The Nurturing Parenting Program is a family-centered initiative designed to build nurturing skills as alternatives to abusive parenting and child-rearing attitudes and practices. The initiative targets all families at risk for abuse and neglect with children ages 0 to 18. It has been adapted for special populations, including Hmong families, Hispanic families, African-American families, and families in treatment and recovery. Thirteen different programs address specific age groups (infants, school-age, teens), cultures (Hispanic, Southeast Asian, African-American), and needs (special learning needs, families in alcohol recovery). The group sessions run 2 to 3 hours once a week for 12 to 45 weeks. Programs can be implemented in group or home sites.

The long-term goals of this program are to decrease the rate of recidivism in families receiving social services, lower the rate of multiparent teenage pregnancies, reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency and alcohol abuse, and stop the intergenerational cycle of child abuse by teaching positive parenting behaviors.

For parents’ attitudes about parenting practices, pretest and posttest data gathered from administration of the AAPI indicated that significant positive changes occurred in the parenting and childrearing attitudes of the parents. Pretest and posttest data gathered from administration of the AAPI-2 indicated that significant (p<0.05) positive changes occurred in the parenting and child-rearing attitudes of the parents. These changes included expectations more appropriate to the development of their children, an increased empathic awareness of children’s needs, a decrease in the use of corporal punishment, and a decrease in parent-child role reversal. Data gathered from parents 1 year after they completed the program indicated retention of empathic attitudes toward children’s needs and a clear differentiation of appropriate parent-child roles.

For children’s attitudes about parenting practices, posttest data indicated significant increases in self-awareness and understanding of appropriate parent–child roles. The follow-up scores of abused children 1 year after their participation in the program indicated a significant increase in self-awareness and a concomitant decrease in their support of corporal punishment. For family interaction patterns, the FES was used to develop an interaction profile of the families who participated in the study. Posttest results showed significant increases in family cohesion, family expressiveness, and family independence and a concurrent significant decrease in family conflict. When posttest responses were compared with responses gathered 1 year after completion of the program, further significant increases were seen in family cohesion, family expressiveness, family organization, and moral-religious emphasis; a significant decrease was seen in family conflict.