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Parenting: What Do At-risk Parents Want to Know and How Do They Want to Learn?

Thu, March 21, 2:15 to 3:45pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 3, Room 340

Integrative Statement

Introduction. Parenting is difficult, and parents today live in an environment of constant parenting information access, with varying quality of information received. Yet they need accurate information to support their parenting, and parents who know more about parenting and child development are more likely to parent more effectively (National Academy of Sciences, 2016). But how do parents learn about parenting? Previous studies have indicated that parents were most likely to obtain information from their own parents or spouses, as well as books, pediatricians, and classes (Bornstein et al., 2010). How do parents decide what is important to know? Parents who have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) may be vigilant within their environments, and work to prevent what has happened to them from happening to their children (Woods-Jaeger et al., 2018); unfortunately, they are often not successful (Bethel et al., 2017). Could their experiences impact the type of information desired by such parents?

Method. A local nonprofit agency focused on strengthening families and child abuse prevention distributed a needs assessment asking how parents would like to obtain parenting information, their information needs, and barriers to accessing services. Of 124 participants, 38.1% had 1-2 children, 46.4% had 3-4 children, 11.3% had 5-6 children, and 4.1% had 7 or more children. Almost 49% (48.9%) of respondents had children ages 0–5-year-old children, 41.8% had 6-9 year-olds, 27.5% had 10-12 year-olds, 32.6% had adolescent children, and 23.4% had adult children. Parents averaged 2.29 (range 0-10) Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) before the age of 18, with 34.9% experiencing 0 ACEs, 19.8% experiencing 1, 14.2% experiencing 2, and 25.5% experiencing 4 or more (double the rate of those in the original study). The most common were emotional abuse (41.8%); parental mental illness (24.8%); emotional neglect (24.5%); parental substance abuse (24.5%); divorce (24.3%); physical abuse (22.2%); domestic violence (18.3%); and sexual abuse (15.6%).

Parents were asked what information they need. The most common responses were the prevention of sexual abuse (93.7%), appropriate use of technology (93.7%), safe/unsafe touch (92.9%), bullying/gangs (92.0%), drugs/alcohol (91.1%), mental health/illness (90.2%), dating safety (89.4%), pornography (88.1%), parenting education (88.0%), domestic violence (87.3%), and sex education (86.7%). Topics such as children getting along with other children (82.7%), discipline strategies (83.7%), family finances (80.4%), and prevention of physical punishment (77.4%) were rated slightly lower.

When asked how they would like to obtain information about parenting, parents named pediatricians (82.9%), the internet (76.6%), schools (72.5%), books (70.3%), their own parents (66.9%), and faith-based institutions (66.1%). Interestingly, only half of respondents reported a desire to attend parenting workshops (54.1%) or classes (51.2%). When asked what might prevent parents from obtaining family support services, 41.5% named cost as a barrier; other barriers included hours services are provided (25.4%), lack of knowledge about services (24.9%), wait lists (14.4%), child care (14.4%), transportation (13.4%), and family conflicts (7.2%).

Discussion. It is likely that the information parents desire depends on their own parenting context and past experiences. Practice implications for working with at-risk parents will be discussed with participants.

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