The Moderating Role of Quality of Neighborhood on the Effectiveness of a Home- and Group-based Parenting Program

In the field of early child maltreatment prevention, there is an increasing concern about the importance of evidence-based parental intervention to help parenting in vulnerable parents. Early intervention programs are... [ view full abstract ]

In the field of early child maltreatment prevention, there is an increasing concern about the importance of evidence-based parental intervention to help parenting in vulnerable parents. Early intervention programs are specifically recommended to start intervention as soon as possible. Individual variables are usually proposed to moderate program effectiveness. The present study examined the moderating role of quality of neighborhood on the effectiveness of the group- and home-based version of the Growing Up Happily in the Family Program for at-risk parents with children between 0 and 5, delivered through local social services in Spain. Program outcomes were parenting attitudes, parenting sense of competence 
and parenting stress. In the group program, the participants were 133 parents who attended the program in 10 Social Services from the Autonomous Communities of Castile and Leon, Canarias and Catalonia. In the home version, the participants were 96 parents referred by the municipal social services of Tenerife (Canarias). Participants, in both programs, were mainly mothers, young, half of the participants lived in a two-parent family, lived in urban areas, had primary education, were on welfare and unemployed, and half of the participants were in low-medium risk situation. Results showed that, after the program, parents living in neighborhoods with higher socioeoconomic levels, higher security, and higher cohesion-integration reported better results in parental attitudes in the group version. Parents living in neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic level and less physically preserved, but with higher security and higher cohesion-integration reported better results in parental attitudes in the home version. Parents living in neighborhoods with higher socioeconomic level, higher security and more community resources reported less parenting stress and more sense of competences in the home version. These findings illustrate how quality of neighborhood not only shapes parenting but also affects the intervention context in a way that at-risk parents get more benefits from the program.