By: Destiny Santana and Edward Cohen
Dr. Ed Cohen heads up a multi-site evaluation of Celebrating Families! (CF!), a family-based intervention designed to improve parenting and family relations, and reduce parental substance use problems that have been linked to violence in the home. CF! has been implemented in many sites in California and other states – among them multi-service agencies, family treatment courts, child welfare agencies, domestic violence programs, residential treatment programs, and school districts. It is unique among family-based prevention programs since it was specifically developed to address the interface between substance use problems and violence in the home. The intervention also focuses on improving resiliencies of individuals and families in multicultural settings. It has been adapted for Spanish-speaking families, and has been implemented by at least three Native American tribal authorities nationally. There are versions of CF! for families with children ages 0-3, 4-12, and 13-17. Pre- and posttest outcome surveys from a multi-site evaluation have shown that the program improves parents’ understanding of their child’s needs, parental self-efficacy, parenting skills, and family relationships.
Dr. Cohen has involved student research assistants in this project each year since 2016. In his 2021-22 capstone research class, there were six students pursuing CF! related research. Mary Prado studied the cultural adaptation of the program for California sites serving Latinx and Native American families. Cynthia Navarro and Yasmin Lara monitored new program implementations funded by a grant from the California Office of Child Abuse Prevention. Natalie Cline and Kristin Jones assisted with the development and analysis of data from a survey of graduates of Parisi House, a residential program for women and their children where CF! is part of the milieu program. Jennifer Escalera conducted a literature review summarizing how the theories supporting similar family-based interventions are translated into program curricula.
This year, Student Research Assistants will continue implementation research of new sites, and future plans include analysis of child welfare reunification and recidivism data, as well as seeking grant funding for sustainable research projects in collaboration with other researchers in the field of family-based prevention.
Dr. Ed Cohen is a Professor in the School of Social Work and Interim Associate Dean of Research and Faculty.