The North Carolina Family Assessment Scale

1
The North Carolina Family Assessment Scale

• based on the work of
• Raymond S. Kirk, Ph.D.
• Clinical Professor
• with Mark W. Fraser Ph.D.
• John A. Tate Distinguished Professor for Children
  in Need

2
How Do We Know if Intensive Family Preservation
Services (IFPS) Really Work?

• What would you want to measure?

3
North Carolina Family Assessment Scale
(NCFAS)(Reed-Ashcraft, Kirk, Fraser, 2001)

• Comprehensive family functioning and outcome
  instrument specifically designed for IFPS
• Developed by providers, policy makers, evaluators
  
• Shown to have
• internal consistency
• construct and concurrent validity
• 5 domains
• Each variable rated on 6 point ordinal scale
  (2clear strength, to -3 serious problem)

4
NCFAS Domains

• Environment, e.g.
• housing stability and habitability,
  income/employment, adequacy of food/nutrition,
  learning environment, transportation
• Parental Capabilities, e.g.
• parenting skill, adult supervision

5
NCFAS Domains

• Family Interactions, e.g.
• mutual support, bonding with child, expectation
  of child
• Family Safety, e.g.
• sexual abuse of child, domestic violence
• Child Well-Being, e.g.
• childs behavior, school performance, child
  mental health

6
NCFAS in Action (NC DHHS, 2001)

• North Carolina IFPS evaluated using NCFAS V2.0
• Family evaluated at beginning of service, and at
  conclusion
• Looked at absolute score, and change score

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NCFAS and NC IFPS Evaluation
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NCFAS and NC IFPS Evaluation
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NCFAS and NC IFPS Evaluation
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NCFAS and NC IFPS Evaluation
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NCFAS and NC IFPS Evaluation
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NCFAS and NC IFPS Evaluation
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NCFAS and NC IFPS Evaluation
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Do Score Changes Relate to Placement Outcomes?

• Significant relationship between strengths and
  absence of placement, and problems and
  out-of-home placement
• Environment chi square8.346, df5, p.138
• Parental Capabilities chi square27.352, df5,
  plt.001
• Family Interactions chi square47.573, df5,
  plt.001
• Family Safety chi square46.703, df5, plt.001
• Child Well-Being chi square58.613, df5, plt.001

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Conclusions

• NC IFPS can improve family functioning,
  incrementally, in all domains measured by NCFAS
• Parental Capabilities, Family Interactions, Child
  Well-Being, seem more amenable to change during
  this brief intervention
• NCFAS scores associated with placement outcomes
  at end of IFPS