ProSAAF :: About the Project

Also See: Frequently Asked Questions | Informed Consent |

What is Promoting Strong Families?

Promoting Strong Families is a five-year research program designed to discover ways for African American couples to strengthen their relationships and build on strengths in their relationships to promote strong parenting skills. Growing together as a couple is one of the greatest blessings and challenges in life. Although children are a blessing – disagreements about parenting can be some of the most difficult to resolve.

The educational program incorporates curriculum from the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP) and the Strong African American Families (SAAF) programs. PREP is one of the most comprehensive and well respected divorce-prevention/marriage enhancing programs in the world. PREP is a skills and principles-building curriculum designed to help partners say what they need to say, get to the heart of problems, and increase their connection with each other. The program, created and developed at the University of Denver, has been in existence for over 30 years. The SAAF curriculum, developed specifically for African American parents and their adolescent children, is focused on strengthening positive family interactions and enhancing parents’ efforts to help their children establish and reach positive goals during the critical transition between childhood and adolescence.

Why is Promoting Strong Families significant for the African American community?

Challenging socioeconomic conditions in the South sometimes take a toll on African American fathers’ ability to provide effective parenting for their children (Brody, et al., 1994), as well as maintain strong, healthy marriages (Karney, et al., 2005). When this happens, there is often a cascade of negative effects, with the result that many African American youth are not realizing their potential, exhibiting high rates of academic failure, behavioral and emotional problems, and substance use (Brody, et al., 2004; Willis, et al., 2003). Despite the urgent need to support effective, committed fatherhood, no culturally-appropriate programs are currently available to support African American men in the crucial and interconnected roles of husband and father (McBride, et al., 2004). By promoting strong marriages and strong families, ProSAAF provides tools to counter the stressful environment we live in and helps fathers create a better future for their children.

What makes Promoting Strong Families a unique and exciting program?

The program builds upon the strengths within families and promotes parenting practices and relationship skills. The program encourages parents to communicate better and commit to achieving their personal goals togetheras parents and couples.
The PREP curriculum has been shortened from a 15 week program to three 2.5-hour sessions, to better fit with the needs of modern couples who often times must balance multiple work schedules as well as busy family obligations.
By including material and activities that recognize how institutional and implicit racism affects and works against the success of African American marriages, the curriculum has been adapted to better confront the realities that can undermine even the best of marriages.
The SAAF curriculum has been paired with PREP for the first time so that parents can use their marital relationship skills to strengthen their parenting partnership.
By focusing directly on parenting, the SAAF curriculum provides a number of skills for dealing with the challenge of parenting through adolescence. As a result, the whole family benefits.

Who was a part of Promoting Strong Families?

Couples were eligible to participate in the program if they meet the following criteria:
An African American adult at least 21 years of age who:

Had a mate (of any age or race) who was also willing to participate
Was legally married and living together or had definite plans to marry.
Lived with a mate and an adolescent child 10- to 16-years of age
Parented the 10- to 16-year-old adolescent child with the mate
Had a 10- to 16-year old adolescent (i.e., teen lives with and is parented by the adult and mate) that was willing to answer questions about their experiences
Was willing to spend six weeks in an in-home educational program

Three hundred African American couples took part in this program. One hundred fifty couples participated in the Promoting Strong Families educational program and were asked to take part in six relationship and parenting enrichment sessions for a period of six weeks, with facilitators visiting and reviewing materials with them. Another one hundred fifth couples were asked to review written materials on their own instead of having the facilitators visit them at home. All participants took part in an assessment to see what they learned and what benefits they got from their participation.

What did the participants do?

The couple was asked to complete four in-home interviews throughout the program—at baseline, 3-months, 14-months, and 24-months. During these interviews, a field interviewer met with the couple at a convenient time for them and drove to the couples’ home. Couples were asked to respond to questions on a laptop computer. The interviews focused on several areas:

Relationship skills and attitudes (e.g., communication, conflict, support, commitment, forgiveness)
Parenting practices (e.g., monitoring, emotional support, involvement in child’s schoolwork, teaching children how to handle discrimination).
Other factors that can influence parenting such as mood, stress, and community conditions.

Between the baseline and 3-month interviews, couples were asked to participate in one of two educational programs that focused on relationship and parenting enrichment.

How did the couples benefit?

Learned how to support each other in ways that make their relationships better
Developed new understandings about each other
Found out how to handle or prevent problems in their relationships
Discovered new techniques for effectively parenting adolescents
Discussed issues that are important to them as African Americans
Reflected on your life experiences, beliefs, and values

What will happen with the information that the couple provides?

