The Chicago Parent Program: comparing 1-year outcomes for African American and Latino parents of young children

Abstract

Data were merged from two prevention randomized trials testing 1-year outcomes of a parenting skills program, the Chicago Parent Program (CPP) and comparing its effects for African-American (n = 291) versus Latino (n = 213) parents and their preschool children. Compared to controls, intervention parents had improved self-efficacy, used less corporal punishment and more consistent discipline, and demonstrated more positive parenting. Intervention children had greater reductions in behavior problems based on parent-report, teacher-report, and observation. Although improvements from the CPP were evident for parents in both racial/ethnic groups, Latino parents reported greater improvements in their children's behavior and in parenting self-efficacy but exhibited greater decreases in praise. Findings support the efficacy of the CPP for African American and Latino parents and young children from low-income urban communities.

Figure 1

CONSORT flow diagram of merged data set from Study 1 and Study 2 Note. ^a In study 1, 3 centers were randomized to intervention condition only; 4 centers were randomized to a wait-list control condition and became intervention sites 2 years later leading to a total of 7 intervention sites in study 1. ^b In Study 2, 8 centers served as their own control groups.