A mail survey examines the effectiveness of parent education newsletters among 726 White parents of 9th to 12th graders. Comparing the control with the treatment groups, parent education newsletters resulted in closer parental monitoring. Comparing the control group with readers, parents who read all of the newsletters reported closer monitoring, higher responsiveness, and more parent/teen discussions. The newsletters were as effective or more effective for parents who faced single or multiple risks than for those who faced no risk factors. Implications are given for theory, methodology, and practice. Delivering Parent Education to Low and High Risk Parents of Adolescents via Age-paced Newsletters* Karen Bogenschneider** and Margaret Stone Both mothers and fathers have overwhelmingly reported that adolescence, specifically ages 14 to 18, is the most difficult stage of parenting (Gecas & Seff, 1990; Hoffman & Manis, 1978; Olson, McCubbin, Barnes, Larson, Muxen, & Wilson, 1983; Pasley & Gecas, 1984; Small & Eastman, 1991; Small, Eastman, & Cornelius, 1988; Steinberg, 1990). Parents of adolescents felt less adequate than when their children were younger (Steinberg, 1990) and more anxious about issues such as their children's growing independence and desire for more freedom than parents think appropriate (Small et al., 1988), the influence of negative peer pressure (Pasley & Gecas, 1984), and their children's involvement in deviant behaviors that might jeopardize their safety (Pasley & Gecas, 1984). Parents have reported heightened levels of bickering and squabbling with adolescents, compared with younger children (Steinberg, 1990). Albeit temporary, this perturbation in the parent/child relationship may take a toll on parents' psychological well-being (Steinberg, 1990) and may be responsible, in part, for the propensity of parents of adolescents to seek out sources of parenting information more often than do parents of elementary school children (Harman & Brim (1980), as cited in Wandersman, 1987). Researchers recognize the primary influence of the family on children, even children as old as adolescents (Bronfenbrenner, 1986), and can describe with some precision the major realignments that occur in the parent/adolescent relationship, transforming it from a relationship based on unilateral authority to one of interdependence and cooperative negotiation (Cooper & Cooper, 1992; Steinberg, 1990; Youniss & Smollar, 1985). Yet our understanding of effective formats for translating this research into pragmatic advice for parents is hampered by the paucity of studies evaluating methods of parent education (Wandersman, 1987), a void especially notable in programs aimed at adolescents (Small, 1990). Whereas most evaluations have focused on child outcomes (Powell, 1986; Weiss, 1988), parent education programs have demonstrated improvements in parental feelings of competence, increased knowledge of child development, and such parenting behaviors as establishing clear expectations for child behavior, closer monitoring, and more elaborate verbal exchanges (Patterson, 1986; Powell, 1986; Wandersman, 1987; Weiss, 1988). Yet even those studies documenting the effectiveness of particular methods of parent education have been scattershot (Weiss, 1988, p. 12), making it difficult to generalize about which strategies are effective, for what outcomes, and for whom (Powell, 1986; Small, 1990). This issue is of increasing relevance in light of the well-documented changes in the conditions of contemporary family life, which may heighten the need for effective parent education and the difficulty of reaching diverse families (Weiss, 1988). For example, increasing rates of maternal employment, frequent family relocation, and the prevalence of single parent and divorced families may make it more difficult for parents to access formal sources of parent education and to develop close ties to such informal sources of support as grandparents, other relatives, and neighbors (Clarke-Stewart, 1978; National Commission on Children, 1991; Powell, 1986; Weissbourd, 1987). …