Tracing changes in families who participated in the home-start parenting program: parental sense of competence as mechanism of change

Abstract

The present study aimed to (1) determine the long-term effectiveness of Home-Start, a preventive parenting program, and (2) test the hypothesis that changes in maternal sense of competence mediate the program's effects. Participants were 124 mothers (n = 66 intervention, n = 58 comparison). Four assessments took place during a 1-year period. Latent growth modeling showed that Home-Start enhanced growth in maternal sense of competence and supportive parenting, and led to a decrease in the use of inept discipline. Results of mediational and cross-lagged analyses were consistent with the hypothesized model: Participation in Home-Start was related to the changes in maternal sense of competence, which in turn predicted changes in parenting. The results affirm the importance of directly targeting parental sense of competence in the context of prevention work with parents.

Fig. 1

Mediational model: Parameter estimates (and standard errors) for supportive parenting (above) and for inept discipline (below). Model fit for supportive parenting, χ² (28) = 39.04, p = .080, RMSEA = .06, 90% CI [.000, .096], CFI = .987, and for inept discipline, χ² (28) = 47.63, p = .012, RMSEA = .07, 90% CI [.036, .111], CFI = .978. Mediational paths are in bold. *p < .05

Fig. 2

Cross-lagged model: Parameter estimates (and standard errors) for supportive parenting (above) and for inept disciple (below). Model fit for supportive parenting, χ²(15) = 21.19, p = .131, RMSEA = .058, 90% CI [.000, .111], CFI = .990, and for inept discipline, χ²(15) = 23.79, p = .069, RMSEA = .069, 90% CI [.000, .119], CFI = .988. The dashed lines are the paths that were not significant in both models. Errors of measurements (not depicted) were allowed to correlate at a given time point. *p < .05