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Family Strengthening to Prevent Family Separation and Entrance into Residential Care Institutions in Sierra Leone: A Quasi-experimental Study.

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Title: Family Strengthening to Prevent Family Separation and Entrance into Residential Care Institutions in Sierra Leone: A Quasi-experimental Study.
Authors: Neville, Sarah Elizabeth1 (AUTHOR) sarah_neville@brown.edu, Kim, Edward J.2 (AUTHOR), Horvath, Laura3 (AUTHOR), Vaughan, Yasmine3 (AUTHOR), Kulanda, George4 (AUTHOR), Baun, Johanese4 (AUTHOR), Naavo, Maada4 (AUTHOR)
Source: Child & Youth Care Forum. Dec2025, Vol. 54 Issue 6, p1371-1401. 31p.
Subject Terms: *Emotion regulation, *Child welfare, *Parent-child relationships, *Family relations, *Parenting, *Experimental design, *Control groups, *Pre-tests & post-tests, *Aggression (Psychology), *Research methodology, *Comparative studies, *Caregiver attitudes, Family separation, Home care services, Orphans, T-test (Statistics), Research funding, Evaluation of human services programs, Clinical trials, Interviewing, Two-way analysis of variance, Parent-child separation, Descriptive statistics, Chi-squared test, Orphanages, Economic impact, Alternative medicine, Psychometrics, Residential care
Geographic Terms: West Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Sierra Leone
Abstract: Background: Recognizing children's right to grow up in a family, advocates have long called for evidence-based interventions to prevent children from needlessly entering residential care. However, such programs have rarely been evaluated in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Objective: To assess the "Firmly Rooted" program's associations with improved relationship behaviors, relationship quality, emotional regulation, and economic stability in Sierra Leone. Methods: This non-randomized, two-group pre-test/post-test study compared n = 50 pairs of caregivers and their children aged 9–13 who underwent a two-day workshop plus special home visits with n = 63 pairs receiving care-as-usual. Data were collected via survey interviews with participants at baseline and endline on measures of relationship behaviors, relationship quality, emotional regulation, and economic stability. Results: Intervention-associated improvements included the following: caregivers talked to children more, according to child report; caregivers and children reported apologizing more; caregivers reported comforting children more; and children reported sharing their feelings more. However, intervention caregivers reported more "malicing" and smaller improvements on hostility/aggression than comparison caregivers, and intervention children reported worse performance accepting emotions. Other areas had no significant differences. Conclusions: The program was associated with important improvements in caregiver–child relationship-enhancing behaviors, suggesting the promise of interventions to prevent family separation. Given other mixed and null effects, the program is being revised to strengthen other areas. Evidence on preventing children from entering residential care in LMICs is extremely lacking, despite the consensus on its importance; more investigation in this area is urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Child & Youth Care Forum is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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  Data: Family Strengthening to Prevent Family Separation and Entrance into Residential Care Institutions in Sierra Leone: A Quasi-experimental Study.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Child+%26+Youth+Care+Forum%22">Child & Youth Care Forum</searchLink>. Dec2025, Vol. 54 Issue 6, p1371-1401. 31p.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22West+Africa%22">West Africa</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Sub-Saharan+Africa%22">Sub-Saharan Africa</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Sierra+Leone%22">Sierra Leone</searchLink>
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: Background: Recognizing children's right to grow up in a family, advocates have long called for evidence-based interventions to prevent children from needlessly entering residential care. However, such programs have rarely been evaluated in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Objective: To assess the "Firmly Rooted" program's associations with improved relationship behaviors, relationship quality, emotional regulation, and economic stability in Sierra Leone. Methods: This non-randomized, two-group pre-test/post-test study compared n = 50 pairs of caregivers and their children aged 9–13 who underwent a two-day workshop plus special home visits with n = 63 pairs receiving care-as-usual. Data were collected via survey interviews with participants at baseline and endline on measures of relationship behaviors, relationship quality, emotional regulation, and economic stability. Results: Intervention-associated improvements included the following: caregivers talked to children more, according to child report; caregivers and children reported apologizing more; caregivers reported comforting children more; and children reported sharing their feelings more. However, intervention caregivers reported more "malicing" and smaller improvements on hostility/aggression than comparison caregivers, and intervention children reported worse performance accepting emotions. Other areas had no significant differences. Conclusions: The program was associated with important improvements in caregiver–child relationship-enhancing behaviors, suggesting the promise of interventions to prevent family separation. Given other mixed and null effects, the program is being revised to strengthen other areas. Evidence on preventing children from entering residential care in LMICs is extremely lacking, despite the consensus on its importance; more investigation in this area is urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Child & Youth Care Forum is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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RecordInfo BibRecord:
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      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1007/s10566-025-09866-4
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      – Code: eng
        Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 31
        StartPage: 1371
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Emotion regulation
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Child welfare
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Parent-child relationships
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Family relations
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Parenting
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Experimental design
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Control groups
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Pre-tests & post-tests
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Aggression (Psychology)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Research methodology
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Comparative studies
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Caregiver attitudes
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      – SubjectFull: Family separation
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Home care services
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      – SubjectFull: Orphans
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: T-test (Statistics)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Research funding
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      – SubjectFull: Evaluation of human services programs
        Type: general
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        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Parent-child separation
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      – SubjectFull: West Africa
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      – SubjectFull: Sub-Saharan Africa
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Sierra Leone
        Type: general
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      – TitleFull: Family Strengthening to Prevent Family Separation and Entrance into Residential Care Institutions in Sierra Leone: A Quasi-experimental Study.
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