The information provided by each individual couple is kept confidential. After all the couples have been interviewed, the information is grouped together and analyses are conducted for the whole sample. Ultimately, the information from this study about couples will be used to inform service agencies, policy makers, and other marriage scholars and those interested in relationship enhancement programs that are uniquely designed for the African American community.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do you have a website?
http://www.uga.edu/prosaaf/

2. What was the source of your funding?
The Administration for Children and Families, United States Department of Health and Human Services.

3. What was the eligibility criteria?
An African American adult at least 21 years of age who had a mate (of any age or any race) who was also willing to participate. The couple must have been married or planning to marry with a definite date in mind. Couples must have lived together, and resided with an adolescent child 10- to 16-years of age that they assumed primary responsibility for parenting together. Couples must have also been willing to spend six weeks in an in-home educational program. Couples must also have had a 10- to 16-year old adolescent (i.e., teen lives with and is parented by the adult and mate) that was willing to answer questions about their experiences.

4. Were interracial couples eligible?
Yes. Our eligibility criteria stated that any African American adult at least 21 years of age who had a mate (of any age or any race) who was also willing to participate was welcome to take part in the program.

5. Can I view a copy of the curriculum materials?
Unfortunately, no. We are still in the testing phase of the program. However, ProSAAF will be available for public use in the future for those that are interested in reviewing the curriculum and adopting it for their use.

6. Tell me about your curriculum.
The educational program incorporated curriculum from the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP) and the Strong African American Families (SAAF) programs. PREP is one of the most comprehensive and well respected divorce-prevention/marriage enhancing programs in the world. PREP is a skills and principles-building curriculum designed to help partners say what they need to say, get to the heart of problems, and increase their connection with each other. The program, created and developed at the University of Denver, has been in existence for over 30 years. The SAAF curriculum, developed specifically for African American parents and their adolescent children, is focused on strengthening positive family interactions and enhancing parents’ efforts to help their children establish and reach positive goals during the critical transition between childhood and adolescence.

7. What measures, if any, were taken to ensure that participant’s information remained confidential?
First, all interviewers were required to sign a note of confidentiality. Second, participants were only referred to by a generic number after we collected your contact information. Third, only the research team had accessed to their information. Fourth, all of your information was stored in locked rooms or on password-protected computer servers. Fifth, and lastly, we do not make a practice of looking at individual data in the analyses but rather only look at data across individuals at the group-level.

8. Who is in charge of the project?
Dr. Steven Beach is the lead investigator (i.e., principal investigator). He is joined by a team of other investigators (i.e., co-investigators) that include Drs. Gene Brody and Steven Kogan, of the University of Georgia. We also are fortunate to have the support of several consultants: Rev. Dr. Jerry Alexander of Springfield Baptist Church in Athens, GA; Rev. Dr. Kenneth Board of Pilgrim Baptist Church in Rockford, IL; Dr. Frank Fincham of Florida State University; Dr. K. Daniel O’Leary of State University of New York-Stony Brook; Dr. Scott Stanley of the University of Denver and the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program, Incorporated (PREP); and Elder Terris Thomas of Timothy Baptist Church in Athens, GA. Dr. Tera R. Hurt leads the implementation efforts and supervises the research team.

9. What’s special about the curriculum?
First, the PREP curriculum shortened from a 15 weeks program to a marriage course that meets in three sessions, in hopes of appealing to couples who often times must balance work and family.
Second, by including material and activities that recognize how institutional and implicit racism affects and works against the success of African American marriages, the curriculum was adapted to an African American audience.
Third, we offered a three session parenting program that has especially designed for African American couples.

10. Why was it important to assign couples to different groups?
The purpose of ProSAAF was to test whether or not having a facilitator visit at home increases the value of the educational program. The program was structured this way to allow us to find out if adding components increases the ability of the ProSAAF program to increase its effectiveness.

11. What were the two groups?
The two groups were a group that involved no meetings, and a second group that involved meetings in-home.

12. Who were your facilitators?
They were a group of married African American adults that were well-respected members of their community.

13. What will you do with the data?
The information provided by each individual couple is kept strictly confidential. After all the couples have been interviewed, all of the information is grouped together and analyses are conducted for the whole sample. Ultimately, the information from this study about couples will be used to inform service agencies, policy makers, and other marriage scholars and those interested in relationship enhancement programs that are uniquely designed for the African American community.

14. Can I get a copy of the data?
Unfortunately, no. We adhere to strict guidelines from the university’s Institutional Review Board that ensures that confidentiality is maintained to protect study participants. We would be happy though to provide you with published material that describes our findings when they become available.