Effectiviteit van Intensieve Pedagogische Thuishulp: Een meta-analyse

Abstract

This study aims to review the effects of Family Preservation Services (FPS) in the Netherlands. In total, 92 of such programs were identified, of which seventeen had been subjected to an evaluation study with a pre-post design. None of these studies used a control group. Within group effect sizes were calculated for effects on externalizing child behaviour problems and parental stress. The results showed an ES of 0.52 for externalizing problems and an ES 0.55 for parenting stress. Both effect sizes fell in the medium range. Clearly, problems of both children and parents decreased after FPS, but it is not sure whether the programs caused these effects. This point is taken up in the discussion section. The distributions of the seventeen effect sizes for both outcome variables turned out to be homogeneous, so that with respect to effect sizes, successful and unsuccessful programs could not be differentiated. Because of this, no program characteristics were found to predict the two effect sizes.