Family-centered prevention to enhance proactive parenting and parental self-efficacy during early elementary school.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a family-centered intervention delivered during early elementary school, the Family Check-Up (FCU), in supporting parents’ use of proactive parenting skills and the role that parental self-efficacy (PSE) has in promoting proactive parenting. We predicted both direct and mediated effects of the FCU on changes in proactive parenting. Participants were the primary caregivers of 321 kindergarten children and were randomly assigned to either the FCU or to a school-as-usual control group (n = 164 assigned to intervention). Results indicated that the FCU initiated during kindergarten enhanced proactive parenting skills directly and was mediated by PSE. These results highlight the FCU as an efficacious intervention in early elementary school in promoting proactive parenting skills and PSE and underscore the role of PSE as a primary pathway toward improved proactive parenting.

Parenting self-efficacy in relation to the family check-up’s effect on elementary school children’s behavior.

“…The FCU is a brief, tailored parenting intervention that uses motivational interviewing (MI), feedback, and a menu of intervention options to support families experiencing a variety of challenges (Dishion & Stormshak, 2007;Stormshak et al, 2021). The FCU has been found to improve parenting skills, such as positive behavior support (Dishion et al, 2008;Lunkenheimer et al, 2008), parent-child positive engagement (Sitnick et al, 2015), and proactive parenting (Resnik et al, 2023). It has additionally been found to reduce child problem behaviors (Dishion et al, 2008;Garbacz et al, 2020Garbacz et al, , 2022Stormshak et al, 2021) and promote children's inhibitory control and language development (Lunkenheimer et al, 2008).…”

“…Several preventive parenting programs have been found to support PSE for parents with young children (Bloomfield & Kendall, 2007, 2012; Deković et al, 2010; Enebrink et al, 2015; Mouton et al, 2018; Phelan, 2004; Resnik et al, 2023; Wittkowski et al, 2016). For example, a preventive parenting intervention for parents of toddlers was associated with an increase in parents’ sense of competence, which led to an increase in supportive parenting and decrease in ineffective discipline strategies such as physical punishment and inconsistent limit setting (Deković et al, 2010).…”

“…Some initial research has demonstrated a link between the FCU and PSE. For parents with children in elementary school, PSE was found to mediate the effects of the FCU on their parenting skills over time (Resnik et al, 2023). Specifically, parents randomized to the FCU when their children were in kindergarten had greater PSE when their children were in second grade, which was subsequently associated with greater use of proactive parenting when children were in third grade (Resnik et al, 2023).…”

“…For parents with children in elementary school, PSE was found to mediate the effects of the FCU on their parenting skills over time (Resnik et al, 2023). Specifically, parents randomized to the FCU when their children were in kindergarten had greater PSE when their children were in second grade, which was subsequently associated with greater use of proactive parenting when children were in third grade (Resnik et al, 2023). Changes in effective parenting, a latent factor including PSE, limit setting, negative parenting, and warmth, were also found to explain the association between the FCU and improvements in child behavior for children entering school (Stormshak et al, 2021).…”

Mental health and well-being for the prevention of substance use disorders

“…There is also a mechanism for periodic contact (at least once a year) with families. [ 31 ] The FCU has been used to intervene with families across age groups from early childhood to adolescence[ 32 ] and also in diverse ethnic and cultural settings. [ 33 ] It has been seen to reduce externalizing and internalizing psychopathology in adolescence[ 34 , 35 ] and reduce the likelihood of getting into high-risk trajectories of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use.…”