National Research Institute for Child and Family Studies - Selected Technical Reports

Ringle, J. L., Huefner, J., & Handwerk, M. (2005). An overview of using HLM to measure the impact of therapeutic alliance on therapy outcome for youth in a residential setting (Tech. Report No. 001-05). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

This tech report is part of a larger study on the relationship between therapeutic alliance and treatment outcome for children receiving therapy from Boys Town Clinical Services. Its main purpose is to outline a step-by-step procedure to analyzing a multilevel dataset using Hierarchical Linear Modeling. Results indicate that, for this sample of children, simply attending therapy (specifically the first few sessions) accounted for a significant amount of the treatment outcome variance (almost 46%), whereas therapeutic alliance did not account for a significant amount of treatment outcome variance. These results suggest that therapeutic alliance was not an important contributor to producing positive outcomes for this sample of youth in residential care.

Castrianno, L., Chmelka, B., & Thompson, R. (2004). Review of selected during-care and post-discharge outcome data for the Boys Town Treatment Foster Family Services (Tech. Report No. 012-04). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

Treatment Foster Family Services provides treatment and care to children (infants through 18-year-olds) who need more specialized care than they can receive in a traditional foster care placement. Since 1989, Boys Town has provided care for more than 500 children in our Treatment Foster Family Services homes. This paper reviews the Boys Town Treatment Foster Family Program, the characteristics of the youth and families served during 2003, and selected outcome data collected at discharge and six-month follow-up. Follow-up outcomes are separated into well-being, permanency, and safety domains. The emphasis of the session was sharing of outcome information across agencies in order to provide opportunities to benchmark this data nationally.

Larzelere, R., Chmelka, B., Schmidt, M. D., & Jones, M. (2001). The Treatment Progress Checklist: Psychometric development of a daily symptom checklist ( Tech. Report No. 024-01). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

This report presents the development of the Treatment Progress Checklist. Thirty-four items were selected from a larger pool of 52 items, based on rated importance by clinical staff, frequency of occurrence, and factor loadings. The items were grouped into clusters of Aggressive, Covert, Hyperactive, Internalizing, and Oppositional symptoms. The internal consistency of these clusters ranged from .58 to .89. This type of daily symptom checklist can address the practitioner’s central questions: “Is this treatment working for this client?” It has proven very useful for treatment modifications and utilization reviews. This revision adds several other features to enhance its clinical usefulness.

Ringle, J. L. & Larzelere, R. E. (2001). Predicting hotline calls offered with an autoregressive forecast model (Tech. Report No. 002-01). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

A statistical model was developed for forecasting hotline calls offered by the National Hotline at Boys Town. The purpose of this model is to provide hotline administration with an idea of future call volume in order to assist with staffing issues for upcoming months. This model predicted the monthly number of hotline calls from (1) the prior month’s calls offered (autoregressive), and (2) a seasonality adjustment. The contribution of Public Service Announcements was considered, but not used as their number did not predict hotline calls beyond confidence levels.

Kessler, C. J. & Teare, J. F. (2000). Foster Family Services at age 10: Program characteristics and outcomes June 1989 – February 1999 (Tech. Report No. 028-00). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

Boys Town has provided Treatment Foster Family Services nationally for more than ten years. This report describes some of the characteristics and outcomes of more than 800 youth served in Treatment Foster Family Services programs in every region of the United States. Thirteen sites in the following nine states and the District of Columbia contributed to this report: Nebraska, Iowa, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, and California.

Jones, M., Larzelere, R., Smith, G., & Chmelka, B. (1999). Multiple uses of daily data: From treatment planning to program outcomes (Tech. Report No 011-99). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

This paper illustrates the use of a modified version of the Parent Daily Report for treatment planning and utilization review in a new treatment group home program. Sample graphs of the daily symptoms are illustrated for treatment planning, for identifying problematic youth reactions to forewarning of discharge plans, and for evaluating the appropriateness of discharging youth to his or her home. Aggregated data are used to illustrate the increase and subsequent decrease in the rate of daily problem behaviors during the first months of the next treatment program. Finally, aggregated data are used to show average trends for youth.

Spenceri, M. C., Shadoin, L. M., Peterson, J. L., & Thompson, R. W. (1998). Concrete services: A case for individualizing services to families (Tech. Report No. 016-98). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

This study examines the effectiveness of concrete services. The results indicate that concrete services positively affect those who both need and receive these services. Those who do not need concrete services benefit more without them. These findings suggest a need for individualizing services based on families’ needs.

