
 
Method:  Multiple Family Groups (MFG) has been proposed as a responsive intervention for low income, minority children and families given their increased risk for psychopathology and dysfunction.  The program focused on "strengthening families" and was structured around four main components: (1) building trust, (2) effective communication, (3) managing stress, and (4) developing family rules and responsibilities.  Because of the transitory nature of this population, the MFG curriculum was developed in a weekend retreat format in order to assure that families could complete the entire intervention.    Mother's stress and the extent of children behavior problems were measured using the Perceived Stress Scale and the Shortform Assessment for Children (SAC) Scale.
 
Results:  Pre-post tests were conducted on each family (35 families - 63 children) that participated in this pilot work.  Initial findings show positive results in regards to decreasing children's behavioral problems using the Shortform Assessment Checklist (t=2.75, p< .05) and decreasing the mothers' perceived stress (t=-3.61, p< .05).
 
Implications for practice:  Findings indicate that the weekend retreat model may be an effective method in delivering a skills-based curriculum to families with children living in shelters.  Furthermore, feedback from group facilitators and participants indicate that social workers could possible use the MFG weekend retreat curriculum in working with a variety of at-risk families with children.