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Washington State Institute for Public Policy
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Kids Club & Moms Empowerment

Children's Mental Health: Trauma
Benefit-cost methods last updated December 2024.  Literature review updated July 2018.
Kids Club & Moms Empowerment are concurrent interventions for children and their mothers who have experienced intimate partner violence. Kids Club is a ten-week manualized group intervention for children, which aims to improve the child’s sense of safety, foster emotional adjustment, and encourage appropriate social behavior. Moms Empowerment is a ten-week manualized parenting program and support group which meets at the same time as the Kids Club intervention. This intervention aims to improve parenting and enhance mothers’ social and emotional adjustment. The program is designed to consist of ten weekly sessions. In the study in this analysis, children participating in Kids Club received about seven therapeutic hours over ten weeks, and their mothers in Moms Empowerment also received about seven therapeutic hours over ten weeks.
 
ALL
BENEFIT-COST
META-ANALYSIS
CITATIONS
For an overview of WSIPP's Benefit-Cost Model, please see this guide. The estimates shown are present value, life cycle benefits and costs. All dollars are expressed in the base year chosen for this analysis (2023).  The chance the benefits exceed the costs are derived from a Monte Carlo risk analysis. The details on this, as well as the economic discount rates and other relevant parameters are described in our Technical Documentation.
Benefit-Cost Summary Statistics Per Participant
Benefits to:
Taxpayers $7,200 Benefits minus costs $22,039
Participants $13,348 Benefit to cost ratio $28.47
Others $1,825 Chance the program will produce
Indirect $467 benefits greater than the costs 81%
Total benefits $22,841
Net program cost ($802)
Benefits minus cost $22,039

Meta-analysis is a statistical method to combine the results from separate studies on a program, policy, or topic to estimate its effect on an outcome. WSIPP systematically evaluates all credible evaluations we can locate on each topic. The outcomes measured are the program impacts measured in the research literature (for example, impacts on crime or educational attainment). Treatment N represents the total number of individuals or units in the treatment group across the included studies.

An effect size (ES) is a standard metric that summarizes the degree to which a program or policy affects a measured outcome. If the effect size is positive, the outcome increases. If the effect size is negative, the outcome decreases. See Estimating Program Effects Using Effect Sizes for additional information on how we estimate effect sizes.

The effect size may be adjusted from the unadjusted effect size estimated in the meta-analysis. Historically, WSIPP adjusted effect sizes to some programs based on the methodological characteristics of the study. For programs reviewed in 2024 or later, we do not make additional adjustments, and we use the unadjusted effect size whenever we run a benefit-cost analysis.

Research shows the magnitude of effects may change over time. For those effect sizes, we estimate outcome-based adjustments, which we apply between the first time ES is estimated and the second time ES is estimated. More details about these adjustments can be found in our Technical Documentation.

Meta-Analysis of Program Effects
Outcomes measured Treatment age Primary or secondary participant No. of effect sizes Treatment N Effect sizes (ES) and standard errors (SE) used in the benefit-cost analysis Unadjusted effect size (random effects model)
First time ES is estimated Second time ES is estimated
ES SE Age ES SE Age ES p-value
Externalizing behavior symptoms
Symptoms of externalizing behavior (e.g., aggressive, hostile, or disruptive behavior) measured on a validated scale.
 8 Primary 1 61 -0.009 0.201 8 -0.005 0.120 11 -0.019 0.921
Internalizing symptoms
Symptoms of internalizing behavior (e.g., sadness, anxiety, or withdrawal) measured on a validated scale.
 8 Primary 1 61 -0.163 0.191 8 -0.163 0.191 10 -0.327 0.088
Post-traumatic stress
Clinical diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or symptoms measured on a validated scale.
 33 Secondary 1 61 -0.190 0.196 33 -0.190 0.196 34 -0.380 0.054
1In addition to the outcomes measured in the meta-analysis table, WSIPP measures benefits and costs estimated from other outcomes associated with those reported in the evaluation literature. For example, empirical research demonstrates that high school graduation leads to reduced crime. These associated measures provide a more complete picture of the detailed costs and benefits of the program.

