“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” – Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)
We all recognize that there are essential skills and knowledge that every parent must have in order to ensure a child is safe, healthy, and able to properly develop.Parenting is a difficult task for anyone and, as God designed, it is best when there is the support of both a mother and a father. However, when an at-risk teen is pregnant the need for support intensifies, as does the risk for the child she is carrying.Offering the mother-to-be voluntary parent coaching before her child is born and continuing for up to two years after the birth of her first child is proven not only to help her become a competent and caring mother, but it also provides direction for the future as she learns how to provide for herself and her child.
One program, the Nurse-Family Partnership, found that:
- Abuse and neglect was cut nearly in half;
- The children’s involvement in later crime was cut by more than half;
- The fathers were more involved in their families; and
- The mothers were up to a third less likely to be dependent on welfare.[i]
In addition, when mothers-to-be abuse drugs, the long-term impacts on their children can be irreversible or even deadly. A program that provided substance-abuse coaching and treatment to pregnant women in Baltimore cut the number of births of very low birth-weight babies and their time in the newborn intensive care units so dramatically that the treatment paid for itself even before the babies were taken home from the hospital.[ii]
Another effort for younger children called Triple-P, the Positive Parenting Program, offers parents a range of voluntary options for picking up valuable parenting skills. These specific skills help parents teach their children how to behave responsibly.
The Triple-P system was tested in counties throughout South Carolina. Compared to the counties that did not receive the program, Triple-P counties averaged 25 percent fewer cases of abuse and neglect, 33 percent lower foster care placements, and 35 percent lower emergency room visits or hospitalizations for abuse. [iii]
See #2 – Voluntary Early Education >>
[i] Long-term effects of nurse home visitation on children’s criminal and anti-social behavior: 15-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 280(14), 1238-1244; Olds, D. L. (1997). Long-term effects of nurse home visitation on maternal life course and child abuse and neglect. Journal of American Medical Association, 278(8), 637-643; Kitzman, H. (1997). Effect of prenatal and infancy home visitation by nurses on pregnancy outcomes, childhood injuries, and repeated childbearing. Journal of the American Medical Association, 278(8), 6644-652; Nurse-Family Partnership. (2009). Outcomes of the trials. Denver, CO: Author. Retrieved on July 9, 2009 from http://www.nursefamilypartnership.org/content/index.cfm?fuseaction=showContent&contentID=113&navID=101 [ii] Svikis, D.S., Golden, A.S., Huggins, G.R., Pickens, R.W., McCaul, M.E., Velez, M.L., et al. (1997). Cost-effectivness of treatment for drug-abusing pregnant moms. Drug and alcohol dependence, 45(1-2), 105-13. [iii] Prinz, R.J., Sanders, M.R., Shapiro, C.J., Whitaker, D.J., & Lutzker, J.R. (2009). Population-based prevention of child maltreatment: The U.S. Triple P System Population Trial. Prevention Science, 10, 1-12; Ron Prinz, Professor, University of South Carolina. Personal communication on October 2, 2009.