ENGAGE Evaluation: Highlight Report
June 14, 2019
Program Website: https://engageparenting.com/
The ENGAGE program evaluation aimed to determine the efficacy of the program to promote positive parenting practices. The main objective was to assess the behaviors of mothers who participated in the ENGAGE program. Data were collected from March to December in 2018. We collected data from 78 participants, of which 6 were dropped from the evaluation analyses due to missing data. Evaluation data included 67 mothers and 4 fathers (1 missing) who had participated in the 8-week ENGAGE program. Parental participants were aged 19 to 44 years (M = 31, SD = 5.64) with children ranging between the ages of 1.5 months to 26 years of age. The parents were recruited from 5 agencies in Texas, including: Emily’s Place Transition Home (1 site, 1 evaluation); Exodus Ministries (1 site, 2 evaluation); Waddill Street Baptist Church (1 site, 2 evaluations); Fortress Youth Development Center (1 site, 2 evaluation); and Buckner (6 sites, 6 evaluations). Positive parenting was measured using the standardized instrument of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ). See the full evaluation report: ENGAGE Evaluation Report.
The evaluation addressed the following questions:
Q1. Does parent’s successful participation in ENGAGE lead to significant improvement in effective parenting? Yes, the evaluation report provides evidence that the ENGAGE program leads to positive change in effective parenting.
Q2. Does parent’s successful participation in ENGAGE lead to significant improvement in parental nurturance? Yes, the evaluation report provides evidence that the ENGAGE program leads to positive change in parental nurturance.
Q3. Does parent’s successful participation in ENGAGE lead to significant improvement in parents’ effective discipline? Yes, the evaluation report provides evidence that the ENGAGE program leads to positive change in effective discipline.
Q4. Are participants satisfied with ENGAGE curriculum? Yes, the evaluation report provides evidence that participants are highly satisfied with the ENGAGE curriculum.
Q5. Are participants satisfied with ENGAGE facilitators? Yes, the evaluation report provides evidence that participants are highly satisfied with the facilitators of the ENGAGE program.
Based on our analyses of the data, we are unable to provide any recommendations for improvement as the program was found to be effective and enjoyable for participants. Specifically, participants noted they appreciated the discussion-based format of the program and that the format provided increased their perceptions of community and support. One area to note is that the ENGAGE program only provided a small change in parental monitoring and parental involvement in comparison to other areas assessed by the APQ. These may be areas for the ENGAGE program to focus on improving in future revisions of the curriculum. Overall, parents felt that the program increased their parenting knowledge and skills. We do encourage additional evaluations of ENGAGE in order to determine the reliability of findings.
Full Report: ENGAGE Evaluation Report_Final
Citation: Melton, K. & Ament, M. (2019). ENGAGE: Evaluation of a Positive Parenting Program. Technical Report. Waco, TX: Baylor University.
