Grant: Project Grant

Psychological problems are common: one out of five young children live with some mental health problems. These problems can persist and negatively affect life up to adulthood. Efforts should thus be made to stave off more serious problems before they occur. There are biological causes for child mental health problems but fortunately, environmental factors may help prevent problems and foster well-being. Among these malleable factors, parenting quality is the most determinant. We are interested in the How-to Parenting Program, a 7-session parenting workshop that teaches the three key ingredients of parenting quality linked to child mental health and well-being (being warm, structuring, and autonomy-supportive). In our prior studies, we found that this program helped school-aged children (reduced mental health problems such as opposition and aggression) in addition to improving parenting quality. Our research team now intends to test whether the How-to Program can also be helpful for younger and more vulnerable children. We will assess its impact again, but this time with parents of 3- and 4-year-olds from disadvantaged neighborhoods and by comparing it to another workshop for parents, called Nobody's Perfect (NP). NP is the ideal comparison workshop because it is similar to How-to in format and cost, but different in content (NP does not teach specific parenting skills) and it is already offered in many communities across the country. Parents will assess child mental health four times (before and after programs delivery, 6 and 12 months later) and independent observers will assess child and parent behaviors. We expect child mental health and parenting quality to improve to a greater extent among families assigned to the How-to Program (vs. NP). If expected benefits of the How-to Program are observed, our research team will take the necessary steps to deliver and evaluate it more widely, as transferring helpful parenting skills can foster early child mental health.