Latent Patterns of Parent Home Practice and their Associations with Predictors and Treatment Outcomes in a Preventive Parenting Intervention for Divorced and Separated Families

Patterns of home practice attempts and efficacy trajectories were examined by skill among 366 parents who attended at least one session of the effectiveness trial of the New Beginnings Program (NBP), a preventive parenting program for divorced and separated parents. Parents reported weekly throughout a 10-session intervention on their home practice of six skills, including whether they attempted the home practice (attempts) and how well the home practice went (efficacy). Predictors of attempt profiles and efficacy trajectory classes were investigated, including demographics, perceived parenting skills, child mental health problems, interparental conflict, and parent-child contact. Additionally, home practice profile and class membership were examined as predictors of child internalizing and externalizing problems, parent-child relationship quality, effective discipline, and exposure to interparental conflict post-intervention and at the 10-month follow-up. Latent profile analysis identified four distinct profiles of home practice attempts: Rarely Attempts (RA), Sometimes Attempts (SA), Usually Attempts (UA), and Almost Always Attempts (AAA). The AAA profile, the largest profile, consistently attempted home practice across all skills. Child, parent, and demographic characteristics were significant predictors of attempt profile membership. Attempt profile membership predicted effective discipline and child internalizing and externalizing problems at post-test and child externalizing problems at follow-up. Latent class growth analysis identified two trajectory classes for home practice efficacy: High Efficacy (HE) and Moderate Efficacy (ME). The HE class showed high, stable efficacy across skills, while the ME class had stable efficacy for some skills and increasing efficacy for others over the intervention. Parent-child relationship quality and parent gender were significant predictors of efficacy class membership. Children of parents in the HE class reported stronger positive parenting and lower internalizing problems at post-test. With two exceptions, the effect sizes were small. The study highlights the importance of differentiating the quantity and quality of home practice and the specific types of skills practiced. Findings underscore the need for additional measurement approaches that capture nuanced differences in home practice and the need for research examining cultural and contextual factors influencing home practice.