Parenting Matters: A Promising Evidenced-Informed Parent Education Program

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Parenting Matters(Baldwin, M.J., 2003), an eight-session program developed to fill the need for parenting training for parents mandated by the courts or referred by social services or other agencies. A total of 146 family participants from 10 North Carolina counties participated in the study. The research process was a repeated measures design using the following procedures: pre-assessment, eight week Parenting Matters sessions, three-month wait period, and post-assessment. Based on the pre- and post-intervention scores, parents showed increased stress at post measurement. It was concluded that the increase in stress could be due to the stress participants felt from applying the new parenting knowledge and parenting skills, as well as being more aware of their parenting behavior as learned from participation in Parenting Matters. Parenting practices were positively related with parental stress. This supports the finding that parental stress increased at post measurement as their parenting competence increased. It was concluded that Parenting Matters shows promise as an effective evidenced-informed parent program as it raised awareness and elicited conscientious effective parenting practices.