RESEARCH BACKGROUND OF EACH FAST ACTIVITY
FOR MULTI-FAMILY GROUP MEETINGS
FAST
Program Founder
May,
2000
INTRODUCTION
In
1988, Families and Schools Together (FAST) process was created with reference
to many research studies conducted by clinical research psychologists and
published in refereed journals. While
teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Graduate School of
Social Work (1975-87), I spent hours in the library pouring over journal
articles while preparing for my lectures. The University is one of the few
places which actually pays you to read other people’s research. Gradually, over
the years, I found several outstanding research studies which I taught to
graduate social work students. The
courses I taught were on child development (normal and abnormal), family stress
and family policy, and family systems theory and family therapy. I believe that the social work profession
should apply the results of rigorous social and psychological research to solve
urgent social problems. Someone once
called me a “midwife” of the ivory tower; I like bringing into the light of the
community the excellent research on which scientists spent decades working
hard. It’s important to make their
research accessible and to apply it in the practice community.
Research
had to pass several tests of rigor to be outstanding, and to be included in the
development of this model prevention approach.
For me to reference a study in FAST, (initially and currently), the
research standards listed below had to be passed:
1) Published in a refereed journal, where other experts in the
same field had reviewed the manuscript and critiqued it.
2) Funded by the federal government (e.g. National Institute of
Mental Health), where the grant application for funding the research had to be
reviewed and critiqued by scientific experts in the field.
3)
Results were part of a body of research
which was conducted over some time.
4)
Results were found by more than one
investigator, unrelated to one another, and at
different universities.
5)
Theoretically compatible with family
systems theory, child development theory,
and family stress theory (vs. a pathological medical model of children)
which underpin the FAST program.
6)
The focus had to be relevant to
critical and urgent social problems of children and families, particularly low
income families, and.
7) THE STANDARD OF COMMON SENSE:
My grandmother would have
said, “yes, I could have told you
that; that makes sense.”
WHO
READS THE RESEARCH SUMMARIES
When
we first began disseminating FAST in the statewide Wisconsin Anti-Drug
initiative in 1990, it never occurred to me that anyone would be interested in
the research underpinning of each of the activities in FAST. However, the Certified FAST Trainers as a
group convinced me to write these up for their training…and I finally did in
1992. Since then, I have conducted two
Team Trainer Trainings (TTT) a year and each time they have read this
summary. Then in 1996 it was suggested
that the FAST team partners also read this summary. I was certain No Team partners would be interested in this.
But
I was wrong. We proceeded to share this research handout with team members
during training and we have gotten feedback now for four years, that the FAST
Team likes reading the research justification for the family activities. They say that it helps them to understand
why things need to be done the specified, particular way. Reading this research summary is now the
assigned homework for the team members to read over the two day FAST Planning
Training.
Published
research studies support and justify each of the twelve FAST core processes:
1)Family Flag and Family Hello’s, 2)Family Meals, 3)Family Music, 4)Family Draw
and Talk Games (Scribbles); 5)Family Feelings Charades, 6)Kid’s Time; 7)Parent
Time, 8)Special Play—One to One Time; 9)Lottery, 10)Closing Circle and Rain,
11)Serious Family Communication (Topics: eg. Substance Abuse, Violence and
Delinquency; School Failure), and 12)Family Graduation.
I
will go through each activity of the multi-family groups (both pre-school,
elementary school, and middle school) and summarize the research. Then, I will present a table showing which
studies support the use of the particular program activity.
FAMILY
FLAGS AND FAMILY HELLO’s:
1.
Family
systems theory and family therapy by Salvador Minuchin suggests that activities
which draw a boundary around the family unit to the exclusion of non-family
members and the inclusion of family members, will strengthen that family
unit. Making a family flag and doing a
family hello reinforces the boundary of the family as a unit.
2.
Minuchin’s
family systems therapy and research (called structural family therapy) suggest
that families in which parents are in charge of the children are the strongest
families. He recommends that therapists
support the hierarchy of the family, i.e. the executive subsystem. By explicitly designating the parents as the
family leaders, the team supports the parental power in their own families,
thereby strengthening of the family unit and reducing delinquency, substance
abuse, and other mental health problems.
The team supports the parents being the boss of these activities.
3.
