Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth

Parents as Teachers (PAT)

OVERVIEW

The Parents as Teachers (PAT) program is an early childhood parent education program. The program focuses on positive child development by providing monthly home visits and group meetings. PAT uses trained parent educators to work with randomly assigned families with children who have not yet entered school. Evaluations of PAT have found that the program is effective in increasing parents’ knowledge of children’s needs and interactions with children. For example, PAT participants had increases in parenting knowledge and were more likely to engage in reading activities with their children. PAT was also effective in influencing several child outcomes such as being fully immunized and free from injuries. Children in the PAT program experienced several non-significant gains in the self-help domain of child development at the 3-year assessment. They were also more likely to be fully immunized and less likely to be treated for injury.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: The program recruits parents of children who have not yet entered school. Once in the program, participants can remain in the program as long as they would like; however the program officially ends when children enters kindergarten.

The goal of the PAT program is to increase parent knowledge of early childhood development, improve parenting practices, prevent child abuse and neglect, increase children’s school readiness, and detect developmental delays and health issues.

The program consists of monthly home visits by trained parent educators, parent education group meetings, and other services. Participants can receive program services as long as they remain in the program. In the home visits, parent educators share age-appropriate child development information, help parents learn to observe their children, address parenting concerns, and facilitate activities that provide parent/child interaction. In parent education group meetings, parents interact with other parents to share information and support one another. The other services the PAT program provides include developmental screenings, a “drop in and play” session, and referral to resources.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Wagner, M., Spiker, D., Gerlach-Downie, S., & Hernandez, F. (2000, February). Parental engagement in home visiting programs: Findings from the Parents as Teachers multisite evaluation. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.

Evaluated population: 667 families were recruited in three evaluation communities at the beginning of the study.

Approach: Participant families had children in their first year of life. Mothers ranged in age from 21.5 and 25, and a majority of participants were African American. Participants were randomly assigned to receive the PAT program or to a control group.

Qualitative and quantitative data were collected for members of the treatment group from a variety of sources including the enrollment form, the home visit record, the parent engagement assessment, the Home Observation and Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory, home visit observations, parent educator interviews, focus groups, and coordinator interviews. Data were collected on or around the children’s birthday. Of the three evaluation communities, only one was able to gather data from children at their third birthdays. However, this study focuses primarily on how descriptive statistics from baseline are related to persistence in the program.

At baseline there were no significant differences between participants in the control or experimental group. The researchers analyzed the data by comparing descriptive statistics to determine the engagement of parents in the program.

Results: Results of the experimental analyses indicated that enrollment data were related to whether a participant would persist with the program. Individuals who stayed in PAT were older than mothers who dropped out (25 years vs. 21 years). Also, those who persisted were more likely to be African American and less likely to be Hispanic or of high income. Further, persisters were better educated (12.3 years of school vs. 11.5 years of school). Intensity and consistency of the home visits was also related to persistence in PAT. The researchers further found that those parents who demonstrated their children were top priority also persisted. Those parents that persisted were more likely to look at and read books with their children and talk to their children while reading/looking at books.

Wagner, M., Iida, E., & Spiker, D. (2001, August). The multisite evaluation of the Parents as Teachers home visiting program: Three-year findings from one community. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.

Evaluated population: Because of the high attrition in the other two sites, the three-year evaluation was only conducted in one site. 206 families were recruited to participate in the evaluation.

Approach: Infants up to 8 months of age were randomly assigned to either a participant or control group. Participant mothers were on average 24 years old and the sample was mostly Caucasian. The average educational attainment of mothers was 12^th grade and most participants were from low-income households. Participants varied in the number of home visits they received, with an average of 20 home visits.

Data were collected from participants using the family enrollment form, the Mothers’ Previous Experience with Infants questionnaire, a family survey, parenting knowledge items, Parenting Sense of Competence Scale, Maternal Social Support Index, Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory, Language- and literacy-promoting behavior items, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment, Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training, Developmental Profile II, Adaptive Social Behavior Inventory, Immunization Status, and program records. Assessments were conducted around the time of children’s birthdays and data were collected from participants in in-home assessments.

Results: Results of the study showed parents in the PAT program increased their knowledge of child development and methods to stimulate children’s development. For overall parent knowledge, there were small to medium impacts (w² ranging from .01 to .23). There were also significant differences on measures of attitudes towards parenting (effect size was .12 at year 3 assessment). Parents in PAT were also more likely to engage in reading activities with their children (effect size of .21 at 3 year assessment). Impacts were greater among teen parents.

With regard to child outcomes, children in the PAT program experienced several non-significant gains. Specifically, they showed gains in the self-help domain of child development at the 3 year assessment (effect size=.26). They also were more likely to be fully immunized (effect size=.81) and less likely to be treated for injury (effect size=.36) at the 3 year follow up.

The researchers concluded that PAT was effective in influencing outcomes but the effects were small. Also, since only one of the three sites participated, they caution about generalizing from these findings.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References

Web Site: www.patnc.org

Program also discussed in the following Child Trends publication(s):

Child Trends. (2001). School readiness: Helping communities get children ready for school and schools ready for children (Research brief). Washington, DC: Child Trends.

Halle, T., Zaff, J., Calkins, J., & Margie, N. G. (2000). Background for community-level work on school readiness: A review of definitions, assessments, and investment strategies. Part II: Reviewing the literature on contributing factors to school readiness. Washington, DC: Child Trends, Inc.

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: younger than 8 months old at start and were followed through 3 years of age / Program age ranges in the Guide: 0-5

Program components: child care/early childhood education; clinic-based, provider-based, or miscellaneous; home visiting; parent or family component

Measured outcomes: education and cognitive development; physical health

Program information last updated 08/03/04