Washington State Institute for Public Policy

Strong African American Families
Public Health & Prevention: Home- or Family-based
Literature review updated June 2016.

Strong African American Families (SAAF) is a seven-week community-based program developed for African American youth ages 11-12 and their caregivers. Families meet in interactive small groups with trained facilitators once a week for 2 hours. Lessons are intended to promote regulated, communicative parenting (monitoring and setting limits, clear communication around expectations about alcohol and sex, and racial socialization), as well as youth protective factors. The aim of this program is to prevent youth drug and alcohol abuse, and postpone youth sexual involvement.

META-ANALYSIS	CITATIONS

**Meta-analysis** is a statistical method to combine the results from separate studies on a program, policy, or topic in order to estimate its effect on an outcome. WSIPP systematically evaluates all credible evaluations we can locate on each topic. The **outcomes** measured are the types of program impacts that were measured in the research literature (for example, crime or educational attainment). **Treatment N** represents the total number of individuals or units in the treatment group across the included studies.

An **effect size** (ES) is a standard metric that summarizes the degree to which a program or policy affects a measured outcome. If the effect size is positive, the outcome increases. If the effect size is negative, the outcome decreases.

**Adjusted effect sizes** are used to calculate the benefits from our benefit cost model. WSIPP may adjust effect sizes based on methodological characteristics of the study. For example, we may adjust effect sizes when a study has a weak research design or when the program developer is involved in the research. The magnitude of these adjustments varies depending on the topic area.

WSIPP may also adjust the second ES measurement. Research shows the magnitude of some effect sizes decrease over time. For those effect sizes, we estimate outcome-based adjustments which we apply between the **first time ES is estimated** and the **second time ES is estimated**. We also report the **unadjusted effect size** to show the effect sizes before any adjustments have been made. More details about these adjustments can be found in our Technical Documentation.
Meta-Analysis of Program Effects
Outcomes measured	Primary or secondary participant	No. of effect sizes	Treatment N	Adjusted effect sizes (ES) and standard errors (SE) used in the benefit-cost analysis						Unadjusted effect size (random effects model)
				First time ES is estimated			Second time ES is estimated			Unadjusted effect size (random effects model)
				ES	SE	Age	ES	SE	Age	ES	p-value
Alcohol use before end of middle school	Primary	1	326	-0.083	0.121	13	-0.083	0.121	15	-0.218	0.076
Alcohol use in high school	Primary	1	326	-0.051	0.090	16	-0.051	0.090	18	-0.134	0.137
Disruptive behavior disorder symptoms	Primary	1	241	-0.105	0.142	13	-0.050	0.076	16	-0.276	0.052
Major depressive disorder	Secondary	1	369	-0.016	0.083	40	-0.008	0.102	42	-0.043	0.608

Citations Used in the Meta-Analysis

Beach, S.R., Kogan, S.M., Brody, G.H., Chen, Y.F., Lei, M.K., & Murry, V.M. (2008). Change in caregiver depression as a function of the Strong African American Families Program. Journal of Family Psychology, 22(2), 241-52.

Brody, G.H., Kogan, S.M., Chen, Y.F., & Murry, V.M. (2008). Long-term effects of the Strong African American Families program on youths' conduct problems. Journal of Adolescent Health, 43(5), 474-481.

Brody, G.H., Chen, Y.F., Kogan, S.M., Murry, V.M., & Brown, A.C. (2010). Long-term effects of the Strong African American Families program on youths' alcohol use. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78(2) 281-5.