A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of the Family Assessment and Feedback Intervention (FAFI): Effects on Mental Health Literacy and Attitudinal Engagement with Health Supports and Services

Authors

• Masha Y. Ivanova, University of Vermont
• Stanley Weinberger, University of Vermont
• Sara L. Buckingham, University of Alaska, Anchorage
• William E. Copeland, University of Vermont
• Phoenix Crockett, University of Vermont
• Justin Dainer-Best, Bard College
• Casey D'Alberto, University of Vermont
• Lauren Dewey, University of Vermont
• DeShan Foret, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
• Maria Galano, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Lisa Goodrich, University of Vermont Medical Center
• Lindsay E. Holly, Marquette UniversityFollow
• Nalini Lane, University of Vermont
• Mathew Lerner, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
• Jasmine Marsh, University of Vermont
• Ellen McGinnis, University of Vermont
• Melissa Paiva-Salisbury, Coastal Carolina University
• Pamela Swift, University of Vermont
• Rebekah Tinker, University of Vermont
• James J. Hudziak, University of Vermont

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-2026

Publisher

Springer

Source Publication

Child Psychiatry & Human Development

Source ISSN

0009-398X

Original Item ID

DOI: 10.1007/s10578-024-01707-0

Abstract

This randomized controlled trial tested the Family Assessment and Feedback Intervention (FAFI), a new intervention to enhance family engagement with emotional and behavioral health services. The FAFI is a guided conversation with families about results of their multidimensional assessment that is set in the context of motivational enhancement. It differs from other assessment-with-feedback interventions by extending the focus of assessment beyond the target child to parents and the family environment, addressing parental emotional and behavioral problems and competencies, spanning a broad range of children’s and parents’ strengths and difficulties, and being generalizable to many settings and practitioners. Participants were 81 families in primary care pediatrics. The FAFI was associated with a significant increase in parental mental health literacy and with an increase in parental attitudinal engagement with health supports and services that closely approached statistical significance (p = .052), while controlling for children’s age and gender and family socioeconomic status.

Comments

Published version. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, Vol. 57, No. 2 (April 2026): 381-389. DOI. © 2026 The Author(s).

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Ivanova, Masha Y.; Weinberger, Stanley; Buckingham, Sara L.; Copeland, William E.; Crockett, Phoenix; Dainer-Best, Justin; D'Alberto, Casey; Dewey, Lauren; Foret, DeShan; Galano, Maria; Goodrich, Lisa; Holly, Lindsay E.; Lane, Nalini; Lerner, Mathew; Marsh, Jasmine; McGinnis, Ellen; Paiva-Salisbury, Melissa; Swift, Pamela; Tinker, Rebekah; and Hudziak, James J., "A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of the Family Assessment and Feedback Intervention (FAFI): Effects on Mental Health Literacy and Attitudinal Engagement with Health Supports and Services" (2026). Psychology Faculty Research and Publications. 686.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/psych_fac/686