Impact of a Parenting Group Model on Parenting Skills and Child Maltreatment: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial Among Chinese and Latinx Immigrant Parents

Background and Purpose:

Immigration is often associated with disrupted social support network as well as increased stress and struggles among many immigrant parents. Some of them also experience traumatized separations and disrupted attachments with their children. As a result, many immigrant parents rely on their traditional practices of child discipline, including physical discipline, especially in dealing with their children’s behavior problems. Meanwhile, few interventions have been designed and rigorously evaluated to help immigrant parents improve parenting skills and reduce child maltreatment. This study examines the impact of Operation Parenting, an 8-week social group model that has been designed and implemented among Chinese and Latinx immigrant parents to provide culturally enriched support and help parents improve their self-efficacy in parenting and coping with the behavioral issues of their children.

Methods:

Data for this study come from an ongoing randomized controlled trial (RCT) among Chinese and Latinx immigrant parents who are concerned by their children’s behavior problems using a convenience sampling method in New York City. Parents are randomly assigned to the intervention or control group, with pre- and post-test data collected in both groups. There are 214 parents in the analysis, including 156 Chinese immigrants and 58 Latinx immigrants. The outcome measures of parenting skills include self-efficacy in parenting and parental warmth. Child maltreatment is measured by psychological aggression, physical assault, and neglect. OLS regressions are conducted, controlling for parent, child, and household characteristics. A mediation analysis is further conducted to examine whether the reduction in child maltreatment can be attributed to the improvement in parenting skills.

Results:

Preliminary results show that, compared to parents in the control group, parents in the Operation Parenting group have significantly higher parental self-efficacy and warmth (with effect size of 0.38 and 0.52). The parenting group intervention also significantly reduces the frequencies of child maltreatment, including psychological aggression, physical assault, and neglect (with effect sizes ranging from -0.60 to -0.22). A mediation analysis shows that approximately 12% to 23% of the reduction in child maltreatment measures can be attributed to the improvement in parenting skills. A moderation analysis does not show different findings between Chinese and Latinx immigrant parents.

Conclusions and Implications:

This study uses an RCT to provide rigorous evidence on the impact of Operation Parenting on parents’ parenting skills and child maltreatment. The findings from a mediation analysis suggest that promoting parenting skills through a group setting can help reduce child maltreatment. This parenting group model has been developed and implemented by clinical social workers based on their long-time work experiences with Chinese and Latinx immigrants in their own communities. Implemented in a group setting, this model has low cost, especially compared to individual and family counseling, and can be easily expended to other social service agencies through the training of group leaders and facilitators. The findings can inform researchers, social workers, and other human service practitioners about providing culturally competent services to better serve the Chinese and Latinx immigrant communities.