Recruitment and Retention of Parents Into Preventive Parenting Programs: What Do We Know From Previous Research, and Where Do We Go From Here?

Introduction: Although preventive parenting programs are proven to be effective at improving parenting, family relationships and child outcomes, researchers and practitioners face significant challenge in recruiting and retaining parents in these programs. Low participation rates and small unrepresentative samples in prevention pose a serious threat to external validity of prevention trials. The purpose of this study was to compile and evaluate research to date about strategies that have been employed to recruit and retain parents in preventive parenting programs. Specifically, theory, research methodology and results were compiled and critiqued, and implications and future directions were developed based on the current state of research in this field.

Methods: A thorough search of the literature was conducted between August 2011-November 2011 using a keyword search (words related to recruitment, retention, and parenting programs) in two prominent academic search engines. Articles selected for inclusion must have met the following criteria: (1) empirical article published in a peer-reviewed journal written in English (2) program must target parents and parenting (3) program is group-based and either universal or selective in nature (i.e., not individual or family therapy/treatment) and (4) measures recruitment and/or retention strategies as well as their effectiveness.

Results: Fourteen articles published between 1983 and 2011 were identified. Theory was sparsely mentioned and no theory development or theory testing was undertaken, which prevents the field from moving forward in understanding recruitment and retention. Additionally, there was little consensus about appropriate methods for examining recruitment and retention as demonstrated by the variety in both definition and measurement of recruitment and retention. Results were mixed regarding the impact of financial incentives. Recruitment strategy was significantly related to recruitment and retention, with the use of indigenous community members conducting community information meetings being most effective.  Logistical support provided to parents had little effect on recruitment and retention, though tailoring program implementation to meets parents’ individual needs significantly increased retention in programs. One area of focus for future research is the personalization of recruitment and retention techniques to the needs of individual parents and subgroups of families.

Conclusions: These findings have implications for informing research design with regard to recruitment and retention of parents into preventive parenting programs, as well as guiding the next steps towards theory development and development of effective and new recruitment and retention strategies.