Furst, D. W., Nelson, W., Nelson, C., & Criste, A. H. (1997). A comprehensive pre-referral strategy to provide early intervention for challenging students in the regular education setting (Tech. Report No. 007-97). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

District 742 in St. Cloud, Minnesota, obtained a three-year waiver allowing the use of special education teachers to work in regular education classrooms in order to prevent at-risk students from being referred for special education services. As part of their prevention program, the district trained and implemented the Boys Town Education Model in regular education classrooms. This paper describes how District 742 used the three-year waiver, the Boys Town Education Model, and other interventions to develop a comprehensive pre-referral prevention program in its schools.

Furst, D. W., Terracina, C., Hamilton, R., Swank, P., Criste, A. H., & Daly, D. L. (1996). A two-year study of the effects of an integrated social skill and discipline program in elementary schools (Tech. Report No. 044-96). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

This study documented the effects of the Boys Town Education Model implemented in a large metropolitan elementary school. Findings from the two-year study indicated: reduced rates and changes in trends of office referrals (especially for verbal and physical aggression reasons); improved conduct grades; increased student on-task academic behavior; and increased teacher satisfaction with the classroom-learning environment.

Mott, M. A., Authier, K., Shannon, K. K., Arneil, J. M., & Daly, D. (1996). Treatment foster family services: Description and outcome of a national multi-site program (Tech. Report No. 045-96). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

Describes several components of a multi-site therapeutic foster care program and presents admission and outcome data for 336 children. Despite coming into care with many psychiatric, psychological, and behavior problems, program outcome is favorable; most presenting problems improved, most children successfully achieved their treatment goals, Achenbach CBCL scores decreased significantly, and almost two-thirds of children moved to less restrictive settings after an average of about one-year treatment.

Lenerz, K., Cannon, B., Johnson-Meester, N., & Peterson, J. L. (1995). Intensive family preservation services: An examination of program-specific outcomes (Tech. Report No. 010-95). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

This study examines multiple outcomes from a short-term intensive family preservation program. Parents report gains in family satisfaction, parenting sense of competence, and child behavior, which were maintained one year following program termination. They also reported improvement in problem-solving, family conflict, and obtaining resources.

Lenerz, K., Peterson, J. L., Ferguson, C. C., Authier, K., & Daly, D. L. (1995). Use of a structured service delivery model in family preservation (Tech. Report No. 011-95). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

Child welfare programs have been criticized for failing to describe their “black boxes” or methods of program implementation. This paper describes how one agency developed an explicit program implementation model that proved to be an invaluable asset.

Mott, M., Arneil, J., & Authier, K. (1995). Boys Town Treatment Foster Family Services: Examination of behavior characteristics in younger and older children (Tech. Report No. 007-95). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

This report examines multiple outcomes from a short-term intensive family preservation program. Gains reported by parents (family satisfaction, parenting competence, and problem-solving abilities) are explored. Another result, however, was a lack of stability in children’s living situations. The value of taking a more child-centered approach to research in this area is discussed.

Furst, D. W., Terracina, C., Criste, A. H., Dowd, T. P., & Daly, D. L. (1994). School discipline solutions that work and provide teachers with more time to teach (Tech. Report No. 010-94). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

This report describes elements of the Boys Town Education Model, an approach designed to help schoolteachers to more effectively reinforce and improve student behavior and teach social skills that are necessary for success in school and life. An account of how the Model was implemented in one school district and an evaluation of its effectiveness are included.

Friman, P. C., Halfert, L., Larzelere, R. E., Shanahan, D. L., & Daly, D. L. (1993). Behavior problems in birth children of parents who foster troubled adolescents: A preliminary investigation (Tech. Report No. 006-93). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

Conducted at Boys Town, this study addresses the question of whether the birth children of parents who work with troubled adolescents in a home setting have elevated behavior problems relative to clinical and non-clinical sample groups. Scores on the Child Behavior Checklist were compared for three samples of children: birth children of group-home parents, children seen in an outpatient clinic, and children seen for well-child care in outpatient pediatrics. Methods and results are discussed.

Friman, P. C., Soper, S. H., Peterson, J. L., Ferguson, C. C., & Bothern, J. G. (1993). The influence of intensive family preservation services on child behavior problems: A pilot investigation (Tech. Report No. 005-93). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

This study evaluates the influence of Intensive Family Preservation Services on child behavior problems for a group of 36 children by administering the Child Behavior Checklist at program entry, 3 months after departure, and 12 months after departure. Results are discussed in terms of the limitations of the study and their implication for future study.

Curtis, M. E. & Chmelka, M. B. (1991). Social skills and skills in reading: A study of Boys Town students’ opportunities to learn (Tech. Report No. 031-91). Boys Town, NE: Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home.

This study examines how much of students’ instructional time in reading was spent on reading-related tasks and how much time was spent on social skills instruction. Only about 5 percent of reading class time was spent in teaching social skills. The remaining time, students were engaged in reading instruction (69 percent), task management (8 percent), or inappropriate behaviors (18 percent).