Effectiveness of Sweden’s Contact Family/Person Program for Older Children

Abstract

Objectives: To estimate the impacts of Sweden’s Contact Family/Person Program (CFPP) for older children on participants’ long-term outcomes related to mental health problems, illicit drug use, public welfare receipt, placement in out-of-home care, educational achievement, and offending. Method: We analyzed longitudinal register data on more than 1,000,000 individuals born between 1973 and 1984, including 6,386 individuals who entered CFPP at 10–13 years of age, with a follow-up until 2008. The program impact was estimated by means of propensity score matching. Results: Outcomes for those who had received the intervention were not better than that for matched peers who did not receive the intervention. Conclusions: The results did not find support for CFPP effectiveness in reducing risks of compromised long-term development in older children.