Linking Interests of Families and Teachers is a community-based intervention program designed to decrease rates of juvenile delinquency in at-risk youth. The goal of the LIFT program is to prevent the development of conduct problems, such as oppositional defiant disorder oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder conduct disorder, by lowering the probability of antisocial behavior and increasing prosocial behavior within school, home, and community settings. This intervention was developed by researchers at the Oregon Social Learning Center http://www.oslc.org/ in 1991, in response to the increasing rates of juvenile delinquency in their community and the high rates of violent crime committed by adolescents and teens.
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What is it?
LIFT is a prevention program that uses principles of community psychology and is aimed at 1st and 5th grade students in areas with high rates of juvenile delinquency. LIFT is a 10-week intervention consisting of 20, 1 hour sessions run by trained professionals such as psychologists and counselors. The three main interventions are: parent training, school-based social skills training, and systematic communication between parents and teachers. The creators of LIFT hypothesized that by using a service already in place (public schools) the program would lower the probability of antisocial behavior, and increase prosocial behavior within school, home, and community settings.
The school-based component consists of classroom instruction on specific problem solving skills, skills practice in small groups, and a cooperative free-play game. The free-play game is a modification of the Good Behavior Game. The parent component includes group meetings for parents held at school, once a week for 6 weeks. The meetings are moderated by a trained counselor who utilizes presentations, video examples, role plays, and home practice activities to teach effective limit-setting and conflict resolution skills. The parent-teacher communication component requires that phones and answering machines be installed in the classroom for teachers to leave a message about the day’s events. Parents are invited to call at any time and teachers are expected to return calls regularly. Weekly newsletters are also sent home about LIFT activities in school to keep parents informed.
Does it work?
A randomized 1-year trial of LIFT was conducted in 1991 in 12 schools in the Eugene, Oregon area with high rates of juvenile detainment and arrest. The schools were in older, urban neighborhoods and were randomly drawn to be either part of the control group, the 1st grade trial, or the 5th grade trial. Of the 671 students who participated, 46% were receiving free lunch and 11% were non-white.
The schools were assessed in the fall quarter (pre-intervention), the spring quarter (post), and in the winter of the following year (follow-up). The researchers assessed each child's behavior problems, academic skills, peer relations, and each parent's family management skills. Evaluators utilized questionnaires, interviews, and laboratory tasks of parent-child communication and problem solving. Assessments were conducted in school, home, and laboratory settings by teachers, parents, peers, and neutral observers.
At one year follow-up the children who had received the LIFT intervention had higher ratings of pro-social behavior and lower ratings of aggression as compared with their peers in the control group. Parents who had received the LIFT intervention had lower ratings of caregiver aversive behavior such as physical punishment. Teachers reported that the LIFT children exhibited far less aggressive behavior at recess than their peers in the control group. At the three year follow-up, 5th grade LIFT participants had delays in first arrests and delays in reports of problem behaviors such as drug abuse. After 3 years, 1st grade LIFT participants showed no increases in inattentive, impulsive,or hyperactive behavior. Overall results showed that families that received the LIFT intervention demonstrated improvements in problem-solving and conflict resolution skills.
LIFT has been recognized by The Blueprint for Violence Prevention as a promising prevention program. LIFT was reviewed and found to be an effective youth prevention program by The Prevention Research Program at Pennsylvania State University.
Critiques of LIFT
Despite the promising results that LIFT has demonstrated, it has yet to be implemented in its full form. Some parent participants commented that LIFT was overly time consuming and required parents to attend many meetings. Many parents did not attend all 20 group sessions and received training materials by mail. Some teacher participants commented that learning to implement the LIFT interventions added extra work and rated the program poorly.