Parenting Profiles in Military Families: Intervention-Related Transitions and Relationships to Child Adjustment

Abstract

Parenting programs aim to improve parenting quality such as reducing harsh parenting which may, in turn, support the child’s development and behavior. However, parenting interventions show considerable heterogeneity in response patterns across different families, demonstrating that they are not one-size-fits-all programs. However, there is a lack of understanding in who benefits from parenting interventions and how to increase the benefit and the program efficiency. Existing studies have focused on single moderators to understand the variability in intervention-related change rather than looking more broadly at profiles of multiple variables. Following this literature gap, this study sought to identify heterogeneity in parenting profiles and treatment responses to advance the effectiveness of family-based prevention interventions adapted for combat-deployed military families. This dissertation relied upon data from a randomized controlled trial of the ADAPT parenting-focused preventive intervention for military families. The sample included 336 (294 fathers, 314 mothers, and 336 children) National Guard and Reserve families. Families were eligible for participation in the study if they had at least one child living with them (4-13-year-old), at least one parent who had been deployed to recent conflicts in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Study 1 demonstrated heterogeneity in parenting strategies for both mothers and fathers separately within the sample. Latent profile analyses (LPA) were conducted with five core parenting domains from an observed family interaction task. The analyses demonstrated that mothers and fathers both have three unobserved parenting profiles, which were consistent with high, middle, and low positive parenting. Study 2 investigated the change in parenting profiles of parents in military families after participating in the ADAPT intervention. This study extended Study 1 by applying latent transition analysis (LTA), a longitudinal person-centered analysis, to examine how broader profiles of parenting behaviors were related to change or stability in those profiles, and the relationship of parenting profile transitions with child maladjustment. The findings suggested that the ADAPT parenting intervention is beneficial in improving the parenting skills of mothers who begin the program with more typical levels of parenting skills, and that these positive changes in parenting may help to decrease child externalizing problems. ADAPT seemed to be most helpful in preventing declines in positive parenting for fathers who began the program with typical levels of positive parenting. It may be that fathers will benefit from additional support or practice and time to ensure they also make significant improvements in their parenting practices through parent programming. One of the key contributions of this research overall is demonstrating the sample heterogeneity in parenting behavior and the variability in parent responses to the evidence-based parenting program. Moreover, both studies yield additional insight into differences between mothers and fathers and provide further support for the value of exploring unique parenting-related findings for mothers and fathers separately. In conclusion, the ADAPT program seems to be successful for certain subgroups in improving parenting and preventing regressions in parenting, and in turn improving child adjustment. As researchers continue to learn more about who benefits most from what content in parenting programs, this approach will help developers to create adaptive programming targeted to the needs of particular families and enhance the effects of the program for parents and families in need.