Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP)
Problems addressed
Externalizing behaviors/problems
Low parental skills
Internalizing behaviors/problems
Low social–emotional competences
Effectiveness

Promising

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Promising

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Life periods served
Children (4 to 13 years)
Early childhood (0 to 3 years)
Teenagers (14 to 17 years)
Adults (18 to 59 years)
Where the program was applied
Education establishment
Community (streets or community centers)
Ambulatory - Health service centers
Country of application
Australia
United States
Lithuania
Description

This is a multicomponent psychoeducation program for parents of children and adolescents from 0 to 17 years old. The objective is to teach parents effective ways of relating to their children from birth to adolescence through participation in study groups.
The intervention teaches positive parenting skills to promote cooperative behavior, not to reinforce unacceptable behavior, and to change dysfunctional and destructive relationships in their children.

Impact evaluations

Impact evaluation studies showed an increase in family and child well-being, as well as statistically significant improvements in child behavior (social and emotional, as well as externalizing), parenting skills, and parental stress. No significant effects were observed on children’s internalizing emotional problems [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Hammett, V. L., Omizo, M. M., & Loffredo, D. A. (1981). The effects of participation in a STEP program on parents' child-rearing attitudes and the self-concepts of their learning disabled children. The Exceptional Child, 28(3), 183–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/0156655810280305

[2] Nystul, M. S. (1982). The effects of Systematic Training for Effective Parenting on parental attitudes. The Journal of Psychology, 112(1), 63–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1982.9923535

[3] Williams, R. E., Omizo, M. M., & Abrams, B. C. (1984). Effects of STEP on parental attitudes and locus of control of their learning disabled children. The School Counselor, 32(2), 126–133. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ311123

[4] Noller, P., & Taylor, R. (1989). Parent education and family relations. Family Relations, 38(2), 196–200. https://doi.org/10.2307/583675

[5] Jonyniene , J., Kern, R. M., & Gfroerer, K. P. (2015). Efficacy of Lithuanian Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP) on parenting style and perception of child behavior. The Family Journal, 23(4), 392–406. https://doi.org/10.1177/1066480715574473

[6] Ceballos, P. L., Lin, Y. W., Bratton, S. C., & Lindo, N. (2019). Effects of parenting programs on Latina mothers’ parental stress and their children’s internalizing behavioral problems. Journal of Child and Adolescent Counseling, 5(1), 73–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/23727810.2018.1556983

[7] Steele, H., Murphy, A., Bonuck, K., Meissner, P., & Steele, M. (2019). Randomized control trial report on the effectiveness of Group Attachment-Based Intervention (GABI©): Improvements in the parent–child relationship not seen in the control group. Development and Psychopathology, 31(1), 203–217. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579418001621

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