Who comes to groups? Barriers to participation in a longitudinal parenting group intervention

Enhancing parenting skills in at-risk populations is a process that takes time. Providing parents with information about child development, modeling behaviors, and integrating new skills and behaviors may take years. Therefore, longitudinal interventions may be needed, although barriers to attendance and participation may make them difficult to implement. The present study examines factors that influence participation in Legacy for Children(TM), a multi-site, randomized controlled trial of parenting intervention for low-income mothers. Mothers were surveyed annually regarding program perception and satisfaction. Comparisons were made among enrolled mothers who did not continue (n=130), those who attended one year only (50) and those who attended two subsequent years (110). Mothers who enrolled but did not continue were more likely to have larger families, and be mothers of boys. There were no differences for marital status, income, maternal education, or number of moves. Hispanic mothers were least likely, mothers of other race/ethnicity most likely to continue. Regarding continuing attendance, mothers who attended one year but not the next reported more barriers to attendance, particularly work. Some mothers who stopped coming were dissatisfied, although the majority (43 of 50) had been satisfied. Continued participation was not related to perception of the program's effects on parenting or attitudes towards the groups except for improvement in self-efficacy and perceiving Legacy intervention groups as different from other groups of friends. The findings suggest that external attendance barriers more than program aspects may determine longitudinal participation. Public health interventions may benefit from addressing external barriers to the extent feasible.