Effects of a Brief, Prevention-Focused Parenting Education Program for New Mothers.
We evaluated the effects of a parenting program, Baby and You, on parenting knowledge, parenting morale, and social support using a single-group, pre-test, and post-test design with 159 Canadian mothers of infants aged 2 to 9 months old. Baby and You is a prevention-focused parenting program (PFPP) to improve maternal and infant health through education and social support. The 4-week curriculum focuses on infant development and safety, parent-child relationships, maternal self-care, and community resources. We computed repeated-measures ANOVAs separately for scores on Parenting Knowledge Scale, Parenting Moral Index, and Family Support Scale. We found a significant increase between pre-test and post-test on parenting knowledge, but not parenting morale or social support. Parenting morale may be a stable construct that shows little change over time. It may take more than 4 weeks of programming for mothers to identify and integrate new sources of social support.
University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Sharon L
SL
Hooge
University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada benzies@ucalgary.ca.
Karen M
KM
Benzies
University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Cynthia A
CA
Mannion
D002170:Canada; D002657:Child Development; D004505:Education, Nonprofessional / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods*; D012648:Self Care; D012944:Social Support
community; experimental or quasi-experimental methods; parenting/families; perinatal; population focus