Psychoeducation of Parents to Children With FASD

To evaluate effects of the intervention program well-known standardized, validated measures will be used. Primary outcome measure for the child will be The Children's Global Assessment Scale, which is a numeric scale used by mental health clinicians to rate the general functioning of youths under the age of 18. The scale targets the number of behavioral problems and the frequency of their occurrence.The child or young person is given a single score between 1 and 100. Higher score means better functioning.

Primary outcome measure for parents will be The Family Empowerment Scale to evaluate the magnitude of empowerment in the parent-child system. FES is a 34-item rating scale where the participants rate each item on a 5-point Likert-type rating scale. Scores will range between 34 and 170 points. Increasing scores indicate a positive significance regarding family empowerment.

In addition, several well-known secondary measures will be used to evaluate additional effects of program. The ECBI questionnaire will be used to evaluate the number of behavioral problems and the frequency of their occurrence before and after the intervention program. ECBI provides a list of 36 problem behaviors commonly reported by parents. The inventory assesses behavior on two dimensions: 1) the frequency of the behavior; 2) whether parents consider it a problem. The frequency ratings range from 1 (never) to 7 (always), and are summed up to arrive at an overall problem behavior Intensity Score, ranging from 36 to 252. Higher score means more behavioral problems.

The SRS-2 questionnaire will be used to evaluate the severity of social impairment and lack of flexibility in children and adolescents before and after participation in the intervention program. Each domain's T-scores are organized by gender and respondent age, with each domain having varied but similar ranges of possible scores from 32 points-114 points. All T-scores have a mean of 50 points with a standard deviation of 10 points. Higher score means more deficits in social interaction.

The BRIEF-2 will be used to evaluate any change in executive functions after participation. Norms tables give T-scores, percentiles, and 90% confidence intervals for four developmental age groups, by gender. Three broad indexes are calculated (Behavior Regulation, Emotion Regulation, and Cognitive Regulation). Higher score means worse outcome.

The PSI questionnaire will be used to evaluate parental stress and load before and after participation in the program.The PSI yields a total score, three domain scores, and 15 subscales. Higher raw scores indicate higher levels of stress.