Promoting research-based parenting strategies through U.S. local television news: An experimental evaluation of the Positive Parenting Newsfeed project

Abstract

Research finds that parents’ knowledge and practices exert significant influence on the developmental outcomes of children and youth. Formal parenting programs that improve parenting knowledge and practices can positively impact children’s development and behavior; however, these programs tend to be limited in terms of their scope and size of the populations they serve. We conducted an experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of the Positive Parenting Newsfeed project–a wide-reaching parenting initiative that features rigorous research-based strategies and recommendations for parents through monthly TV news reports in English and Spanish. In a sample of 381 parents, we evaluated outcomes such as parents’ knowledge about the topics covered in the reports, intent to adopt, and adoption of research-based parenting behaviors. Compared to a control group, we find that parents exposed to the 1–1.5-minute Positive Parenting TV news segments report higher knowledge about research-based parenting topics, are more likely to report intention to adopt the behaviors featured in the segments, and implement more behaviors that follow the featured advice, one week and one month after watching the segments.