Grant: Operating Grant

Raising children is an important yet challenging responsibility. While research confirms that parents have a vast impact on their children's adjustment, it has also shown that, to promote children's mental health, parenting must be (1) warm (vs. harsh), (2) structuring (vs. permissive) and (3) autonomy-supportive (vs. controlling). Unfortunately, knowing how to provide all of these key "ingredients" is not always second nature for parents. In addition, available parenting resources are sometimes contradictory, abstract, and rarely target all three key parenting components. Providing the general population with concrete and complete parenting education is essential in improving families' daily lives and in fostering children's mental health. The goal of our research project is to evaluate the impact of a parenting program (i.e., How-to program; Faber and Mazlish, 1980) which aims to teach the three main components of optimal parenting (i.e., warmth, structure, and autonomy support). In a recent study, we offered the program to 93 parents (11 groups). Results from this first study provide support for the efficacy of the program in fostering optimal parenting and in improving children's mental health. The next step is to assess the impact of the How-to parenting program more rigorously. Our goal is to compare participating parents and their children to families on a wait list, who will attend the program at a later time. We also plan to obtain teachers' reports of children's adjustment, to gain a more objective evaluation of children's mental health. Finally, assessments will also take place 6 and 12 months following group participation, to examine whether the program's benefits are maintained over time. Appropriately evaluating the impact of this promising parenting program is a crucial step toward helping parents foster their children's mental health, thereby contributing to our nation's quality of life.