Topic: Antisocial Behavior, Communication, Parenting, Relationships
Target Population: Parents
Sector: Community-Based
This program is delivered to parents of children who are 3 to 18 years old and have mild to moderate behavioral problems and is intended to impact parents and their children.
Parenting Wisely®, a family- and community-based program, is designed to increase parenting knowledge and skills and decrease adolescent problem behaviors.
Several randomized controlled trials and pre/post evaluations have demonstrated short-term improvements in parent satisfaction, parent efficacy, knowledge of adaptive parenting skills, beliefs that adaptive parenting skills are effective, responses to positive and negative child behaviors, lax discipline, overreactive parenting, and number and intensity of child problem behaviors. One quasi-experimental study was conducted in an economically disadvantaged sample, and it compared five different delivery formats of Parenting Wisely to a comparison group. Results at a 6-month follow-up demonstrated increased confidence in parenting skills, decreased conflict with adolescents, and decreased adolescent externalizing and violent behavior in intervention groups relative to the comparison group.
Parenting Wisely offers online subscription packages for two different age groups:
Young Child Edition (i.e., ages 3 to 11) focuses on parenting skills, such as listening actively, fostering social skills, and setting limits and consequences. The program focuses on how to handle challenging situations, including the following:
Teen Edition (i.e., ages 11 and above) focuses on parenting skills, such as communicating with teens about curfew, homework, and conflict. The program focuses on how to handle challenging situations, including the following:
The Parenting Wisely program has been used with 320,000 people throughout the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.
No formal training is necessary. An instructional guide accompanies the supplies to implement the program. However, in-person and remote training options are available. Please use details in the Contact section to learn more.
Considerations for implementing this program include acquiring parent buy-in and commitment and ensuring participants have access to a computer or other mobile device that has internet connection and the Google Chrome web browser.
The Clearinghouse can help address these considerations. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
If you are interested in implementing Parenting Wisely, the Clearinghouse is interested in helping you!
Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
The online program can be completed at the participant's own pace, but completion time usually requires about 3 to 5 hours. The course must be completed within 6 months.
Online subscription packages for the Teen and Young Child programs cost $400 to $5,000 each, depending on the number of online accounts.
To move the Parenting Wisely program to the Effective category on the Clearinghouse Continuum of Evidence, at least two evaluations with strong study designs using comparison groups should be performed demonstrating positive effects lasting at least two years from the beginning of the program or at least one year from program completion. At least one of these studies should be conducted independently of the program developer.
The Clearinghouse can help you develop an evaluation plan to ensure the program components are meeting your goals. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
Contact the Clearinghouse with any questions regarding this program.
Phone: 1-877-382-9185 Email: Clearinghouse@psu.edu
You may also contact Family Works, Inc., by mail 92 Van Ness Ave., Ashland, OR 97520, phone 1-866-234-9473, email staff@familyworksinc.com or visit https://www.familyworksinc.com/
Cefai, J., Smith, D., & Pushak, R. E. (2010). Parenting Wisely: Parent training via CD-ROM with an Australian sample. Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 32(1), 17-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/07317100903539709
Kacir, C. D., & Gordon, D. A. (1999). Parenting adolescents wisely: The effectiveness of an interactive videodisk parent training program in Appalachia. Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 21(4), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1300/J019v21n04_01
Lagges, A. M., & Gordon, D. A. (1999). Use of an interactive laserdisc parent training program with teenage parents. Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 21(1), 19-37.
Smokowski, P. R., Bacallao, M., Evans, C. B. R., Rose, R. A., Stalker, K. C., Guo, S., … Bower, M. (2018). The North Carolina youth violence prevention center: Using a multifaceted, ecological approach to reduce youth violence in impoverished, rural areas. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 9(4), 575-597. https://doi.org/10.1086/700257
Stalker, K. C., Rose, R. A., Bacallao, M., & Smokowski, P. R. (2018). Parenting Wisely six months later: How implementation delivery impacts program effects at follow-up. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 39(2), 129-153. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-017-0495-2
Cotter, K. L., Bacallao, M., Smokowski, P. R., & Robertson, C. I. B. (2013). Parenting interventions implementation science: How delivery format impacts the Parenting Wisely program. Research on Social Work Practice, 23(6), 639-650. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731513490811
Feil, E. G., Gordon, D., Walron, H., Jones, L. B., & Widdop, C. (2011). Development and pilot testing of an internet-based parenting education program for teens and pre-teens: Parenting Wisely. The Family Psychologist, 27(22), 22-26.
Gordon, D. A., & Rolland Stanar, C. (2003). Lessons learned from the dissemination of Parenting Wisely, a parent training CD-ROM. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 10(4), 312-323. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1077-7229(03)80049-4
Mello, M. J., Bromberg, J. R., Baird, J., Wills, H., Gaines, B. A., Lapidus, G., … Spirito, A. (2019). Feasibility and acceptability of an electronic parenting skills intervention for parents of alcohol-using adolescent trauma patients. Telemedicine and e-Health, 25(9), 833-839. https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2018.0201
O’Neill, H., & Woodward, R. (2002). Evaluation of the Parenting Wisely CD-ROM parent-training programme: An Irish replication. Irish Journal of Psychology, 23(1-2), 62-72.
Segal, D., Chen, P. Y., Gordon, D. A., Kacir, C. D., & Gylys, J. (2003). Development and evaluation of a parenting intervention program: Integration of scientific and practical approaches. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 15(3), 453-467. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327590IJHC1503_09
