How well do evidence-based universal parenting programs teach parents about psychological maltreatment?: A program review

Abstract

Objective Psychological maltreatment (PM) is a widespread form of child maltreatment both in high-risk and maltreating families as well as in the general population of parents, yet there are no intervention programs that target it directly. The current study was designed as the first step in a larger program of research concerning educating parents about PM. In this study we evaluated the content of universal parenting programs to assess whether they include content on PM. Three questions were addressed: (1) Which types, if any, of PM were included in the content of these programs? (2) Which programs, if any, have content about each of the types of PM? (3) What are the implications for the development of PM curricula for parents? Method Ten evidence-based, manualized, universal parenting programs identified from SAMHSA or a comparable model program registry were rated on how well their content covered 18 types of psychological maltreatment (PM), as defined by the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, APSAC ( Bingelli, Hart, & Brassard, 2001; Hart & Brassard, 1995). Each type of PM was coded along several dimensions which resulted in two summary scores: (1) Does the program contain content designed to teach parents what not to do in regards to the 18 psychologically maltreating behaviors and (2) Does the program contain content designed to teach parents what to do instead? Results Content related to most PM types were not included in the curricula, especially regarding “what not to do” and not one program was rated as having content related to teaching all 18 types of PM. Conclusions Existing parenting programs do not currently cover content for teaching community parents about psychological maltreatment.