Linking Families Together Study- A Randomized Trial to Raise Parental Monitoring

Overview

In this study, we will evaluate the efficacy and sustainability of the Linking Families Together (LIFT) intervention to improve parental monitoring during the transition from middle to high school a particularly risky time for students' academic performance and health behaviors. This study is based in middle schools around Los Angeles County a region with a high prevalence of teen risky health behaviors. The aims of our study are: 1. To conduct a randomized trial of the LIFT intervention and examine whether providing detailed academic information to parents during their child's 7th and 8th grade increases parental monitoring at the end of the two year intervention and one year follow up. We will partner with 3-10 middle schools and recruit 500 student-parent dyads: 250 will be randomized to the intervention arm and 250 to the usual care control group. 2. To determine whether the LIFT intervention improves students' academic outcomes, as measured by grades, attendance, and standardized test scores at the end of the two year intervention and one year follow up. 3. To evaluate whether the LIFT intervention lowers rates of adolescent risky health behaviors, specifically substance use (alcohol, marijuana, inhalants, and other drugs) at the end of the two year intervention and one year follow up.

Despite parental monitoring and school involvement being among the most important protective factors leading to positive teen academic and health trajectories, few theoretically based rigorously evaluated interventions test strategies to support low income parents as their adolescents transition from middle to high school, a particularly risky time for students' academic and health behaviors. In a successful pilot study, student's missing assignments information was communicated directly to parents. Intervention parents were nearly twice as likely to report their child not telling them enough about his or her school work than control parents. After just 6 months, intervention students had a 0.19 standard deviation increase in GPA over the control group and 0.20 standard deviation higher standardized math test score. In the proposed study, we will evaluate the efficacy and sustainability of an intervention to improve parental monitoring and thus improve academic outcomes and reduce risky health behaviors. The adapted intervention will also include sessions for parents to build positive parent-child communication and awareness of school expectations. We propose a randomized controlled trial with 2 arms examining whether providing parents detailed information on their child's academic and behavioral performance in school in combination with basic parenting support, increases parental monitoring for low-income, minority families. We hypothesize that better parental monitoring will lead to improved academic and behavioral performance. Using this design we can determine whether the impact of the information and parenting intervention is also protective of teens engaging in risky health behaviors. We will compare the experimental and control group parents to examine whether providing high-quality academic information to parents of middle school students increases parental monitoring, student academic performance, and teen health outcomes during middle school and beyond. If the intervention boosts adolescent academic and health outcomes as hypothesized, the results of the proposed study offer schools low-cost strategies to simultaneously positively influence student academic and health trajectories. These findings have the potential to stimulate new research to improve health through innovative interventions to bolster parent teen relationships for gains accrued throughout the life span. The aims of our study are: 1. To conduct a randomized trial of the LIFT intervention and examine whether providing detailed academic information to parents during their child's 7th and 8th grade increases parental monitoring at the end of the two year intervention and one year follow up. We will partner with 3-10 middle schools and recruit 500 student-parent dyads: 250 will be randomized to the intervention arm and 250 to the usual care control group. 2. To determine whether the LIFT intervention improves students' academic outcomes, as measured by grades, attendance, and standardized test scores at the end of the two year intervention and one year follow up. 3. To evaluate whether the LIFT intervention lowers rates of adolescent risky health behaviors, specifically substance use (alcohol, marijuana, inhalants, and other drugs) at the end of the two year intervention and one year follow up. Thus the proposed study builds on and extends the earlier pilot study by recruiting more middle schools around Los Angeles, offering parents additional supports through parenting workshops, and assessing the program's impact on adolescent behavioral outcomes. Successfully implementing this study will allow us to demonstrate feasibility for a future randomized controlled trial and assess effect size for parental monitoring and health outcomes.