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Parental Engagement and Barriers to Participation in a Community-Based Preventive Intervention

  • Original Paper
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American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

This study examined parent characteristics and barriers to participation in a community-based preventive intervention with a sample of 201 parents from low-income and predominantly ethnic minority backgrounds. Person-centered analyses revealed five subgroups of parents who demonstrated variability in their parent characteristics, which included psychological resources and level of parental involvement in education. Group membership was associated with differences in school involvement and use of the psychoeducational intervention at home, after accounting for the number of barriers to engagement. For the intervention attendance variable, greater number of barriers was associated with decreased attendance only for parents in the resilient subgroup and the psychologically distressed subgroup. Attendance remained constant across levels of barriers for the other three subgroups of parents. The results of the study inform theory and practice regarding how to tailor preventive interventions to accommodate subgroups of parents within populations that experience barriers to accessing mental health services.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a Head Start Quality Research Center Consortium grant awarded to the first author by the Department of Health and Human Services. Institutional support was provided by the University of South Carolina and Temple University for research and graduate training for students involved in this project. We thank the research participants and members of the Head Start communities who were so generous with time and involvement in this project.

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Author notes

  1. Doré R. LaForett

    Present address: Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, P.O. Box 26170, Greensboro, NC, 27402-6170, USA

    Julia L. Mendez

  2. Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Johanna L. Carpenter, Doré R. LaForett & Jeremy S. Cohen

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  1. Julia L. Mendez
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  2. Johanna L. Carpenter
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  3. Doré R. LaForett
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Correspondence to Julia L. Mendez.

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Mendez, J.L., Carpenter, J.L., LaForett, D.R. et al. Parental Engagement and Barriers to Participation in a Community-Based Preventive Intervention. Am J Community Psychol 44, 1–14 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-009-9252-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-009-9252-x

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