Parent- and community-focused approaches to supporting parents of young children: The family networks project

Abstract

Parents and primary caregivers are the most important influences on the development of young children; providing support to caregivers is thus a critical priority. Parenting supports and interventions that assist parents to engage responsively and warmly with their children, encourage positive daily interactions, establish and maintaining safety, and provide structure and limits in a non-coercive manner are particularly important. This chapter begins with a brief overview of several examples of evidence-based parenting interventions that focus on parents as the agents of change. The remainder of the chapter describes the Family Networks Project, a collaborative intervention designed to prevent child maltreatment and strengthen protective factors in parents of very young children with disabilities. Two randomized studies are described, and implications for future research in this area are discussed.