Program Findings Sheet
Dare To Be You (DTBY)
Colorado State University
Location
Montezuma County, Colorado Springs, San Luis Valley, and Ute Indian Reservation, Colorado
Program sites
Community centers and day care and Head Start facilities.
Target group
797 American Indian, Hispanic, African-American, and White parents and their preschool children, ages 2–5, as well as Head Start teachers, day care personnel, and 40 other community members per year who provide support services to target families.
Program objectives
- Increase self-concept and satisfaction with parenting role, internal locus of control, satisfaction with social support networks, relationships with children and knowledge of child development, and child-centered nurturing practices.
- Decrease use of harsh punishment among high-risk parents (of whom 95% will complete the entire first-year program).
- Improve behavior, interactions with parents, and developmental milestones of preschool children at risk for alcohol and drug use (of whom 60% will remain with the program for 2–5 years).
Findings
- Significant and enduring increases in parental self-esteem were observed in both parental competence and satisfaction of the parent role indicators (p < .001).
- In the locus of control variable, belief in “chance” and “powerful other” declined significantly (p < .01). Child blame also was significantly reduced.
- Positive attitudes toward parenting increased (p < .05).
- Appropriate control techniques increased and harsh punishments declined significantly (p < .001).
- Children in the intervention group scored significantly higher on the Minnesota Development Inventory than did their counterparts in the control group.
- Retention rates exceeded expectations, with more than 95% completing all program components in the first year and more than 75% completing at least yearly follow-up surveys.
Evaluation design
- Random assignment of families to experimental and control groups.
- Pre- and posttesting using eight recognized assessment instruments (such as Self-Perception of the Parental Role, Minnesota Development Inventories: Short Form, and the Behavior Checklist for Infants and Children).
- Multivariate analysis of variance, t-tests, chi-square analysis, and correlations were conducted on all variables between pre- and posttests, and followup, and between experimental and control group. Correlations between parents and children were analyzed to identify links between parent skills and youth resiliency characteristics. Both groups were compared for up to 5 years.
Program interventions
- Provide two series of 10- to 12-week workshops for families, consisting of 2-1/2 hour sessions, and include a meal, a parent-child activity, and separate activities for parents and children. Parent sessions emphasize skills building and promote the establishment of a peer support group.
- Provide annual reinforcement workshops for parents. Children are encouraged to attend, and incentives are offered for participation.
- Provide After-Dare monthly support groups in two of the four demonstration sites. Participants choose topics of discussion.
- Offer preschool teacher and day care provider workshops on teaching Dare To Be You concepts in several modes.
- Provide 15- to 18-hour training in Dare To Be You concepts to community volunteers who support target families.
Dare To Be You (DTBY)
Program Description
The Dare To Be You program (Grant #1397) was a 5-year grant initiated in 1989. It targeted preschool youth aged 2–5 and their families, preschool teachers, and other community members that support the families. The project was implemented in four ethnically diverse sites across Colorado and included the Ute Mountain Ute community (95% Native American and rural), the San Luis Valley (64% Hispanic and rural), Colorado Springs (53% European American and urban), and Montezuma County (84% European American and rural).
The demonstration project worked directly with parents to increase their knowledge of child development; personal sense of worth, ability to effectively manage their children by increasing their communication and problem-solving skills, personal and parental efficacy and role satisfaction, knowledge and use of child development, and appropriate child-rearing practices. In tandem with the parent training program, trained staff also worked directly with youth, both the target 2- to 5-year-old children and their siblings, to bolster their sense of self-worth, self-responsibility, as well as improve their communication, problem-solving, and reasoning skills. By strengthening these key resiliency factors in both children and parents, the program hoped to prevent later substance use and other problem behaviors.