Parsons
and Alexander, in their family based delinquency prevention research (called
functional family therapy) suggest that communication styles of the family unit
predict recidivism of court involved youth.
They studied exactly which aspects of family communication correlate
with troubled outcomes, and then trained families in the positive interactive
sequences, and reduced rates of youth incarceration in half, compared to
experimental groups. These
communication styles include having each family member take a fair turn, and
insuring that family members inquire about each other’s turn with questions and
reactions.
4.
Brief
family therapy (MRI) suggests that helping families to enact positive
activities which do not erupt into familiar conflicts, builds new family
sequences which strengthen the family.
FAMILY
DINNER
1.
Family
systems theory/structural family therapy by Salvador Minuchin suggests that
activities in which a boundary is drawn around the family unit to the exclusion
of non-family members and the inclusion of family members will strengthen the
family unit. Eating together at a table
is a positive activity which many families fail to organize on a regular basis.
2.
Minuchin’s
family therapy supports parents to be in charge of their family; parents use
power and delegate power by requesting that a child serves them their meal, and
this clarifies the heirarchy.
3.
Dunst’s
research on empowering low-income, socially isolated parents suggests that it is
best to structure opportunities for reciprocity, rather than human services
only giving to parents without expecting any return. The meal is cooked by the parent(s) who won the lottery the
previous week. Each whole family wins
prizes once, and in exchange for being the winner one week, the family becomes
the hosts for the next week.
4.
Family
therapists in Italy suggest that the sharing of private information between the
parents and the service providers (FAST Team) to which the children do not have
automatic access, creates a
generational boundary around the adults who care about the child: the parents and the Team. This information is that each family will
definitely win once, but which week this happens is not clear.
5. Research shows that family meals without alcohol in a family
at-risk for substance abuse, strengthens the likelihood of the children no
becoming alcoholics. Sharing the ritual
of a family meal together as a unit without drugs, builds family resistance to
transmission of drug abuse.
MUSIC
1.
High
stress combined with social isolation can increase the likelihood of child
abuse and neglect. Activities which
promote group cohesiveness and reduce social isolation are antidotes for highly
stressed families. Families share songs
at FAST. In addition, they all sing the
FAST song together every week. This
builds feelings of affiliation.
2.
Repeated
routines each week at FAST are shared, repeated, and fun, without alcohol and
drugs.
3.
Everyone
standing up to sing together gets people in a positive mood which is a change
from the stresses of daily life. Music
lifts the mood.
ELEMENTARY
SCHOOL
FAMILY
SCRIBBLES
1.
Parsons
and Alexander, in their family-based juvenile delinquency prevention research,
determined that turn-taking within family units and the process of positive
inquiry about each other’s turns can reduce recidivism rates in the juvenile
court system, by half. Randomly
assigned court-involved adolescents were treated with a functional family therapy
approach vs. behaviorally oriented vs. no unusual treatment. The risk of a second court-involved offense
within 18 months was halved with their family based approach. Their communication exercises provided the
foundation for problem solving of family conflict, in that each person is
listened to as they take turns giving their own perspective. Scribbles is organized to apply this
research: each person takes a turn to explain their drawing in response to
questions posed by each family member.
2.
Family
therapist Virginia Satir said that families are healthy if and when each member
in the family can express themselves by starting sentences with “I think” and
“I feel.” Her emphasis in family
therapy was on developing self-esteem through heatlhy family communications. These communications in families would
include individuation, congruence, and self-expression. In this family exercise, each person gets an
opportunity to say “I think”—and have others in the family listen and learn
with more questions.
3.
Family
systems theory and structural family therapy supports the activity of the
family unit in which the boundary excluding outsiders and including insiders is
drawn. In addition, structural family
therapy supports the parents to be in charge of their family. In this exercise, the parent is put in
charge of organizing the Scribbles activity of drawing , sharing and asking
questions. The FAST team gives the
instructions to the parents who in turn give instructions to their family,
which clarifies the hierarchy in the family and shows that the team is
respectful of the parent being in charge of their own family. Clear rules about communication within the
family unit are set by the parents which promotes the differentiation of self
and sets a based for conflict resolution.
4.
