1. Behavioral Economics and Parent Participation in an Evidence-Based Parenting Program at Scale
- Author
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Kai Ama Hamer, Laurie Miller Brotman, Spring Dawson-McClure, Zoelene Hill, Lisa A. Gennetian, and Michelle Spiegel
- Subjects
Adult ,Parents ,050103 clinical psychology ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Evidence-based practice ,education ,BE ,Context (language use) ,Behavioral economics ,Article ,medicine ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Child ,Medical education ,Schools ,Parenting ,Economics, Behavioral ,Public health ,05 social sciences ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Attendance ,Low-income ,Outreach ,Health psychology ,Parent engagement ,Text messaging ,Scale (social sciences) ,Parenting program ,Educational Status ,Psychology ,050104 developmental & child psychology - Abstract
Evidence-based and culturally relevant parenting programs strengthen adults’ capacity to support children’s health and development. Optimizing parent participation in programs implemented at scale is a prevailing challenge. Our collaborative team of program developers, implementers, and researchers applied insights from the field of behavioral economics (BE) to support parent participation in ParentCorps—a family-centered program delivered as an enhancement to pre-kindergarten—as it scaled in a large urban school district. We designed a bundle of BE-infused parent outreach materials and successfully showed their feasibility in site-level randomized pilot implementation. The site-level study did not show a statistically significant impact on family attendance. A sub-study with a family-level randomization design showed that varying the delivery time of BE-infused digital outreach significantly increased the likelihood of families attending the parenting program. Lessons on the potential value of a BE-infused approach to support outreach and engagement in parenting programs are discussed in the context of scaling up efforts. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11121-021-01249-0.
- Published
- 2021
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