Parenting Education and Supports
Studies and Initiatives
The Parenting Club
The goal of The Parenting Club is to identify the key characteristics of
a parenting education program that strengthen parents' confidence and competence
(i.e., knowledge, skills, and positive attributions). The Parenting Club is a
weekly, six-session parenting education program that involves parent discussions,
identification and use of newly identified strategies, and parent reflection on
the consequences of using the strategies. Parents, grandparents, foster parents,
other primary caregivers, and their children are The Parenting Club participants.
The Parenting Club is funded, in part, by the North Carolina Children's Trust Fund.
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This study is evaluating the influence of The Parenting Club on parenting
competence and confidence. The study is evaluating the extent to which
capacity building practices promoting active parent participation in
parent discussions about, and reflections on, child rearing practices
that influences parents' confidence and competence in parenting and child rearing responsibilities (CASEinPoint, Volume 2, Number 7).
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This study is examining the relationship between practitioners' use of capacity
building practices and parents' sense of empowerment and parenting behavior (e.g.,
confidence & competence). Surveys of parents' judgments of practitioner helpgiving
behavior and their own sense of empowerment are being analyzed to discern which
practitioner beliefs and behaviors are related to parent empowerment. Data analysis
is guided by a capacity-building conceptual framework that examines the direct and
indirect influences of practitioner helpgiving on parents' judgments about their parenting capabilities.
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The goal of this study is to examine the extent to which intervention methods used by
practitioners for promoting parenting competence and confidence are consistent with
capacity-building practice characteristics and result in increased parenting capacity.
This is being accomplished by relating differences in helpgiving practices to differences
in parent benefits. A major focus of the study is the identification of the capacity-building
practices that contribute to parents' capabilities to carry out parenting roles and responsibilities.
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The goal of this study is to assess the extent to which helpgiving practices that are
inconsistent with a capacity-building model have negative effects on parent competence and
confidence. The study was implemented in response to parent feedback that certain helpgiving
practices used by professionals often undermined their sense of parenting capabilities. The
study goal is being accomplished by relating helpgiving practices that are consistent and
inconsistent with a capacity-building approach with parents' judgments about their parenting capabilities.
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The goal of this line of research is to examine the manner in which family-centered helpgiving
practices have direct and indirect effects on parents' judgments of their parenting confidence,
competence, and enjoyment. Several completed studies as well as several studies in progress
indicate that the helpgiving practices of early childhood practitioners mediate parents'
assessments of their parenting capabilities and confidence in carrying out parenting responsibilities.
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