Scaling Population-based Parenting Interventions in Socially Disadvantaged Communities: Challenges, Opportunities, and Future Directions

Raising happy, healthy, and well-adjusted children can be challenging for many parents, particularly those who have limited resources and are experiencing social disadvantage such as financial pressures, poor health, or housing instability. To assist parents in the task of raising children, we make the case for adopting a population-based approach to evidence-based parenting support (EBPS) as an essential component in any comprehensive strategy designed to improve the developmental prospects and mental health outcomes of children and to keep children safe. This approach uses the principle of proportionate universalism to blend universal parenting supports for all parents, with indicated parenting interventions for more vulnerable families in the community. Several large scale “place-based” efforts to implement evidence-based parenting programs have been successful in reducing rates of child maltreatment and social-emotional problems in children (Prinz et al., 2009, 2016; Doyle et al., 2018) while others have met with more limited success. To produce sustained population level benefit, parenting programs must simultaneously address a series of interrelated logistical, organizational, professional, policy and evaluation challenges. How these challenges can be met, as well as implications for future work are discussed. Evidence-based parenting supports (EBPS) are critical for improving outcomes for parents, carers and children. Population-level implementation of EBPS offers an opportunity for meaningful community-wide change. Integrating universal and indicated approaches is necessary for reaching those in need and achieving population-level change. Place-based implementation and evaluation requires logistical, organizational and professional obstacles to be addressed.