Reducing Family Violence Through Child Welfare Intervention: A Propensity Score-Matched Study of Fathers for Change

Among families involved with Child Protective Services (CPS), Beebe et al. (2023) investigated the efficacy of the Fathers for Change (F4C) program in reducing the extent of family violence. This study aimed to determine whether completing F4C lowered the chances of repeated issues in families referred to CPS due to intimate partner violence (IPV) involving fathers. The research question used to guide this study was whether families with fathers who had completed the F4C had fewer new CPS reports related to maltreatment over the course of a year in comparison to families that did not have F4C referrals.

Using a propensity score matching (PSM) design, the study compared new CPS report rates between children whose fathers completed F4C and those identified for IPV but not referred to F4C. The treatment group included fathers who had met a number of criteria, including having a CPS report available, enrolling in F4C between the years 2015 and 2020, and finished the program by March 2020. The control group comprised CPS reports meeting F4C referral criteria but not referred. Following the completion of the matching process, the final analysis consisted of 594 fathers (297 F4C and 297 PSM controls)

The results revealed that during the 12-month follow-up, 20% of families received new CPS reports for maltreatment, with 14% of F4C fathers and 27% of controls having new reports. Statistical analysis indicated a significant difference, with controls being 2.4 times more likely than F4C fathers to have new reports within the timeframe (p < .001, CI [1.6, 3.6]). This finding suggests that completing F4C may reduce subsequent maltreatment reports, translating to roughly one fewer report for every 7.4 fathers who complete the program.