Photo: Family eating together
Photo: Family eating together

The Model

FCU Model diagram

The Family Check-Up® is an evidence-based approach to addressing the mental health and behavior of children aged 2-17.  The Family Check-Up is a trauma-informed approach to mindful parenting. The model is simple, flexible and can be delivered via an in-person program or via a digital, asynchronous program.

The Family Check-Up® (FCU) Model is a unique, strength-based approach to improving family mental health, child behavior, and family relationships. This program provides tailored assessments and personalized follow-up services, addressing each family’s specific strengths and challenges. Our collaborative process treats parents as experts, ensuring that interventions are respectful, culturally adapted, and effective. 

By enhancing family management practices and promoting overall well-being, the Family Check-Up® Model helps create a harmonious and thriving family environment.

Photo: Family talking at the dinner table
Photo: Family talking at the dinner table

Benefits of the Model

The Family Check-Up® Model is backed by thirty years of research and hundreds of peer-reviewed studies demonstrating its benefits and long-term impacts. Families who have received The Family Check-Up experience enhanced parenting skills, reduced family conflict, improved self-regulation in children, and greater parent involvement in schools.*

Thirty years of Family Check-Up® implementation have demonstrated increased family engagement and the same long-term outcomes regardless of ethnic, social, or geographic backgrounds. Research on the Family Check-Up conducted with over 1,000 families (51% European American, 29% African American, 14% Hispanic, 6% other) has demonstrated that all populations benefitted from use of the intervention and results did not vary based on race, ethnicity, or identity (Pelham et al., 2017; Smith et al., 2014).

* Compared with those who have not received the program.

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FCU Targets and Outcomes

Partnered Clearing Houses

50%

Reduction in Days Absent

Reduction in days absent from school for high school students who received the Family Check-Up® in adolescence.*

2.7x

Lower Rates of Clinically Significant Depression

Lower rates of clinically significant depression for middle school students who received the Family Check-Up® in middle school.*

30+

Years of Research

Over three decades of research that focuses on interactions between the brain, social context, and behavior and evidenced-based solutions to mental health and behavioral problems.

Screenshot: Implementation Overview

Downloadable Resource

Interested to learn more about the Family Check-Up Model? Simply click the button below to download our FCU Model & Implementation Overview document with additional information on assessments, goal setting, and implementation.