Intervention Summary
Metropolitan Family Services Parenting Fundamentals
Parenting Fundamentals (formerly called the Parenting Education Program) is a group-based parent education and skills training program for parents who speak English or Spanish and, often, have low incomes, are part of an immigrant family, and/or are involved with the court or social service system. The program is designed to improve participants' parenting strategies and, by extension, to improve their children's behavior, social capacities, emotional competencies, and cognitive abilities. The program's content is tailored developmentally for use with parents of children in the following age groups: 0-4, 4-8, 8-12, and 12-18.
Parenting Fundamentals is delivered in either English or Spanish by trained parent educators who conduct 2-hour, weekly group training sessions and up to three home visits with each participant over the course of the 8-week program. The group training sessions are curriculum based and cover such topics as appropriate nonviolent disciplinary approaches, issues related to child development, parent-child communication skills, and problem solving. The home visits provide opportunities for individualized assistance; discussion and practice of parenting strategies; an evaluation of the home environment; and parental modeling related to patience, respect, and self-care. Parents also receive access to comprehensive referral services and an ongoing support program.
Parent educators, typically social services professionals and paraprofessionals, as well as parents who previously participated in the program, must complete training before implementing Parenting Fundamentals. After parent educators have implemented the program, they must complete booster training on facilitation skills and cultural competency.
The study reviewed for this summary was conducted with two groups of parents: those with children ages 0-7 and those with children ages 7-12. In addition, almost half of the parents (primarily mothers) in the study were mandated to participate by the court or social service system.
Descriptive Information
Areas of Interest | Mental health promotion |
Outcomes |
1: Understanding of parenting strategies 2: Home environment 3: Child behavior in the home |
Outcome Categories |
Family/relationships Social functioning |
Ages |
0-5 (Early childhood) 6-12 (Childhood) 18-25 (Young adult) 26-55 (Adult) |
Genders |
Male Female |
Races/Ethnicities |
American Indian or Alaska Native Asian Black or African American Hispanic or Latino White Race/ethnicity unspecified Non-U.S. population |
Settings |
Home Other community settings |
Geographic Locations | Urban |
Implementation History | The Community Counseling Centers of Chicago developed and first implemented Parenting Fundamentals (formerly called the Parenting Education Program). Since then, the program has served over 4,700 parents and caregivers at 41 sites in Illinois and Puerto Rico. |
NIH Funding/CER Studies |
Partially/fully funded by National Institutes of Health: No Evaluated in comparative effectiveness research studies: Yes |
Adaptations | The program has been adapted for use with Puerto Rican Islanders. Additionally, the program has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, and Vietnamese, and it has been conducted in Assyrian and Urdu through interpreters. |
Adverse Effects | No adverse effects, concerns, or unintended consequences were identified by the developer. |
IOM Prevention Categories |
Universal Selective |
Quality of Research
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Readiness for Dissemination
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Costs
The cost information below was provided by the developer. Although this cost information may have been updated by the developer since the time of review, it may not reflect the current costs or availability of items (including newly developed or discontinued items). The implementation point of contact can provide current information and discuss implementation requirements.
Additional InformationImplementers are only required to purchase parent manuals corresponding to the ages of the participating parents' children. The developer offers tailored trainings for sites that want to implement the program across several age groups. Parent educators can attend booster trainings after they have conducted the intervention two times. |