Child Abuse Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Child Abuse, including details on family violence, examinations, long-term effects, psychiatrics disorders.

A promising parenting intervention in foster care.

Linares LO, Montalto D, Li M, Oza VS

New York University Child Study Center, New York University, New York, NY 10016, USA. oriana.linares@med.nyu.edu

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a 2-component intervention for biological and foster parent (pairs) to improve parenting practices, co-parenting, and child externalizing problems. Participants were biological and foster parents (N=128) of primarily neglected children (ages 3 to 10 years) placed in regular foster homes. Biological and foster parents were randomly assigned in pairs to the intervention (n=80) or a usual care (n=48) condition. Intervention families received a 12-week parenting course (Incredible Years) and a newly developed co-parenting component. Key findings included significant gains in positive parenting and collaborative co-parenting for both biological and foster parents at the end of the intervention. At follow-up, intervention parents sustained greater improvement in positive parenting, showed gains in clear expectations, and reported a trend for fewer child externalizing problems. Findings supported the feasibility of offering joint parenting training to meet the needs of participating families and demonstrated that the co-parenting construct applied to families in the foster care system was amenable to intervention.

Published 22 March 2006 in J Consult Clin Psychol, 74(1): 32-41.
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