Predictors of Enrollment and Retention in a Preventive Parenting Intervention for Divorced Families

Abstract

Participation rates in parenting programs are typically low, severely limiting the public health significance of these interventions. We examined predictors of parenting program enrollment and retention in a sample of 325 divorced mothers. Predictors included intervention timing and maternal reports of child, parent, family, and sociocultural risk factors. In multivariate analyses, child maladjustment and family income-to-needs positively predicted enrollment, and higher maternal education and recruitment near the time of the divorce predicted retention. Findings have implications for the optimal timing of preventive parenting programs for divorcing families and point to the importance of examining predictors of enrollment and retention simultaneously.Parenting skills programs have proven to be effective in preventing the onset and escalation of child mental health and substance use problems (e.g., Lochman & van den Steenhoven, 2002). Unfortunately, most parents decline participation in preventive parenting programs (Heinrichs et al., 2005;. The effectiveness of a disseminated intervention is a function of both the program's effect size per participant and the target population's participation rate (Braver & Smith, 1996). When an intervention produces a large effect but has a small participation rate, its population impact is likely to be small, consequently providing little public health benefit. Although efficacy and participation contribute equally to population effectiveness, an abundance of research has been devoted to the former with little study of the latter. Thus, to increase the public health significance of preventive parenting programs, prevention scientists need to identify predictors of participation and develop and test theory-based strategies to increase participation.Two aspects of participation are particularly important to study. Predictors of enrollment are important to identify, because very little research has focused on this aspect of participation, despite the finding that only a minority of the targeted population enrolls in preventive parenting programs (Heinrichs et al., 2005;. Attention to predictors of retention is also important, because attendance level has been shown to mediate parenting program effects on parent and child outcomes (Brody et al., 2006;Reid et al., 2004).Maximizing enrollment and retention may be especially critical for families at risk for child maladjustment problems. Researchers have identified a variety of risk factors (e.g., poverty, early childhood aggression, parental psychopathology, rejecting parenting) that increase the likelihood that children will develop mental health and substance use problems (Mrazek & Haggerty, 1994). Recently, several researchers have found significant baseline risk by program interaction effects indicating that children at risk for later problems benefit more from NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript preventive parenting programs than those at low risk, with risk defined in a variety ...

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