QUESTION:
Respectfully agree or disagree with their analysis of the timing of the process evaluation and their proposal for adjustments.
Identify the process evaluation article that you chose and explain why you selected this example.
I chose the process evaluation article: Process Evaluation of a Parenting Program for Low-Income Families in South Africa. I chose this article because parenting classes are often recommended or mandated to families involved with CPS due to child maltreatment. I was interested in learning the outcome of the study.
Describe the purpose of the evaluation, the informants, the questions asked, and the results of the evaluation.
This study aims to evaluate the Sinovuyo Caring Families Program, a 12-session parenting program that seeks to reduce incidents of child maltreatment by introducing non-violent discipline practices (Lachman et al., 2018). Each session was 2.5 hours long. This was a mixed methods evaluation that included both quantitative and qualitative measures. The evaluation included 68 parents who a local nongovernment organization referred. There were additional criteria that were considered for inclusion. The program’s facilitators were employees of a non-profit organization (Clowns Without Borders South Africa) with limited professional experience before training. Quantitative data collected included participant involvement (enrollment, attendance, dropout rates, and parental engagement). Qualitative data collection included individual interviews with 15 randomly selected parents, interviews with facilitators, transcripts from parenting group sessions, and transcripts of supervision sessions of facilitators (Lachman et al., 2018).
Results: High rate of overall program enrollment. Attending parents engaged in an average of 87.9% of assigned activities during the previous week. Fidelity checklists showed that facilitators implemented 92.9% of the manualized activities during program delivery. Participants reported high overall satisfaction with the program. Several components were identified that strengthened participant involvement (preprogram home visit consults, parent handbook, weekly text reminders, home visits consults for missed appointments, peer networks, etc.). There was a high level of receptiveness to the program. Program facilitators had challenges delivering non-violent discipline practices with the first group of participants, but they had increased confidence when delivering to the 2nd group of waitlisted individuals. Parents resisted some components of the program that involved child play, talking about emotions, and the use of non-violent discipline. It was determined that a parenting program could be delivered with a high level of feasibility in South Africa (Lachman et al., 2018).
Identify the stage of program implementation in which the evaluation was conducted.
The stage of program implementation is formative evaluation. This is the early development stage of the program, and the evaluation is to inform stakeholders if the goals of the program can be fulfilled if modification needs to occur and to identify any barriers (CDC).
Consider why the researchers chose to evaluate at that stage of program implementation. What kind of information would they have received if they had conducted the evaluation earlier or later?
Researchers chose to evaluate at this stage to determine if the program would be receptive to the identified population and if identified goals would be met. Additionally, researchers wanted to determine if the training provided to group facilitators were efficient enough to carry out service delivery.
If you were to replicate the study, would you adjust it in any way for more optimal results?
If I were to replicate the study, I would use facilitators with experience facilitating parenting groups and train them on the Sinovuyo Caring Families Program. When met with resistance and questions from participants, they might have been more confident in explaining and recommending alternative non-violent discipline practices.
References:
Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Types of evaluation.
https://www.cdc.gov/std/program/pupestd/types%20of%20evaluation.pdf
Lachman, J.M., Kelly, J., Cluver, L., Ward, C. L., Hutchings, J., & Gardner, F. (2018).
Process evaluation of a parenting program for low-income families in South
Africa. Research on Social Work Practice, 28(2), 188-202.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731516645665
