AUTHOR=Totsika Vasiliki , Mandair Sashvinder , Lindsay Geoff TITLE=Comparing the Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Parenting Programs on Families of children with and without Special Educational Needs: Short-term and Long-term Gains JOURNAL=Frontiers in Education VOLUME=2 YEAR=2017 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2017.00007 DOI=10.3389/feduc.2017.00007 ISSN=2504-284X ABSTRACT=

Parents of children with a disability or special educational needs (SEN) have three available options when accessing parenting programs: (a) to access a parenting program that has been adapted for use by families with a child with disability, (b) to access a disability-specific parenting program, or (c) to access a parenting program developed for typically developing children. The aim of the present study was to examine whether accessing evidence-based parenting programs (EBPPs) developed for typically developed children (option c) could benefit families of children with SEN, and whether benefits could be maintained when program delivery takes place as part of sustained service implementation. Using data from an effectiveness trial, we found that there was no evidence of differential effectiveness: i.e., families of children with SEN experienced similar gains to families whose child did not have SEN with respect to child behavior problems, parenting style, and parental mental well-being. Using data from services’ sustained implementation, our findings indicated that gains during the implementation phase were of similar magnitude to gains during the research trial: following EBPPs, families of children with SEN experienced small to moderate improvements in behavior problems, and moderate to large improvements in parenting and parental mental well-being across the two phases. One year later, gains were significantly maintained in families who had accessed EBPPs as part of the research trial. While the study is not proposing that EBPPs developed for typically developing children are a replacement for disability-adapted or disability-specific parenting programs, there was a pragmatic need to evaluate the effectiveness of EBPPs that are in practice accessed by families with a child with SEN. Overall, families of children with SEN can benefit from EBPPs similarly to families whose child does not have SEN, and the gains are significant and substantial even when EBPPs are offered as part of regular service provision. Longer term maintenance of gains (1 year) in service-led implementation of EBPPs likely requires more input.