Early Parenting Intervention: Family Risk and First-time Parenting Related to Intervention Effectiveness

Abstract

The effects of cumulative risk and parity on the effectiveness of a home based parenting intervention were tested in a randomized controlled trial with 237 families with 1-to 3-year-old children screened for high levels of externalizing behavior. The intervention was aimed at enhancing positive parenting and decreasing externalizing behaviors. The results showed that cumulative risk was not associated with either change in child externalizing behaviors or change in positive parenting. When intervention effectiveness was compared for primiparas (i.e., firsttime mothers) versus multiparas (i.e., mothers with more than one child), we found that intervention mothers of first-born children displayed an increase in their use of positive discipline strategies as compared to first-time mothers in the control group, whereas a similar effect for multiparas was absent. Among multiparas we found an intervention effect on sensitivity, with control group mothers showing an increase in sensitivity, whereas the intervention group showed a constant level of sensitivity over time. These results suggest that parity may be a moderator of intervention effectiveness. Implications for investigating moderators of intervention effectiveness are discussed.

Outcomes of Parenting Interventions for Child Conduct Problems: A Review of Differential Effectiveness

“…Although some of these studies utilized the same intervention [e.g., four involved Incredible Years (IY), two involved Parent Management Training (PMT)], results did not differ based on the intervention utilized. The Stolk et al and Van Zeijl et al [53, 54] studies also involved the same sample, with some significant moderation effects and other nonsignificant moderation effects in each study.…”

“…Four other studies explored measures of parental education, none of which found meaningful differences [40, 53, 56, 57]. While percentages indicate some variability in educational attainment among these samples, not all of these studies indicate percentages in each educational category, making it difficult to compare level of education along a similar metric.…”

“…Five other studies that explored measures of parent psychopathology/well-being found nonsignificant moderation [17, 40, 53, 54, 56]. The other greater benefits were found for children whose mothers reported lower mother-child relationship quality [51], for children whose mothers reported low social support (partial η 2 = .02 to .03) [53], and from the same sample, for children of mothers who reported greater marital discord and daily hassles (partial η 2 = . 03 for both) [54].…”

“…Regarding the possibility that significant effects were found by chance or that the nonsignificant effects were due to low power, most studies appeared to test a reasonable number of interactions. However, findings from Stolk et al [53] of greater benefits for children whose parents reported low social support should be interpreted cautiously. Although not directly reported, based on the number of variables explored as moderators and the number of outcomes investigated, it appears that more than 100 interactions were tested, only 7 of which were significant.…”

Efectos de un programa de formación de padres para reducir conductas perturbadoras infantiles

“…Uno de los factores más relevantes son las prácticas de crianza inadecuadas que emplean los padres en las etapas tempranas de la vida del niño, como son el empleo frecuente del castigo, la falta de establecimiento de límites y la falta de sistematicidad en la disciplina (Morales-Chainé y Vázquez, 2014; Stolk et al, 2008). Se ha comprobado que el uso frecuente del castigo físico infl uye en los niños negativamente, tanto a nivel comportamental como emocional (Del Vecchio y O´Leary, 2008;Rodríguez, Del Barrio y Carrasco, 2009).…”