Finnish Strongest Families Parent Training Programme FSFP  

Summary 

Phenomena

Behavioural problems, emotions and emotional regulation, child-parent relationship and interaction, and parenting skills and knowledge

Introduction

Finnish Strongest Families (Voimaperheet in Finnish) is an evidence-based operating model that is based on parent training. It has been developed for the early identification of behavioural problems in children below school age and for digital, preventive care.  

Objective and research question

This systematic literature review assesses the effectiveness of the Voimaperheet operating model on the basis of research literature. The review answers the following question: Is the Finnish Strongest Families method, which is based on digital parent training, effective in reducing behavioural problems among children below school age and strengthening parenting skills in the Finnish context? 

Data and methods

This study used the Population, Concept and Context (PCC) strategy to search for literature, which is a typical strategy in exploratory literature reviews. The search targeted the following question: What research has been done on the Finnish Strongest Families Parent Training Programme?  The following keywords were used: P = children under school age, C = Strongest families, Strongest families smart website, SFSW (Voimaperheet). Context was omitted to avoid an excessive restriction of the results of the search.  The primary area of interest in the search was effectiveness studies carried out on the method, although studies carried out by using different frameworks were also included. A systematic search was carried out for the following six databases: MEDLINE, APA PsycInfo, CINAHL, ERIC, Web of Science and Scopus. In addition, a search for publications in Finnish was performed on the Finna.fi service, and the search was supplemented by a manual search. 

Results

The Finnish Strongest Families Parent Training Programme has a sufficient description and theoretical basis. Based on the literature search, four studies carried out in Finland were selected for the review, three of which were effectiveness studies and one was an outcome study.  In the randomised effectiveness studies, the effectiveness of the method has not been compared to non-intervention. Instead, the Finnish Strongest Families intervention has been compared to the standard services available to families with children. In the three evaluated effectiveness studies (Appendix 2), the operating model’s effect on the externalising behavioural symptoms of the child was low for the primary outcome variables reported in one- and two-year follow-up measurements (d = 0.22–0.34; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.02–0.53; NNT ( Number-Needed-To-Treat ) = 3.42–8.06). For the parenting skills of the parents, the effectiveness was moderate (d = 0.51–0.53, the confidence intervals could not be calculated based on the information provided in the article, NNT = 3.42–3.55). For all of the outcome variables, the effect ranged from very low to moderate (d = 0.09–0.53, NNT = 3.42–20.00). The studies evaluated in the review demonstrate that the Finnish Strongest Families Parent Training Programme is an effective intervention for reducing behavioural symptoms in children below school age and improving parents’ parenting skills. The effects persisted even in the two-year follow-up. The effectiveness was observable both in randomised controlled studies and in real-world practice as part of the universal service system for children and families. Implementation support for the Finnish Strongest Families intervention is diverse and sufficient, which maintains the implementation quality of the intervention.  

Methodology evaluation

The methodology evaluation score for the Finnish Strongest Families Parent Training Programme is 5/5, which means that there is strong evidence of the intervention’s effectiveness in the Finnish context. The evidence of the effectiveness of the Finnish Strongest Families Parent Training Programme has been observed with regard to behavioural problems in children under school age by comparing families who have participated in the programme with families that have not participated in it. Effectiveness was studied by examining outcome variables for both the child and the parent.