IN COMMUNITIES OF ALL SIZES and shapes, parents face multiple challenges that may inhibit their ability to effectively raise and support their children. For example, the U.S. adolescent birth rate (43 for every 1,000 females aged 15-19 in 2002 (Martin et al.*) ), results in teens who are often unprepared to take on the tasks of parenthood. The increasing incidence of parental substance abuse, child abuse and neglect (often related to substance abuse), parental AIDS, incarceration, divorce, and desertion have resulted in substantially higher rates of children being raised by grandparents.

“Nearly one in five American children lives in poverty and many more lack a decent standard of living because their families hover near the poverty line or move in and out of official poverty” (Shore, pg. 2*). About 805,000 children were in foster care in 2001 (Vandivere, Chalk & Moore*).

In 2001, substantiated reports of child abuse and neglect submitted to child protection agencies involved more than 903,000 children (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services*). Children in homes in which domestic abuse occurs are physically abused and neglected at a rate 15 times the national average (Osofsky*) and are 12-14 times more likely to be sexually abused (McClosky, Figuerdo & Koss*).

The role of parenting education and support

To meet their responsibilities, all parents need support from individuals, family-friendly institutions, and caring communities. The goal of parent support is to strengthen parents' capability to draw upon available resources for their own and their children's well-being.

As one aspect of parent support, parent education should reinforce parental practices which promote development and provide alternatives to practices which are harmful or nonproductive. Parent education and support programming assumes that parents are more likely to provide appropriate nurturance and guidance as they acquire a greater understanding of child development and children's needs.

"Children grow and thrive in the context of close and dependable relationships that provide love and nurturance, security, responsive interaction, and encouragement for exploration. Without at least one such relationship, development is disrupted and the consequences can be severe and long-lasting. If provided or restored, however, a sensitive caregiving relationship can foster remarkable recovery" (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, pg. 389*).

Categories of parenting programs

	Programs designed to improve parenting in general, typically used by parents whose children are functioning normally but who want additional knowledge.
	Programs focused on specific parenting issues, such as substance-abuse prevention, appropriate discipline, and antisocial behavior.
	Programs aimed at specific populations of parents, such as parents with children at critical periods of development, single parents, parents with low incomes.
	Programs targeted to specific populations of children, such as children with disabilities.

Principles of successful parenting programs (Riley*)

Content and strategies of effective programs are based on an understanding of the relationship between parental behaviors and age-appropriate infant, child, and youth outcomes.

	They are targeted to specific ages of children and outcomes and have clear goals.
	They are focused on critical periods to prevent problems. They are provided at transition points, such as the first year of life, divorce, step family formation, and puberty.
	They build on parents’ existing strengths. They do not focus on parents’ failures.
	They are long-term.
	They develop collaborations to provide services that support parents.
	Parents are involved in choosing program design and content.
	Staff members have excellent interpersonal and facilitative skills, are very sensitive to individuals’ needs, and have good emotional health.
	Program plans recognize the community context of parenting e.g., try to change neighborhood patterns to include more monitoring and support or address education and employment issues.

At a minimum, parenting programs address (Riley*)

	Stages of child development. Good parenting practices differ across several developmental stages of childhood and adolescence.
	Cultural differences and their effects.
	Needs related to the family structure, such as helping divorcing parents meet the challenges of co-parenting.

Factors that limit the effectiveness of parent education

Program staff should keep the following in mind when working with parents:

	Parenting beliefs. They are deeply placed, often unconscious, and not easily changed. Under stress, parents may rely on familiar ways of parenting – even when they have learned new parenting skills and want to change their parenting behavior (Thomas*).
	Insufficient program intensity. Relatively small gains for both parents and children have been found in some programs in which program delivery is not intensive enough to bring about the desired change within the allotted time (Ramey & Ramey*).
	Parents’ developmental needs. A parent who has a poor developmental history, psychological difficulties, and/or a drug or alcohol addiction may not be “emotionally available” to learn skills that build better parent-child relationships. Parents’ own developmental needs may be so great that they are not able to participate in programs that focus on their children.
	Personal factors. Cultural values, negative experiences with social service providers, language barriers, time commitment, scheduling issues, travel, and general lack of interest may reduce participation in parent education programs (Spoth & Redmond, 1993*, 1995*).
	Family stressors. Parental depression, drug addiction, alcoholism, low literacy, limited education, domestic violence, marital conflict, blending of families after divorce, and excessive punishment of children may reduce the effectiveness of parent education programs (Tolan & McKay*).
	Parental perceptions. Parents with less education and lower incomes are less likely to believe that they have control over their infants’ and children’s development than other parents (Luster & Kain*). Parents in rural areas often perceive that their children are at less risk for problems than other children (Spoth & Redmond 1993*).
	Environmental conditions. Parents who are stressed by environmental conditions (e.g., neighborhoods with recurrent violence, few adult role models, persistent unemployment) may be less able to benefit from parent education programs. Programs must first recognize and address these obstacles (Tolan & McKay*).

PARENTING EDUCATION RESOURCES: 
PUBLICATION FINDER

How Culture Shapes Social-Emotional Development: Implications for Practice in Infant-Family Programs Monimalika Day and Rebecca Parlakian A monogram providing four tools to promote understanding of how cultural influences within agencies and care giving settings as well as in diverse ethnic, racial, religious and social groups can adversely affect supervisor-staff, staff-parent, and staff-child relationships. Although parent-staff scenarios address social-emotional development issues in early childhood, the techniques can be applied by staff in any family support program to enhance cultural continuity. Washington, D.C.: Zero to Three, 2004.

PARENTING EDUCATION RESOURCES: 
WEB SITE FINDER

	Child Trends Child Trends is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization which analyzes and reports data on the well-being of children. Many publications are available online or in print. The Parenting or Family Component of the Guide to Effective Programs for Children and Youth has links to information about 23 programs.
	Zero To Three Zero to Three is a multidisciplinary organization focused on early child development. Easy access to research-based information on a wide range of topics is available through the Parent A-Z and Professional A-Z listings.
	CLIKS: County-City-Community Level Information on Kids Annie E. Casey Foundation. This site provides data on indicators of well-being of children in most states and counties and in some communities. Information can be requested in the format of profiles, line graphs, maps, rankings or raw data.
	National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information This web site provides access to the full report, Emerging Practices in Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, or to selected highlights. Highlighted topics include statistics, kinds of prevention programs, findings about program effectiveness, and risk and protective factors for child abuse and neglect.
	University of Delaware Extension Service Recommended Practices Parent Education and Support This site contains background information and a summary of effective parent education strategies.