August 23, 2012

A significant body of research documents the poorer outcomes of teen and non-marital parenthood for both children and parents, and recent statistics underscore the strong association between single parenthood and childhood poverty. Child Trends' latest Fact Sheet, What Works for Disadvantaged and Adolescent Parent Programs: Lessons from Experimental Evaluations of Social Programs and Interventions for Children, reviews 20 parenting programs that are geared toward enhancing the parent's development and/or educating disadvantaged and teenage mothers on effective parenting methods.  

Each program was evaluated in a random-assignment study. Of the 11 programs that measured child outcomes, eight found at least one positive impact on a child outcome area. Four of those eight programs focused on providing parenting education during the prenatal period. Of the 19 programs that measured parent outcomes, ten found at least one positive impact on a parent outcome. Of these ten successful programs, seven used a home-visiting model.