Effects of a Brief, Prevention-Focused Parenting Education Program for New Mothers

We evaluated the effects of a parenting program, Baby and You, on parenting knowledge, parenting morale, and social support using a single-group, pre-test, and post-test design with 159 Canadian mothers of infants aged 2 to 9 months old. Baby and You is a prevention-focused parenting program (PFPP) to improve maternal and infant health through education and social support. The 4-week curriculum focuses on infant development and safety, parent-child relationships, maternal self-care, and community resources. We computed repeated-measures ANOVAs separately for scores on Parenting Knowledge Scale, Parenting Moral Index, and Family Support Scale. We found a significant increase between pretest and post-test on parenting knowledge, but not parenting morale or social support. Parenting morale may be a stable construct that shows little change over time. It may take more than 4 weeks of programming for mothers to identify and integrate new sources of social support.