The Stronger Families in Australia (SFIA) Study: Phase 2

Abstract

The Stronger Families in Australia (SFIA) Study: Phase 2 Ben Edwards, Killian Mullan, Ilan Katz and Research Report No. 29 — September 2014 Read full publication The Stronger Families in Australia Study: Phase 2 Key messages CfC has had some of the desired effects on parents and children, but these were not strong or sustained for long enough to make statistically significant differences over the long term. Over the five waves of SFIA, the vast majority of findings indicated that the wellbeing of children and parents in CfC communities was better than in comparison communities, even if these differences did not reach statistical significance. Very few studies of early intervention services follow children for six years and provide the depth of information that SFIA has been able to deliver. Many other studies of early intervention services have also failed to find sustained positive effects over the longer term (e.g., NESS Team, 2012). Whether another model, a more intensive version of CfC or a set of evidence-based interventions would have had a greater effect is not known. This report presents a medium- to long-term evaluation of the Communities for Children (CfC) initiative. This Australian Government initiative aims to improve services for young children and their families and the communities they grow up in. The evaluation, known as the Stronger Families in Australia (SFIA) study, looks at the impact of CfC on child, family, and community outcomes. Phase 1 of the evaluation, published in 2009, found a small but positive impact of the initiative. This new report presents findings from Phase 2 of the study, which followed up 1,927 of the original study families, with the children now aged from 8-10 years old. Phase 2 also introduced a new cohort of 1,800 families and four new "contrast" sites.

Divisions: College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities
College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities > Sociology and Policy
Additional Information: © Commonwealth of Australia 2014 With the exception of AIFS branding, the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, content provided by third parties, and any material protected by a trademark, all textual material presented in this publication is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence (CC BY 3.0) <creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0/au>. You may copy, distribute and build upon this work for commercial and non-commercial purposes; however, you must attribute the Commonwealth of Australia as the copyright holder of the work. Content that is copyrighted by a third party is subject to the licensing arrangements of the original owner.
ISBN: 978-1-922038-61-6, 978-1-922038-62-3
Last Modified: 30 Sep 2024 08:51
Date Deposited: 30 Jul 2019 15:10
Full Text Link: https://aifs.go ... a-study-phase-2
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PURE Output Type: Commissioned report
Published Date: 2014
Authors: Edwards, Ben
Mullan, Killian (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-0027-037X)
Katz, Ilan
Higgins, Daryl

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