An effective parenting program
is an essential element of any successful comprehensive prevention program.
The Placer County Office of Education in Auburn, California, believes
this so strongly that it has sponsored a number of trainings and has
coordinated a number of peer-facilitated parenting programs countywide.
Although these programs have met the needs of a large number of parents,
they have not reached some of the high-risk families.
Responding to feedback from
schools that the peer-facilitated programs did not meet the needs of
the high-risk families that needed more structure, the Placer County
Office of Education funded the Parenting Project, a pilot program in
parenting skills that could be evaluated and, if found successful, implemented
on a larger scale.
Referrals for the Parenting
Project were obtained from the juvenile court and county agencies-mental
health agencies, Children's Protective Services, and others. The heads
of these agencies were certain they could provide enough families to
fill as many classes as offered. Chaos-driven, boundaryless families
were targeted as either voluntary or mandatory participants, with two
objectives in mind: 1) to provide services to families that might
not be served otherwise, and 2) to evaluate the effectiveness
of different program models with this population in meeting their unique
needs.
As with any program, the
project could be effective only if families participated fully and regularly.
To ensure their involvement to the end, participants were offered $150
to finish the class and to assist with the evaluation process.
Selecting the Program
Models
As a consultant hired to be project coordinator, I reviewed more than
10 different parenting models and chose four to include in the project.
The criteria for selection was cost effectiveness and ease of replication
within the county. A secondary criteria was that local resources be
used whenever possible.
The four models all focused
on developing basic parenting skills, such as communication, realistic
expectations, and family roles and responsibilities. They differed in
structure, content and duration (one was eight weeks long, one six weeks,
one five weeks and another two full-day Saturdays).
Alcohol and other drug (AOD)
specific information was emphasized more in some models than others.
One model was presented by a local therapist who also dealt with the
parent's own childhood issues as they surfaced during the class. Our
goal was to provide different structures and content to ascertain if
families would significantly respond more favorably to one program than
another.
Registration
Once everything was in place, registration was opened for department
heads of county social service agencies and their staff to refer clients.
All were supportive, but they referred only 14 individuals. Schools
and community counseling agencies were then invited to refer families.
The response was overwhelming, and eventually families had to be turned
away.
Parents were assigned to
the four models as randomly as possible based upon geographical location,
transportation issues, and a few other criteria, such as age and family
composition. Because parenting situations are unique to each different
age group, parents with elementary school age children were grouped
together, as were those of high school age children. Each group had
a balance of parents from both single- and two-parent households, and
adjustments were made to accommodate parents' work schedules. In other
words, complete randomness was never accomplished.
Ensuring Attendance
Each participant was contacted by letter, and attempts were made to
contact all participants by telephone regarding what to expect, who
the instructor was, when and where to meet, and what the evaluation
process involved. At the first class session of each group, introductions
were made, participants were thanked in advance for participating, the
evaluation process was explained again, and participants were given
two pretests to complete. One pretest was specific to parental enabling
and the other pertained to general parenting issues.
