Citation

Harris JD, Larsen JM. Early Child Res. Q. 1989; 4(3): 275-287.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0885-2006(89)90014-8

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Data from 127 middle-class, educationally advantaged parents and their preschool children were used to explore the effects of participation in a mandatory parent education component of a university preschool program. Employing four conditions of parent education participation and preschool attendance, the study assessed parental attitude, parents' involvement in 20-min, one-on-one activities with their preschool child, and child outcome measures of IQ and social competency. Findings indicated that (a) the majority of the parents in the sample already possessed attitudes consistent with those espoused by the parent education program; (b) significantly more parents who had participated in parent education engaged in weekly 20-min, one-on-one activities with their preschool child; (c) participation in parent education was associated with an increase in the number of parent-child 20-min, one-on-one activities for fathers and a decrease for mothers; and (d) preschool, but not parent, education was linked to gains on child competency measures.