Center for
Native Child
and Family Resilience
Prevention. Intervention. Respect.
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Family Spirit

Summary
Healthy Families America

The Family Spirit Program is an evidence-based and culturally tailored home-visiting intervention delivered by Native American paraprofessionals as a core strategy to support young Native parents from pregnancy to 3 years post-partum.

The Family Spirit Program is an evidence-based and culturally tailored home-visiting intervention delivered by Native American paraprofessionals as a core strategy to support young Native parents from pregnancy to 3 years post-partum. Parents gain knowledge and skills to achieve optimum development for their preschool-aged children across the domains of physical, cognitive, social-emotional, language learning, and self-help. The Family Spirit Program consists of 63 lessons taught from pregnancy to age 3. Beginning in 1995, this in-home parent training and support program was designed, implemented, and rigorously evaluated by the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health (JHCAIH) in partnership with Navajo, White Mountain Apache, and San Carlos Apache tribal communities.
Contact

Nicole Neault, Senior Researcher

Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health

415 N. Washington Street, 4th Floor

Baltimore, MD  21231 

(410) 955-6931 

familyspirit@jhu.edu
Details

Family Spirit is “the first programme to provide clear evidence of the effectiveness of   paraprofessionals   as home visitors to impact behavioural and mental health disparities” (Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, p. 292). The Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health dossier on Family Spirit, retrieved from https://goodpracticessite.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/family-spirit.pdf, indicates that evidence from “three randomized controlled trials has documented the following programme outcomes: increased maternal knowledge;  increased parent self-efficacy; reduced parent stress; improved home safety attitudes; decreased maternal depression; decreased substance use; fewer behaviour problems in mothers; fewer  behaviour  problems  in  children  through age 3 (externalizing, internalizing and dysregulation); and predicts lower risk of substance use and behavioural health problems over the life course” (pp. 291–292).

The dossier includes references to publications related to the randomized control trials, including:

Barlow, A., Mullany, B., Neault, N., Compton, S., Carter, A., Hastings, R., Billy T., Coho-Mescal, V., Lorenzo, S. & Walkup, J. T. (2015). Effect of a paraprofessional home-visiting intervention on American Indian teen mothers’ and infants’ behavioral risks: A randomized controlled trial.

Barlow   A., Mullany B., Neault, N., et al. (2015). Paraprofessional-delivered, home-visiting   intervention for American Indian teen mothers and children:  3-year outcomes from a randomized controlled trial.  American Journal of Psychiatry, 172(2), 154–162. 10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.14030332

Barlow,  A.,  Varipatis-Baker,  E.,  Speakman,  K.,  Ginsburg,  G.,  Friberg,  I.,  Goklish,  N.,  Cowboy, B., Fields, P., Hastings, R., Pan, W., Reid, R., Santosham, M. & Walkup, J. (2006). Home-visiting intervention to improve childcare among American Indian adolescent mothers: A randomized trial. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 160(11), 1101-1107.

Mullany, B., Barlow, A., Neault, N., Billy, T., Jones, T., Tortice, I., Lorenzo, S., Powers, J., Lake, K., Reid, R. & Walkup, J. (2012). The Family Spirit trial for American Indian teen mothers and their children:  CBPR rationale, design, methods and baseline characteristics. Prevention Science, 13(5), 504-518. https://www.jhsph.edu/research/affiliated-programs/family-spirit/_docs/proven-results/publications/5_-_Mullany_Barlow_et_al._2012.pdf
  • Child
  • Family
  • Child disability
  • Child perceived as problem by parents
  • Child temperament or behavior
  • Exposure to conflict or violence (family or otherwise)
  • Exposure to stress
  • History of child abuse and neglect/Use of corporal punishment
  • Low self esteem
  • Physical health problems
  • Social isolation
  • Substance abuse
  • Access to health and social services
  • Attachment to parent(s)
  • Employment
  • Family functioning
  • Parental self-esteem
  • Problem-solving skills
  • Relational skills
  • Self-efficacy
  • Social and emotional competence
  • Strong parent/Child relationship
  • Balance
  • Cultural identity/sense of belonging to cultural group
  • Education
  • Ethnic pride/self-esteem
  • Life cycle events/traditional activities/practices
  • Resource
  • Target

About Family Spirit: https://www.jhsph.edu/research/affiliated-programs/family-spirit/about/