Evidence-Based Parenting Programs for School-Aged Children

The past two decades have witnessed an upsurge in the number, length, and frequency of military deployments for service members with unprecedented reliance on National Guard and Reserve (NG/R) troops, calling into question how children are impacted by the deployment cycle. Research on civilian populations suggests that parenting practices likely play an important role in mediating the relationship between family stress and child adjustment. This underscores the significant need for evidence-based interventions to support parenting, particularly during reintegration, as this is a key transition period offering families an opportunity to prevent problems as parents readjust to parenting roles. NG/R families may be particularly vulnerable to experiencing the stress of the deployment cycle, as this population is geographically dispersed without a common support system targeting the needs of military families. The paucity of evidence-based parenting interventions tailored for military families has prompted the development of After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools (ADAPT), a post-deployment intervention adapted for use with military families from the preexisting evidence-based intervention, Parent Management Training—Oregon Model (PMTO). In this chapter, we describe PMTO, the adaptations made for ADAPT, and preliminary results from a randomized controlled trial longitudinal study testing the effectiveness of ADAPT in improving positive parenting practices and strengthening parent/child adjustment in NG/R families living in Minnesota.