Springboard: Promoting Family Well-being Through Family Support Services

The Springboard initiative represents the first major family support initiative of its kind in Ireland. It was established in 1998 and an important part of the work during the pilot phase included the full evaluation of the services provided and the outcomes for families. This book provides a broad description and evaluation of the initiative, and is based on research that was commissioned by the Department of Health and Children, Government of Ireland. The research is based on a non-experimental design involving a pre-post comparison of 319 children and 191 parents who participated in the programme. The two main outcomes reported are children’s psychological well-being (measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire – SDQ), and the parent–child relationship (measured by the Parent–Child Relationship Inventory – PCRI). Results showed improvements in SDQ and PCRI scores, equivalent to an effect size in the range 0.2 to 0.3, which is similar to the effect sizes produced by other family support programmes. At the end of the intervention, there was still a substantial amount of unmet need among children.