Assessing Change in Families Following the Home-Start Parenting Support Program: Clinical Significance and Predictors of Change

The aim of the present study was to examine whether improvements obtained after a home-based parenting intervention reflected meaningful and significant changes for a sample of Dutch mothers. The results showed that Home-Start mothers demonstrated reliable changes in well-being and enhanced parenting behaviors compared to both a comparison and a norm group of mothers. At posttest, a substantial number (39 – 84%) of the Home-Start mothers functioned at a level equivalent to that of a community group. The most reliable improvement was found with mothers experiencing the most severe problems at pretest, whereas the most recovery was reported for mothers with the fewest problems at pretest.