Prevention Works!

Parenting as Prevention: Learning What Works

Parenting interventions are a critical component of comprehensive prevention programs, because research shows that parental influence is the primary reason that youth do not use drugs. Because these approaches are as diverse as the populations they serve, they encompass many ways of benefiting youth and parents.

An expert panel of CSAP’s Prevention Enhancement Protocol System (PEPS) reviewed the current research and practice evidence on parenting interventions. PEPS suggests three types of parenting interventions that show a high level of effectiveness for substance abuse prevention. They are (1) behavioral parent training, primarily targeting parents of young children; (2) family skills training, for parents of elementary school children; and (3) family therapy for adolescents.

• Behavioral Parent Training. Research suggests that this approach is effective in reducing youth substance abuse risk factors such as conduct disorders, aggression, and school problems. This intervention may also help to improve resiliency factors and social competencies. Behavioral parent training usually involves parents of behaviorally disordered children in group sessions for 12 to 20 weeks. Videos demonstrate improved parenting skills in communication, discipline, and follow-through on requests or chores. The programs are highly scripted and interactive, and most include homework assignments for parents. Behavioral parent training programs include Webster-Stratton’s Child and Parent Video Series, Patterson’s Parent Training, Wahler and Associates’ parent training, Steele’s Strengthening Multi-Ethnic Families and Communities, Alvey’s Effective Black Parents and Los Niños Bien Educados, Birth to Three’s Parenting Program, Milman’s Parent Project for worksites, Kavanaugh and Reid’s Treatment Foster Care, and Gordon’s computer-interactive CD-ROM, Parenting Adolescents Wisely.
• Family Skills Training. Research suggests that this approach addresses more risk and protective factors for tobacco, alcohol, and drug use than parent training or children’s skills training alone. The approach involves not only intensive parent skills training but also 12 to 18 sessions of youth social and life skills training--often including a family practice session. Family skills training programs include Kumpfer’s Strengthening Families Program, Molgaard and Kumpfer’s Iowa Strengthening Families Program, Lecar and Kameoka’s Strengthening Hawaii Families, Aktan’s SafeHaven Program for inner-city African-American families, and Miller-Hyde’s Dare To Be You for preschoolers. Other effective programs include Catalano’s Focus on Families, McDonald’s Families and Schools Together, Hawkins and Catalano’s Preparing for the Drug-Free Years, Bavolek’s Nurturing Program, and Dishion’s Adolescent Transitions Program.
• Family Therapy. Highly skilled therapists work with families and youth with identified influences that may put them at high risk for substance abuse (e.g., existing conduct disorders, juvenile delinquency, depression, or initiation of drug use). Effective family therapy programs include Alexander and Parson’s Functional Family Therapy, Gordon’s Home-Based Functional Family Therapy, Szapocznik’s Structural Family Therapy, Liddle’s Family Therapy, Henggler and Borduin’s Multi-Systemic Family Therapy, and McMahon, Forhand, and Long’s Helping the Noncompliant Child for young children.

These approaches are most promising when considered in terms of overall prevention program goals and specific audience needs. When planning programs, consider developmental appropriateness, cultural competence, gender sensitivity, community relevance, and cost and availability of training and program materials. Modifications can be made to improve cultural competence or local relevancy. Parenting programs may prove more successful if planners reduce attendance barriers by providing child care, food, transportation, and incentives for consistent attendance and graduation.

Detailed information about these programs is available on the Strengthening America’s Families Web site: www-medlib.med.utah.edu/healthed/progdesc.aspx.

Sources
Ashery, R., and Kumpfer, K.L. (in press). Family intervention research for the prevention of drug use in youth. NIDA Research Monograph, NCADI, Rockville, MD.
Kumpfer, K.L. (1993). Strengthening America's families: Promising parenting strategies for delinquency prevention. Office of Juvenile Delinquency Prevention.
Kumpfer, K.L., Molgaard, V., and Spoth, R. (1996). The Strengthening Families program for the prevention of delinquency and drug use. In R. de V. Peters and R.J. McMahon (eds.). Preventing childhood disorders, substance abuse, and delinquency. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Kumpfer, K.L., Szapocznik, J., and Grover, P. Preventing substance abuse among children and adolescents: family-centered approaches. CSAP, SAMHSA, DHHS.

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