Parents participated in a 24-hour educational curriculum administered by trained facilitators. The course was administered in weekly sessions, each lasting about 2-1/4 hours, over 3–4 months. Individuals were required to participate in a minimum of 20 hours of class to complete the program. The curriculum included strategies to increase self-responsibility, personal efficacy, self-esteem, communication and social skills, and problem-solving and decision-making skills. Parents also received information on child development and home management strategies. After completing the initial series, families also received boosters in the form of annual programs (2 hours a week for 4 weeks). This followup workshop series was designed to reinforce the skills learned in the first program year. Families could participate in monthly family groups (After-Dare) or periodic community events for ongoing support.
Two- to five-year-old children participated in a core 20-hour educational curriculum that was concurrent with the parent program. Like parents, children had to attend a minimum of 20 hours of activities. The youth program mirrored many of the lessons in the parent program with developmentally appropriate activities for 2- to 3-year-olds and 4- to 5-year-olds: communications, self-responsibility, self-esteem, and problem-solving. Siblings were encouraged to attend and participated in similar age appropriate Dare To Be You activities.
An incentive program was designed to recruit and retain families. It included family meals with every session, a supportive, nonjudgmental attitude that recognized and built upon family strengths, and for each adult family member that completed all classes and surveys, a $200 incentive.
Families were identified by social and community agencies and/or were self-referred because they felt they needed the skills the program offered. Families were recruited and screened by the program staff to meet a risk profile that would provide a nonstigmatizing and optimal workshop environment: 5–10% of participants had one to two risk factors, 80–90% had two to seven risk factors, and 5–10% had eight or more risk factors. Families wishing to participate were then randomly assigned to either a treatment or a control group. Although site profiles differed on a number of risk characteristics, differences between treatment and control groups within each site and within each cohort were negligible.
The evaluation design included pre- and immediate post-assessments and annual followup assessments with treatment and control groups for two cohorts/site/year (in four sites over 5 years). Data from the first cohort were dropped because of changes in key personnel and implementation. Subsequent to the first program year, the evaluation effort maintained its integrity and was not undermined by attrition, which was low—97.4% of families completed the first program year while 73% and 61% stayed on and completed the second and third program followups, respectively. Attrition analysis revealed few differences between those completing remote followup assessments and those dropping out from the assessment protocol prematurely. The strength of the evaluation design was also bolstered by the fact that treatment and control families were initially similar within each cohort at each site.
Despite the fact that substance use measures were not administered to either parents or children, the latter because of their age, the findings from the research document the success of the intervention in improving a number of parent and child resiliency factors theoretically related to later substance use. Repeated Measures Multivariate Analysis of Variance revealed that, relative to controls, participants:
- Experienced significant and enduring increases in parental self-esteem in terms of increased sense of competence, satisfaction with role, and positive attitude about being a parent.
- Decreased their level of self-blame over time in terms of lacking ability or not exerting sufficient effort, as well as blaming their child for parent-child or family problems.
- Demonstrated consistent and significant increases in using appropriate control techniques (maturational-oriented, child-centered, overall control), and in decreasing their use of harsh punishments.
- Showed significant and prolonged increases in the level of satisfaction expressed with the size, felt closeness, amount of contact, and type of support provided by their social network.
In addition, treatment youth showed significant increases in developmental level at both the 1-year and 2-year followup after entering the program relative to controls.
While treatment youth decreased their rate of exhibiting problem behaviors (as reported by parents), so too did control youth. These changes were most likely attributable to maturational changes rather than the program intervention. In addition, the program sought to positively affect parent locus of control. No significant treatment-versus-control effect showed up in the first year, but a significant effect showed up in the second-year followup with the intervention group showing a decline in the belief that powerful others control outcomes.
Lastly, at the point of the 1-year followup, treatment parents demonstrated a $2,000 average increase in family income relative to controls. This relative gain was short-lived, as both treatment and control households increased family income by $2,500 the next year. Other measures regarding economic self-sufficiency (mother’s educational status, hours worked per week, occupational status, and welfare dependence) were also observed to be similar between treatment and control families over the course of the intervention and assessment.
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Last Updated: March 4, 2002
