A preventive intervention promoting toddlers' self-regulation improves parental resilience in the future

Objective

The current study tested whether participating in a family-focused preventive intervention designed to promote toddlers' self-regulation improves parental resilience among families living in poverty.

Background

Family-focused preventive interventions can help strengthen family functioning, but it is unclear how parents apply what they have learned to new child-rearing challenges.

Method

Two hundred and forty-two families with toddlers (37% White, 25% Black, 19% Latino, 17% multiracial, 2% Asian; median income = $1,555 per month) enrolled in Early Head Start were randomly assigned to the Recipe 4 Success preventive intervention or usual practice home visits. Parents reported on parental resilience, which included aspects of social problem-solving, personal control, engagement coping, and self-regulation, assessed 18 months after the end of the intervention.

Results

A structural equations model revealed that parents in the intervention group, compared to parents in the control group, reported greater parental resilience and used more competent strategies to address child-rearing challenges (β = .33, p = .03). Subgroup analyses indicated that the intervention effects were similar across families with different demographic characteristics.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates how a family-focused preventive intervention designed to improve parents' skills in one specific domain at one point in their toddlers' development can have positive ripple effects, enhancing parental resilience in the future.

Implications

These findings reinforce the potential widespread value of providing rigorous, evidence-based family-focused preventive interventions during early childhood.