These resources offer examples of program evaluations and provide information on how to evaluate the effectiveness of parent education and support programs.
Assessing Parent Education Programs for Families Involved With Child Welfare Services: Evidence and Implications (PDF - 521 KB)
School of Social Welfare, University of California at Berkeley (2006)
Provides outcome data generated from 70 of the most rigorously evaluated parenting education programs with families determined to be abusive, neglectful, or at risk of child maltreatment.
Child Abuse Prevention: What Works?: The Effectiveness of Parent Education Programs for Preventing Child Maltreatment
Holzer, Bromfield, & Richardson (2006)
Provides a background on parent education, an exploration of the components of an effective parent education program, and information on evaluations conducted in Australia, Canada, and the United States.
Developmental and Economic Effects of Parenting Programs for Expectant Parents and Parents of Preschool-Age Children (PDF - 1,086 KB)
McGroder & Hyra (2009)
Identifies effective parent education programs, quantifies the economic benefits of such programs, and presents a logic model for using parent education programs to address children's safety and healthy development.
Parent Education and Training Programs in a Child Welfare Population: A Review of the Evidence: Executive Summary (PDF - 411 KB)
Beaulieu (2010)
Compares and contrasts the utility of the most widely used and disseminated models of parent training and education according to the strength of the empirical evidence and their relevance to parents with substantiated histories of child maltreatment.
Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect: A National Evaluation of Parents Anonymous Groups (PDF - 626 KB)
Polinsky, Pion-Berlin, Williams, Long, & Wolf (2010)
Child Welfare, 89(6)
Describes findings from a national study to assess whether participation in Parents Anonymous was associated with child maltreatment prevention.
Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect With Parent Training: Evidence and Opportunities (PDF - 165 KB)
Barth (2009)
Future of Children, 19(2)
Discusses the design of parent training programs and the effectiveness of those programs in addressing the most common parental risk factors for abuse or neglect. The article concludes with a description of a promising framework for delivering parent training that uses a multifaceted parenting campaign with five levels of intervention.
When the Quick Fix Doesn't Work: Evaluating the Effect of Parent Education on Child Abuse
DeBord, Jakes, & Guin (2010)
Journal of Extension, 48(5)
Discusses the roles of scholars and program evaluators in informing clients about the duration and intensity required for effective parent education interventions, and presents implications for others involved in creating powerful behavior change interventions.