Predictors of Participation in Parent-Only Versus Parent-Child Group Workshops: Results From a Trial of the Common Sense Parenting Preventive Intervention

Engaging and retaining families in preventive interventions are crucial to achieving adequate reach and implementation. Prior research has found that predictors of participation include demographic and socioeconomic variables and parents’ assessments of their child and of their parenting, which may be tied to the perceived benefits of participation. One question is whether including youth in parenting sessions affects initial engagement and retention. This study examines predictors of initiation and retention in a group-based parenting intervention across two versions of the program, one requiring only parent attendance and one requiring attendance by the youth.

Data are from families enrolled in a trial of the Common Sense Parenting intervention. Each family includes a target parent and a target 8^th-grader who attended one of five middle schools in Tacoma, Washington that fed into a high school with a high dropout rate. Families were randomly assigned to either a six session CSP program condition (n = 118) that did not require student attendance, an eight session CSP Plus program condition (n = 95) that asked students to attend the first and last sessions, or a minimal contact control condition (n = 108). The analysis sample, which included families from the two intervention conditions,  was 52% Caucasian and 29% African American; 12% were Hispanic. Forty-one percent of the families reported annual incomes below $24,000.

Initiation, defined as attending the first or second session, was slightly higher in the CSPPlus condition (76%) compared to the CSP condition (69%). Retention, defined as the percent of possible sessions attended among those who initiated, was similar across conditions (mean= 70% in CSP Plus  vs. mean = 72% in CSP).  Regression models used to examine parent- and student-reported variables as potential overall and unique predictors of initiation and retention pointed to differences in predictors across condition. In CSP Plus, African-American families and families with a female student were less likely to initiate whereas, in CSP, parents who rented (rather than owned) their homes and parents who rated themselves more highly in terms of the affective quality of their parenting were less likely to initiate. Parents of boys attended a higher proportion of possible sessions in both conditions. In CSP Plus, parents rated more highly in understanding of workshop materials by workshop leaders attended a higher proportion of possible sessions.

The findings suggest that youth involvement in workshops was not a barrier to attendance, overall. Findings also support the need for targeted efforts to engage and retain certain population subgroups in parenting and family workshops to maximize reach and potential program impact.