STAR (STOP, THINK, ASK, RESPOND) PARENTING PROGRAM

OVERVIEW

The STAR Parenting Program teaches at-risk parents an acronym to use and strategies to improve parenting practices. The parents were randomly assigned to either the treatment group or a wait-list control group. This program was found to impact parent discipline practices, parent-child interaction, parent anger-aggression, and child behavioral and emotional problems.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Targeted Population: Low-income, at-risk parents of children who are 1 to 5 years old

The program is based on cognitive-behavioral theory. It is divided into four segments, one for each part of the acronym, STAR. The first part encourages the parent to first stop and then think about how their child's behavior may be affecting their own thoughts and feelings. In the second segment, the parent is encouraged to think of what their expectations are for their child and to ask if they are reasonable expectations based on the child's developmental stage. The third and fourth segment covers how the parent should respond to or sanction the child's behavior. The third segment is when parents share the ways they nurture their child and teach family values and culture, for example, through telling stories, playing games, or cooking meals. The third segment mainly focuses on reinforcing children's positive behavior with rewards and positive attention. The fourth segment involves how to sanction children's negative behavior. Techniques suggested are redirection/distraction, natural consequences, time-out, ignoring, and setting limits.

The program is implemented through 10 weekly, 1.5-hour sessions of small groups, no more than 4 parents at a time. Parents receive 4 1-hour audio tapes and workbooks to reinforce what is discussed in the group.

Group facilitators had experience working with low-income families ranging from 3 to 20 years. To prepare for the program, facilitators met once a week for 2-hour sessions, totaling 20 hours of program training. They also received a guidebook to aid in the implementation of the program.

EVALUATION OF PROGRAM

Nicholson, B., Anderson, M., Fox, R., & Brenner, V. (2002). One family at a time: A prevention program for at-risk parents. Journal of Counseling and Development, 80(3), 362-371.

Evaluated Population: Parents reporting frequent use of verbal or physical punishment. Twenty-six parents of children ranging from 1 year to 5 years of age participated in the evaluation. The parents came from a large, urban, Midwestern city. Most participants were mothers and three of those mothers participated with the child's father. The caregivers were about 30 years of age on average and most were African American (54 percent). Most parents were single (62 percent) and had an average of nearly 3 children. Most of the families made less than $20,000 a year (53 percent).

Approach: Parents were randomly assigned to the STAR treatment group or a control group. Parents reported parenting behaviors, parenting stress, anger-related feelings, and child behaviors. An interviewer also recorded observations on the parent-child relationship, such as behaviors observed and functioning.

Results: The treatment group experienced significant reductions in ineffective parenting practices, parent-child dysfunctional interactions, parent anger-aggression behaviors, child behavioral and emotional problems, and child problem behaviors. These improvements occurred while the control group saw no significant changes in these measures.

There were no significant impacts for nurturing parenting, parent expectations, parent distress, child temperament/"difficult child," and the intensity and frequency of child externalizing problems.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References:

Nicholson, B., Anderson, M., Fox, R., & Brenner, V. (2002). One family at a time: A prevention program for at-risk parents. Journal of Counseling and Development, 80(3), 362-371.

Evaluated participant ages: 1-5 years old

Program components: Parent or family component, Clinic/provider-based

Program outcomes: Behavioral problems, Mental health, Social and emotional health

KEYWORDS:

Early Childhood (0-5), Community-based, Infants (0-12 months), Toddlers(12-36 months), Children (3-11), Externalizing Problems, Parent or Family component, Urban, High-Risk, Child Maltreatment, Parent-management Skills, White or Caucasian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Co-ed.

Program information last updated on November 9, 2009