Manuscript Detail

This study uses a quasi-experimental design and compares two groups to ABC. First, as part of a larger longitudinal study, families who were randomly assigned to ABC or another intervention called Developmental Education for Families (DEF) as part of another study, and who also were involved with child protective services, were compared. The study analyzed a subsample of cases from the larger study, and did not state how the subsample was selected. Therefore HomVEE assumes that subsample selection is nonrandom and evaluates the ABC to DEF comparison as a quasi-experimental design. Quasi-experimental designs must establish equivalence on race/ethnicity, SES, and baseline measures of the outcome (and control for baseline measures) in order to earn a moderate rating, but this study does not meet all of these criteria. For the ABC to DEF comparison, although the samples are equivalent on race/ethnicity and SES, the study does not assess or control for baseline measures of the outcomes (which are all parenting practices), so that contrast received a low rating. The study also compares the ABC group to another group of low-risk families identified as parts of other studies. The different approach to recruiting the samples for the ABC and the low-risk comparison groups introduces a confounding factor that automatically rates that comparison low.