Egeland
and Sroufe’s longitudinal study of maternal stress and child development and
child abuse and neglect was on almost 200 children picked at birth and followed
for over 15 years. They found that the
mother’s ability to make the environment seem organized and coherent, was a protective
factor for boys against risk. In
addition, if the parent had a supportive, positive, non-hostile, emotional
relationship with their son, the child will do better in school. In FAST, the team supports the parent to be
in charge, and in the child’s eyes the parent is providing the repeated
routines of the FAST family activities.
In Scribbles, the element of surprise which comes when the parent asks
each child to reveal their hidden drawing, produces almost universal
laughter. This laughter and warmth
provided by the parent provides the protective factor to the child against
risk.
5.
Schedler
and Block conducted longitudinal research on alcoholics vs. occasional users
vs. abstainers. They collected data at age five through ages 18 years. They systematically collected a great deal
of standardized questionnaires, as well as videotapes of parents playing with
their 5 and 7 year olds. Once they knew which youth were alcoholics, they
studied all of the data from over the years, to see what might have been
observed early as predictive of later problems. One powerful variable which distinguished alcoholic 18 year olds
from the others were mother-child play behaviors at ages 5 and 7. High risk were the mother child interactions
in which the mother was critical, controlling, hostile, non-empathic, and
non-inquiring. In the Scribbles
exercise it is important that there is no wrong or right picture, and that no
criticism is allowed by the parent; rather questions about the drawing should
show interest.
6.
Recent
brain research shows the importance of early speech and interactive speaking
opportunities for children in order to support their brain development. Research on success in schools shows that
children who can talk about themselves and their ideas to a group and who can
respond appropriately to inquiries with expanded answers, do better than the
less verbal children. Scribbles
provides the child an opportunity for structured listening and talking within
their own family in a safe environment, with laughter, which the parent
directs. These listening, speaking, and
turn taking skills build with repetition and then generalize into the classroom
to the teachers.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
FAMILY FEELINGS CHARADES
1.
The
recent brain research teaches us the importance of emotional self-regulation
for children vs. being impulsive and violent.
Daniel Goleman a psychologist who writes about psychiatric research
routinely for the New York Times, summarizes the research with urgency as he
describes the importance of developing emotional intelligence in our
children. Providing structured
opportunities to identify your own feelings, act out a range of feelings, have
others guess your feelings in the safe and caring environment of your own
family will have a strong developmental impact on the mental health of the
children. In addition, being able to
playfully guess the feelings of others in your own family promotes closeness
and connection.
2.
Family
systems theory as developed by Beavers and Lewis was based on observing many
“normal” non-clinic families. They
identified 12 family functions which can promote health and resilience. One of these is having a broad range of
‘acceptable to express emotions’ . This
includes the ability to openly identify one’s own feelings and think that
someone in the family will care about what you feel. In FAST this opportunity is offered to families.
3.
In
families with addicted members, there are two often cited rules: the no-talk and no-feel rule. Families in denial about drugs and alcohol
are said to avoid discussing the hard topics of feelings; in FAST we break
these rules as a fun family game each week, and give the family practice at
itIn families in which there is uninhibited anger and violence, and in which
children have been traumatized, they will either withdraw from ever looking at
their parents’ faces or become overinvolved in watching for non-verbal cues and
hints as they try to read their parents faces.
In this exercise (which takes place in a safe environment) both the
child and parent can spend time safely looking at each others faces and trying
to read their emotions, with no risk.
In the game, they can show a range of feelings in a safe, structured and
positive environment. These repeated
experiences at FAST open up new familial relating styles which may generalize
across settings.
PARENT
TIME
BUDDY
TIME/SELF HELP GROUP TIME
1.
Reuben
Hill, family sociologist, in reviewing the Great Depression in the United
States, developed a family stress theory which has informed family researchers
for many years. He identified two
complex factors associated with family survival of the economic
depression. Basically, his theory is: that without social supports and hope, the
stresses of economic despair resulted in family crises. These could include illness, accidents,
violence and child abuse, depression and suicide, divorce and desertion,
etc. If a family had social networks of
support within the family, across the extended family, and with other families
in the community AND also had a positive perception of optimism, they would
succeed despite their experiences of job loss and financial strain If the family sees the silver lining in the
clouds, sees the crisis as an opportunity, and can make a lemon into lemonade,
they can override the impact of many stressors on the family. If they have
sustaining trusting and communicative relationships in the marriage and in the
family, and if they have supportive friendships and relationships in the
community, they will avoid the family crises.
