A program for mothers of children with emotional and behavioral disorders: An evaluation of cost, procedure, process, and outcome relationships

Given that past research has consistently linked social support to enhanced psychological outcomes, it is not surprising that a variety of social support programs for families have proliferated in recent years. Previous research has focused on examining the effect of providing social support to family members on mental and physical health outcomes through both formal (professionals) and informal (paraprofessionals with limited training) strategies. Interestingly, research evaluating basic cost of such types of programs are rather limited while more comprehensive examinations of cost are mostly non-existent! The present study examines the all-inclusive cost of operating an informal social support program for mothers of children with emotional/behavioral disorders. Such a complete evaluation of cost includes assessing relationships between resources consumed and each activity/procedure, activity/procedure participation and internal psychological changes, and those changes in relation to outcomes. Results showed that indirect operation costs are greatest (with General Administration costs exceeding all other indirect costs) and that there is a positive effect of social support on child mental health outcomes; but unexpectedly, not on maternal outcomes.