What do parents want? Results-based interventions to promote family engagement and positive parent-child outcomes

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Practitioners working with parents to support their children often struggle to determine the most optimal way to provide information to parents and wonder how parents receive information given. A recent metasynthesis of 26 studies indicated parents’ experiences with programs were impacted by several factors, including how programs approached parents in various stages of their parenting journey, staff relationships with parents, and parent challenges to participation (Butler et al., 2020). This symposium will address parent experiences and program outcomes, with a focus on how programs and researchers might tailor programs to more effectively engage parents.

Study 1, using a qualitative focus with parents of diverse backgrounds, explored new parents’ preferences for receiving information about their infants’ development, finding that first-time parents were sophisticated in their knowledge, but wanted assistance in how to implement information in day-to-day interactions with their children. Study 2 learned that how Latina mothers perceived their clinicians was important, affecting the impact of the intervention on their relationships with their children, their understanding of their children’s needs, and their own mental health. Study 3, while reporting improvements in parenting skills after a 7 week intervention for families reunifying with their children, discovered challenges important to consider when working with vulnerable families. Study 4 incorporated qualitative family feedback to better understand parental experiences with the intervention, learning that parent takeaways matched program goals, with strong outcomes for parents. Presenters will discuss methods to facilitate parent engagement and feedback in improving the implementation of interventions focused on ameliorating parenting practices.

Sub Unit

• Prevention and Interventions

Chair

• Vonda Jump Norman, Utah State University

Individual Presentations

• What First-Time Parents Want to Know About Parenting and Early Childhood Development - Presenting Author: Jessica Dym Bartlett, Thriving Together, LLC

• Perceptions of Latinx immigrant mothers of a culturally adapted evidence-based dyadic intervention - Presenting Author: Ruth Paris, Boston University; Meital Simhi; Julia Lee

• Providing a Brief Parenting Intervention to Families in Reunification - Presenting Author: Susan Goff Timmer, University of California - Davis

• What do parents find important in a parenting intervention? How does that relate to outcomes? - Presenting Author: Vonda Jump Norman, Utah State University; Katie Griffiths