Hill’s two complex protective factors for families under duress are both
basic to the FAST program model.
The Team works to enhance the social networking of
the FAST families with one another, while also supporting positive attributions
of possibility and hope. FAST brings
together many families who share something in common—kids the same age going to
the same school. They cluster for
positive and fun activities in a safe environment, offers the families the
opportunity to build the social safety networks of support.
2.
Wahler’s
research on behavioral parent training with single mothers who had been
referred for child abuse and neglect, showed that six months later their gains
were often lost. He followed them up 6
months later and found out that if they were socially isolated, they did not
use the parent training which he had provided them. He called them “insular” mothers, and suggested that unless they
had social support networks, parent training was fruitless. FAST starts by building the networks, and
later parents who want parent training can request it during FASTWORKS.
3.
Werner
and Smith conducted a thirty year longitudinal study on over 600 babies from
Hawaii. Many were from poor families
who had multiple problems. They
analyzed the data to identify the resilient survivor children from these
circumstances. They collected data
about individual and family functioning as well as environmental data. Their results were published in many forms
including a book entitled Vulnerable but Invincible. In it, they inform the readers of the many factors which
characterize resilient young adults. A
major finding was that the mother needed to have other adults supporting her in
her parenting and sharing the burdens of parenting with her. This helped to produce a child who could and
did survive, the poverty, oppression, illnesses, poor housing, etc. Developing a parent support network which
can share the impact of raising children in difficult circumstances would increase
resilience in a child.
4. Egeland’s prospective 15 year studies on parents at-risk for
child abuse and neglect showed that researchers had been wrong about some
important things: although parental
personality and parental knowledge about children and parental history of their
own parenting were important, they have been overblown as predictors of child
abuse and neglect. Because he followed
a total population of high-risk parents from the hospital with their newborn,
he discovered something important: the
biggest predictor of child abuse and neglect was the terrible combination of
many stressors and social isolation.
Whereas the same stressors can be survived without the parent hitting
their child, if they have lively social connections. This suggests that it is more important to build social networks
than to start with parent education classes.
4.
Deborah
Belle’s research on low-income, depressed mothers showed that these mothers
interacted with their children in predictable ways: neglecting them when they were preoccupied and hostile, angry,
and potentially abusive interactions when the children tried to engage the
mothers. Belle found that if these
mothers had a supportive adult relationships (with a husband, lover, mother,
sister, friend, neighbor), these negative cycles of interactions did not take
place. Only fifteen minutes a day
talking with another adult could reduce the risk of becoming abusive or
neglectful. Each week in FAST, the
parents split up first into dyad to do a daily hassle review. This is to build relationships within the
parent group on a more intimate level to reduce stress, and to have a taste of
the supportive one to one time they each need.
5.
Paulo
Freire, a world renowned adult educator wrote books included Pedagogy of the
Oppressed and Pedagogy of Hope. He argued
that bringing groups of adults together and providing them a safe environment
to express their opinions about their challenges of daily living was the basis
for adult education, rather than lecturing facts to them. His work illustrates that more profound
learning occurs for adults if they express their own voice within a group of
others who listen and exchange ideas.
FAST does not allow lectures to adults, but rather provides a respectful
structure for parents to discover the wisdom
they know already.
MIDDLE
SCHOOL
FAMILY
CONNECTIONS GAME
1.
The
specific game is based on the work of in-home family therapists (Carolyn
Reagen) who developed this game in their work with families of delinquents and
court-referred out of control teenagers.
It is based on a family systems approach to working with families,
enhancing family cohesion and the individuation of each family member.
2.
Peter
Bensons’ Search Institute assesses the research based assets a community needs
in order to support the success of youth.
Their positive approach to youth development suggests that building
stronger relationships between the youth and their parents will increase their
chances of success. Playing this fun,
interactive, imaginative, game every week enhances the relationships of the
youth with their family. The game has
lots of room for communication and self-expression.
MIDDLE
SCHOOL/ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
ONE
ON ONE TALK TIME/SPECIAL PLAY
1. A recent national survey of parents done by a woman
economist who is also a mother, Sylvia Hewlett, showed that parents all shared
the most urgent reported need across the country. The randomized, stratified sample included parents from the city
and the country, parents with differing levels of income and education, and
parents from differing cultural backgrounds.
