BUILDING SAFE COMMUNITIES FROM THE START: THE UPSTART PARENT SURVEY

Abstract

Healthy child development sets the foundation for the lifelong trajectory of children and the very health of our society. Effective parenting supports optimal child development in all its domains. The UpStart Parent Survey was developed to help agencies that provide prevention-focused parenting programs (P-FPPs) determine the successful parental acquisition of common outcomes known to predict effective parenting. The purposes of this initial project, Building Safe Communities from the Start: The Upstart Parent Survey, were three-fold: 1) to determine the psychometric properties of the tool, 2) to determine the feasibility of using the UpStart Parent Survey in P-FPPs, and 3) to examine the effectiveness of P-FPPs using the UpStart Parent Survey. This article addresses the latter two purposes.

Keywords

• parenting
• preschool children
• program evaluation
• feasibility studies
• mixed methods