ParentCorps
ParentCorps is a group-based programme for families with a four-year-old child living in disadvantaged, urban communities.
It aims to help parents support their child’s social, emotional and self-regulatory skills in order to encourage healthy development and school success.
The programme consists of 14 weekly sessions (each of a two-hour duration) with adjunctive components, depending on the participating families’ individual needs. It is delivered by mental health professionals, who lead the parent groups and school staff co-facilitating the pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) student sessions.
EIF Programme Assessment
Child outcomes
This programme can affect outcomes for children in Active and healthy, physical and mental wellbeing.
According to the best available evidence for this programme's impact, it can achieve the following positive outcomes for children:
Enhancing school achievement & employment
Improved kindergarten achievement test scores
based on study 2
- Statement: 2.64-point improvement on the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement (KTEA) Brief Form Second Edition
- Score: 7
- Timeframe: Immediately after the intervention
Improved academic performance
based on study 2
- Statement: 5.65-point improvement on the New York Teacher Rating Scale for disruptive and antisocial behaviour
- Score: 10
- Timeframe: Immediately after the intervention
Preventing crime, violence and antisocial behaviour
Reductions in behavioural problems
based on study 1
This programme also has evidence of supporting positive outcomes for couples, parents or families that may be relevant to a commissioning decision. Please see About the evidence for more detail.
Who is it for?
The best available evidence for this programme relates to the following age-groups:
Preschool
How is it delivered?
The best available evidence for this programme relates to implementation through these delivery models:
- Group
Where is it delivered?
The best available evidence for this programme relates to its implementation in these settings:
- Children's centre or early-years setting
- Primary school
How is it targeted?
The best available evidence for this programme relates to its implementation as:
- Targeted selective
Where has it been implemented?
- United States
Ireland provision
Ireland evaluation
About the programme
What happens during the delivery?
How is it delivered?
- ParentCorps has two group components – one delivered to groups of between 12 and 15 parents (the Parenting Programme), and the other delivered to groups of 18 to 20 children (the Programme for Pre-K Students). Each component is 14 sessions of two hours' duration.
- ParentCorps is delivered by seven practitioners in total. The component delivered to parents is delivered by one mental health practitioner. Three pre-kindergarten teachers and three assistant teachers deliver the programme for children.
What happens during the intervention?
- Both the component delivered to parents and the component delivered to children are held in adjacent classrooms. There are also some group activities designed to bring children and parents together to practise new skills.
- In the parent component, each session begins with a five-minute video clip which illustrates behaviour management principles and concepts.
- Didactics, discussion, group activities, role playing, homework assignments and problem-solving discussions are all used to teach parenting practices such as: establishing structure and routines for children, positive reinforcement (star charts), providing consistent, non-physical consequences for misbehaviour (time out) etc.
- In the child groups, leaders use behaviour management practices to promote children’s positive behaviours and reduce or prevent problem behaviours. Children are exposed to the skills parents are learning, so as to increase their familiarity and acceptance of the practices when parents attempt them at home.
What are the implementation requirements?
Who can deliver it?
- ParentCorps is delivered by seven practitioners. The component delivered to parents is delivered by one mental health practitioner (NFQ-9/10). Three pre-kindergarten teachers (NFQ-9/10) and three assistant teachers (NFQ-7/8) deliver the programme for children.
What are the training requirements?
- The mental health practitioner receives 56 hours of training, the pre-kindergarten teachers and the assistant teachers receive 42 hours of training.
How are the practitioners supervised?
- It is recommended that practitioners are supervised by one host agency supervisor qualified to NFQ-9/10 with 14 hours of training and two programme developer supervisors with no required training.
What are the systems for maintaining fidelity?
- Training manual
- Other online material
- Face-to-face training
- Supervision
- Fidelity monitoring
- Self-paced e-learning modules
Is there a licensing requirement?
There is no licence required to run this programme.
How does it work? (Theory of Change)
How does it work?
- ParentCorps assumes that some parenting practices can inadvertently cause child conduct problems and reduce their educational attainment.
- Parents learn how to use positive reinforcement and effective behaviour management strategies. These techniques are also directly introduced to the children by teachers.
- In the short term, parents are more involved in parenting their children. They employ more effective parenting strategies allowing them to more effectively manage their children’s behaviour.
- In the long term, children have less behavioural problems and perform better academically.
Intended outcomes
Contact details
Spring Dawson-McClure
New York University
spring.dawson-mcclure@nyulangone.org
About the evidence
ParentCorps has evidence from one rigorously conducted RCT, along with evidence from an additional comparison group study.
This study identified statistically significant positive impact on a number of child and parent outcomes.
This programme has evidence from at least one rigorously conducted RCT along with evidence from an additional comparison group study. Consequently, the programme receives a 3+ rating overall.