2“Others” includes benefits to people other than taxpayers and participants. Depending on the program, it could include reductions in crime victimization, the economic benefits from a more educated workforce, and the benefits from employer-paid health insurance.

3“Indirect benefits” includes estimates of the net changes in the value of a statistical life and net changes in the deadweight costs of taxation.
Detailed Monetary Benefit Estimates Per Participant
Affected outcome: Resulting benefits:1 Benefits accrue to:
Taxpayers Participants Others2 Indirect3 Total
Externalizing behavior symptoms Criminal justice system $3 $0 $6 $1 $10
K-12 special education $11 $0 $0 $6 $17
Internalizing symptoms Labor market earnings associated with high school graduation $33 $78 $42 $0 $153
K-12 grade repetition $4 $0 $0 $2 $6
Health care associated with internalizing symptoms $92 $26 $95 $46 $259
Costs of higher education ($5) ($8) ($2) ($3) ($18)
Subtotals $138 $96 $141 $53 $428
From secondary participant
Post-traumatic stress Labor market earnings associated with PTSD $5,430 $12,791 $0 $0 $18,221
Health care associated with PTSD $1,632 $461 $1,684 $816 $4,594
Subtotals $7,062 $13,252 $1,684 $816 $22,815
Program cost Adjustment for deadweight cost of program $0 $0 $0 ($401) ($401)
Totals $7,200 $13,348 $1,825 $467 $22,841
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Detailed Annual Cost Estimates Per Participant
Annual cost Year dollars Summary
Program costs $1,761 2015 Present value of net program costs (in 2023 dollars) ($802)
Comparison costs $1,035 2010 Cost range (+ or -) 10%
Per-participant costs are based on average therapist time, as reported in the included study. Kids Club and Moms Empowerment support groups are both run by two therapists, so a group of four therapists total provides this treatment. These therapists provide ten therapeutic hours to children participating in Kids Club and to their mothers in Moms Empowerment. Hourly therapist cost is based on the actuarial estimates of reimbursement for family treatment (Mercer. (2016). Behavioral health data book for the state of Washington for rates effective January 1, 2017). For comparison group costs we use 2010 Washington State DSHS data to estimate the average reimbursement rate for treatment of child/adolescent post-traumatic stress disorder.
The figures shown are estimates of the costs to implement programs in Washington. The comparison group costs reflect either no treatment or treatment as usual, depending on how effect sizes were calculated in the meta-analysis. The cost range reported above reflects potential variation or uncertainty in the cost estimate; more detail can be found in our Technical Documentation.
Benefits Minus Costs
Benefits by Perspective
Taxpayer Benefits by Source of Value
Benefits Minus Costs Over Time (Cumulative Discounted Dollars)
The graph above illustrates the estimated cumulative net benefits per-participant for the first fifty years beyond the initial investment in the program. We present these cash flows in discounted dollars. If the dollars are negative (bars below $0 line), the cumulative benefits do not outweigh the cost of the program up to that point in time. The program breaks even when the dollars reach $0. At this point, the total benefits to participants, taxpayers, and others, are equal to the cost of the program. If the dollars are above $0, the benefits of the program exceed the initial investment.

Citations Used in the Meta-Analysis

Graham-Bermann, S.A., Lynch, S., Banyard, V., DeVoe, E.R., & Halabu, H. (2007). Community-based intervention for children exposed to intimate partner violence: an efficacy trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 75(2), 199-209.

Graham-Bermann, S.A., & Miller, L.E. (2013). Intervention to reduce traumatic stress following intimate partner violence: an efficacy trial of the Moms' Empowerment Program (MEP). Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 41(2), 329-350.