Strong African American Families (SAAF)

The Strong African American Families (SAAF) program is a 7-week interactive educational program for African American parents and their early adolescent children living in rural communities. Early adolescence is the period in which children gain increasing control over their behavior, begin forming friendships based on similarities and common interests, and develop attitudes toward substances and substance use. The attitudes and behaviors that they develop during this time influence their achievement motivation, academic performance and friendship selections, which in turn lead them toward or away from substance use. The SAAF program is designed to strengthen positive family interactions and to enhance parents' efforts to help their children establish and reach positive goals during this critical transition between childhood and adolescence.

The Strong African American Families - Teen (SAAF-T) intervention is a preventive intervention for African-American teens living in rural communities and entering high school. It integrates individual youth skills building, parenting skills training, and family interaction training. SAAF-T involves five group sessions using DVDs where narrators address specific content and actors present family scenarios depicting program-targeted interactions and behaviors. Each meeting includes separate one-hour concurrent training for caregivers and youth, followed by a one-hour conjoint session during which families practice the skills they learned in their separate sessions. The program provides parents and youth with skills that nurture adolescent self-regulation, achievement orientation, and negative attitudes toward substance use and other risk behaviors. The program is interactive involving role-playing activities, guided discussions, and question answering.