Photo Credit: Jacob Wackerhausen
The following is a summary of “Pittsburgh Study: A Tiered Model To Support Parents During Early Childhood,” published in the November 2024 issue of Pediatrics by Krug et al.
The Pittsburgh Study’s (TPS) Early Childhood Collaborative aims to support parents of children aged 4 years and younger in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, by offering accessible, preventive parenting programs through community and healthcare partnerships.
Researchers conducted a prospective study to test the feasibility of implementing TPS’s Early Childhood Collaborative initiative.
They partnered with healthcare and community agencies to enroll 878 parents of 1,040 children (aged 4 years and younger) in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Participants were assigned to 1 of 4 groups based on identified needs: universal, targeted/universal, secondary/tertiary, or tertiary programs. Parents were given options of empirically supported parenting programs within each group, including texting programs and intensive home visits. Chi-square tests were conducted to examine the likelihood of selecting a program by group.
The results showed that 25% of participants were assigned to each tiered group, and 78% of parents chose to enroll in a parenting program. Parents with higher levels of adversity were more likely to select a parenting program than those with lower adversity. Specifically, 81.4% of parents in the secondary/tertiary group chose a program, compared to 72.8% in the targeted/universal group and 83% in the tertiary group, compared to 74.1% in the universal and 72.8% in the targeted/universal groups (P<.001).
They concluded that TPS was a feasible model for engaging families by offering accessible, choice-based parenting programs, supporting early relational health, and aligning with recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics for tiered approaches.
Source: jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(24)00499-2/abstract
