Parenting Young Children

The Parenting Young Children (PYC) Project is a research study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to develop and evaluate strategies for increasing parenting program participation.

The project focuses on parents of kindergarten and 3rd grade children living in disadvantaged, Phoenix neighborhoods. Children living in these neighborhoods are often exposed to multiple adversities (e.g. community violence, poverty). As a result, many of these children are at risk for adjustment problems, beginning around school entry. Several parenting skills programs provided in early childhood have been found to help promote school success and prevent child adjustment problems. Unfortunately, parents often decline to enroll in parenting programs or drop out before program completion, severely limiting the benefits such programs can have for communities. Thus, developing effective strategies to increase participation can help maximize the community-level benefits of evidence-based parenting programs. This is the goal of the PYC Project.

Over the course of four years, approximately 200 parents are participating in the PYC project. During the first year, a small pilot was conducted with 11 families to get feedback on ways to engage parents and to refine our interview questions. During the next three years, approximately 60 families per year are being interviewed and randomly assigned to receive either motivationally-based engagement strategies designed to increase parenting program participation or an informational brochure that describes the program and invites participation. All participants are offered an optional, free parenting program, the Triple P Positive Parenting Program, which is delivered at their child’s school. The study experimentally evaluates whether the engagement procedure produces higher enrollment, attendance, and parenting program involvement as compared to the information-only procedure.

Emily Winslow, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Elizabeth Poloskov, Project Coordinator