The Family Solutions Program has used since 1993 the most quantifiable indicator utilized by programs or services that provide intervention for juvenile offenders – recidivism, or the percentage of re-offenses.  This is a bold decision because research is clear that there are a myriad of risk factors that lead to delinquency – school failure, family conflict, child abuse and neglect, poverty, learning problems, and negative peer influences.  These risk factors are not easily overcome in any intervention program when the conditions themselves may have developed over many years.  Psychological trauma, social skill deficits, and academic failure are severe problems that are difficult to overcome. In addition to recidivism, self-report measures are used to assess family functioning, parent child communication, and parent stress prior to and following program completion to examine changes in these dimensions due to FSP completion.  Finally, family participation rates are monitored to examine the dosage of these interventions as it relates to effectiveness (e.g., are families attending each session and responding to program activities?).  Session evaluation questionnaires are administered in every FSP cycle to solicit family feedback on the effectiveness of group leaders, the quality and benefit of the sessions and to revise content or program structure where needed.

Statistical analysis demonstrates that a child who is placed on probation is 9.3 times more likely to re-offend than a child referred to the FSP who graduates. Quinn, W.H. and VanDyke, D. (2004). A multiple family group intervention for first-time juvenile offenders: Comparisons with Probation and Dropouts on Recidivism. Journal of Community Psychology, 32, 177-200. These differences between juvenile first offenders who become Family Solutions Program graduates and juvenile first offenders placed on probation or drop out hold for race and gender. In other words, regardless of age or race, youth who complete the Family Solutions Program all re-offend at a lower rate than juvenile first offenders counterparts placed on probation.

Two doctoral dissertations were conducted on the evaluation of the Family Solutions Program in 2005.  First, parent stress was significantly reduced among 111 parents between the inception of the Family Solutions Program and 3 months following the Family Solutions Program Caldwell, C. Horne, A., Davidson, B. & Quinn, W.H. (2006) Effectiveness of a multiple family group intervention in reducing stress in parents of juvenile first offenders. Journal of Child and Family Studies. This is important because it is a well accepted notion that high parental stress increases the probability of child abuse.  Second, a replication study in Augusta, Georgia found that family functioning was significantly improved and recidivism rates were significantly reduced for families that attended eight or more sessions compared to families who attended less often. Stoddard, J.L. (2005). Treatment adherence and recidivism: An evaluation of a multiple family group intervention for first time juvenile offenders.  Doctoral dissertation. University of Georgia.

In addition, youth complete a final assignment in the Family Solutions Program in which they must write a minimum one page paper on how FSP affected them. Youth consistently report the improvement in their relationship with their parents, skills in conflict resolution, and more optimism about their futures.  Parents provide testimonials at the final session of FSP in which they report having learned parenting skills, recognizing the important role they play in the lives of their children, and more positive communication with their children.