The urgent need shared by all parents was NOT ENOUGH TIME. FAST gives parents the time to spend with
their own family, and with other parents of kids the same age in efficient
ways.
In one to one time, FAST gives
parents uninterrupted time to focus on their youth.
2 Elaine Blechman’s research on at-risk children in schools
identifies the impact of positive and behaviorally specific teacher notes about
a youth’s behaviors at school when sent home to the parents. After identifying and tracking the
individual youth’s performance for several days, the teacher is instructed to
send a note home when the youth does his best.
This positive attention shared by the teacher with the parent, for the
successes of the at-risk youth resulted in dramatic improvement of classroom
based behaviors. We apply this research
in the Notes collected from the teachers each week which are given to the
parents just prior to the One on One talk time.
3. Carl Rogers wrote about the importance of reflective listening
on self-esteem and he developed the
idea that generalized and focused approval would facilitate the development of
emotional growth. In FAST we request
that with support parents should provide this form of non-directive,
non-critical listening time to their youth, on topics selected by the youth as
a group.
3.
Bonnie
Bernard summarizes the many recent studies on resilience in youth, and
identifies critical factors which youth need in order to rise above
adversity: love, challenging, safety,
mastery. In the FAST talk time, safety
is provided in several ways: it is
taking place in a public place, there are several supportive coaches and rules
for behavior are provided to both the parent and the youth. Under these conditions of safety, the youth
and the parent are willing to take risks to communicate with one another in new
ways.
4.
Michael
Resnick’s publication from University of Minnesota on the factors which protect
youth from harm and risk, was based on strategic randomize sampling of 10,000
middle and high school youth from all social classes, across the U.S. His team interviewed the students in person, and discovered that
their were three critical and predictive factors for bad youth outcomes: positive connections with the parents,
positive connections with the school, and access to guns were the factors which
helped youth avoid violence and delinquency, substance abuse, and school
dropout.
5. Hawkins’ research on middle school youth studies risk and protective factors and the extent to which they relate to one another and can outweigh one another. His studies have shown that there is a threshold effect and that 5 or more risk factors dramatically increase the likelihood of bad outcomes for youth. In the most recent work, he shows that just 1 or 2 protective factors can wipe out the risk factors, even when there are more than 5 risk factors. On the other hand, his prevalence studies suggest that very few youth with over 5 risk factors have even one protective factors. He urges clinicians to develop strategies which can build relationships and risk factors especially for the high risk youth; FAST builds multiple levels of protective factors for you.
6.
Recent
brain research shows that successful mastery of delayed gratification
experiences will help the child to be more patient about pursuing their
goals. Children have a basic sense of
fairness, and will be patient if they believe that the process is fair, and
that they will get their turn. Turn
taking is organized by the parent in several activities. Lottery is organized by the team but parents
who know that it is fixed to be fair, have the chance to help their child wait
for their turn and reinforce the belief that life will be fair to them over
time.
7.
Recent
brain research shows that in order for new behaviors to be mastered and for
real change to occur, the dendrites and synapses need to become strong by
multiple repetitions. If they are not
used or exercises, there will be a washing away process of underutilized
dendrites during early adolescence.
They say that there should be 300 repeats to firmly entrench the new
behaviors. In FAST we work hard to have
300 repetitions of small familial behavioral exchanges, such as imbedded
compliance requests( ICR). These
ICRs.are the parents request, for example, 1)to ask each family member to place
at least one object on the family flag; 2)to ask one child get the dinner for
them as the parents…without too much use of power, threats, etc.; 3)to ask a
child to get the scribble sheets and the pencils and hand them back to the
parent to distribute.
8. Recent brain research has identified how differently the brain processes information when a child has been traumatized: when they are anxious, they do not use their cortex as much, (i.e. thinking things through plannfully) but rather react impulsively and reactively. By being in a safe, public place with their family their anxiety is reduced and children can learn better. By having routines which are familiar and predictable, the anxiety is reduced and learning can take place. By being with family with whom you are connected, in the school building, can help make the environment more safe and better for learning.
Copyright 2000
FAST International