A Start Towards Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice: The One-Year Findings from a National Comparison of Parenting Programs

PRESENTATION TYPE: Individual Poster

CATEGORY/THEME: Development and Testing of Interventions

TITLE: A start towards bridging the gap between research and practice: The one-year findings from a National comparison of parenting programs.

 ABSTRACT BODY:

Introduction:Over the past decades several group based parenting programs have been developed to prevent children’s conduct problems. The immediate effects on parents and children have been extensively evaluated but the long term effects remain uncertain. In order for full scale implementation in the welfare system long term information is important. Equally important, for practitioners, is whether one program works equally well compared to another. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to report the long term one year findings from an effectiveness evaluation and comparison of four established parenting programs; the Incredible Years, Cope, Comet, and Connect.

Methods: This study uses data from pre-, post-, and one-year assessments from a randomized control trial with a three group design. 749 parents with a child between 3 and 12 years were randomized to the programs. Of those, 635 parents started a program. 598 (94.2%) responded to the posttest questionnaire, and 556 (87.6 %) responded at the one-year follow-up. With data from the primary reporters (85.0 % mothers), we used latent change models in Mplus to investigate whether the short term effects on child conduct problems, negative parenting practices, and positive parenting practices changed or sustained over time. We also compared whether the long term effects differed across programs. Primary outcome measures were Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI). Concerning parents we investigated parental stress (CGSQ), parental depression (CES-D), parents’ sense of competence (PSOC), and positive and negative parenting behaviors (PPI). Results: The short term result suggested that the behaviorally oriented program Comet was the most effective program for both parents and children. In contrast, our results between posttest and the one-year follow-up suggest that the Incredible Years, Cope, and Connect continued to improve while the parents and children in Comet remained at the same levels or worsened. As a consequence, we found no significant effect differences between the four programs at the one-year follow-up. Hence, the overall results, from pretest to the follow-up suggest that the effects on parents and children are equal across programs.

Conclusions: Even though the program theories of the programs differ, over one year, they work equally well for parents and children. Given this, policy and decision makers should be able to choose the program that best fulfill their purpose and values.