Study 1
| Citation: | Brotman et al (2011) |
| Design: | RCT (Cluster) |
| Country: | United States |
| Sample: | 8 schools, 171 families |
| Timing: | Post-test |
| Child outcomes: |
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| Other outcomes: |
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| Study rating: | 2+ |
Brotman, L. M., Calzada, E., Huang, K. Y., Kingston, S., Dawson-McClure, S., Kamboukos, D., & Petkova, E. (2011). Promoting effective parenting practices and preventing child behaviour problems in school among ethnically diverse families from underserved, urban communities. Child Development, 82, 258–276.
Available at
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21291441
Study design and sample
The first study is an RCT (cluster).
This study involved random assignment of schools/families to a ParentCorps treatment group and a ‘pre-kindergarten services-as-usual’ control group.
This study was conducted in the US, with a sample of eight participating NYC elementary schools with Pre-K programmes, encompassing 171 ethnically diverse families.
Measures
Child behaviour problems were measured using the Behaviour Assessment System for Children – Preschool Version (teacher report) and the New York Teacher Rating Scales (direct assessment). Child school readiness as a predictor of academic achievement was measured using the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning-3 (achievement test).
Parents’ knowledge and use of appropriate parenting practices were measured using the Parenting Practices Interview (parent report)and the Effective Parenting Test (parent report). Observed effective parenting was measured using the Global Impressions of Parent Child Interactions Revised (direct assessment). Parent involvement as a predictor of academic achievement was measured using the Involvement Questionnaire (teacher report).
Findings
This study identified statistically significant positive impact on one child and parent outcome, respectively.
Child outcomes include:
- Reductions in behavioural problems
The conclusions that can be drawn from this study are limited by methodological issues pertaining to non-blind data collection, hence why a higher rating is not achieved.
Study 2
| Citation: | Brotman et al (2013) and Dawson-McClure et al (2014) |
| Design: | RCT (Cluster) |
| Country: | United States |
| Sample: | 10 schools, 1,050 children/families |
| Timing: | Post-test |
| Child outcomes: |
|
| Other outcomes: |
|
| Study rating: | 3 |
Brotman, L. M., Dawson-McClure, S., Calzada, E. J., Huang, K.-Y., Kamboukos, D., Palamar, J. J., & Petkova, E. (2013). Cluster (school) RCT of ParentCorps: Impact on kindergarten academic achievement. Pediatrics, 131(5), e1521-e1529.
Dawson-McClure, S., Calzada, E., Huang, K. Y., Kamboukos, D., Rhule, D., Kolawole, B., ... & Brotman, L. M. (2014). A population-level approach to promoting healthy child development and school success in low-income, urban neighborhoods: impact on parenting and child conduct problems. Prevention Science, 1-12.
Available at
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23589806
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24590412
Study design and sample
The second study is a rigorously conducted RCT (cluster)
This study involved random assignment of schools/families to a ParentCorps after-school group series treatment group and an ‘education-as-usual’ control group.
This study was conducted in the US, with a sample involving 1,050 children aged four years and their parents in 10 schools in deprived areas serving a largely black, low-income population.
Measures
Child school readiness and achievement were measured using the Kindergarten Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement test score (Reading, Writing, Math) (direct assessment) and the Diagnostic Indicators for Assessment of Learning (direct assessment). Child academic performance was measured using the 6-item subscale of Involve (teacher report). Child conduct problems were measured using the New York Rating Scale (parent report).
Knowledge of positive parenting was measured using the Effective Practices Test (parent report). Positive behaviour support and harsh and inconsistent behaviour management were measured using the Parenting Practices Interview (parent report). Parent involvement was measured using the 6-item subscale of Involve (teacher report), 12-item Commitment to Education subscale of Involve (parent report), and the Parent Perceptions of Parent Efficacy (parent report).
Findings
This study identified statistically significant positive impact on a number of child and parent outcomes.
Child outcomes include:
- Improved kindergarten achievement test scores
- Improved academic performance
Note that there is a follow-up report to this study ( Brotman et al., 2016). In this study, only a subgroup of the initially randomised sample (i.e. children enrolled after the first year of programme implementation) were selected for the follow-up analyses, which included 792 children representing 3 of the 4 original cohorts. The Brotman et al., (2016) paper describes the 3-year follow-up assessments which were taken at the end of the second grade, and found statistically significant positive impact on child outcomes, including:
- Reduced mental health problems over time (assessed using the Behaviour Assessment System for Children; teacher report)
- Improved academic performance (based on teacher ratings; teacher report)
Due to concerns around potential attrition bias, these follow-up findings are not considered as robust as those highlighted above.
Brotman, L. M., Dawson-McClure, S., Kamboukos, D., Huang, K. Y., Calzada, E. J., Goldfeld, K., Petkova, E. (2016). Effects of ParentCorps in Prekindergarten on Child Mental Health and Academic Performance: Follow-up of a Randomized Clinical Trial Through 8 Years of Age. JAMA Pediatrics, 170(12): 1149-1155.
Available at
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27695851