Evaluating the effectiveness of intensive family preservation services A multi-level meta-analysis

Background: Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS) are an important part of child welfare. They are short-term, in-home treatment programs aimed at preventing imminent out-of-home placements, however, today, their overall effectiveness remains unclear. Objective: This study aims to conduct a comprehensive review of IFPS effectiveness, evaluate a wide range of outcomes, and analyze the impact of various factors on its success. Methods: A three-level meta-analysis was conducted on 33 controlled trial studies comprising 226 effect sizes to test whether the effectiveness of IFPS was influenced by study, program, target, sample, and outcome characteristics. Results: Analyses showed that IFPS did have a modest overall effect on treatment outcomes (g = 0.18), with notable variations across different outcome measures, showing small and positive effects on out-of-home placement (g = 0.31), family functioning (g = 0.19), juvenile delinquency (g = 0.19), and parental psychopathology (g = 0.34). Greater program intensity was associated with smaller effects, and follow-up assessment yielded larger effects than post-test assessments, indicating that positive intervention effects increased over time. Conclusions: The findings suggest a rather limited effectiveness of IFPS, indicating that both practice and policy should take this into account. Recommendations for future research are provided to further enhance understanding and improvement of IFPS interventions.