Research-based policies, practices and programs

Some federally- or state-funded programs intentionally include activities designed to support positive parent-child interactions and family engagement, including:

• Early Head Start and Head Start
• Family Services through the Children’s Bureau
• IDEA Part C and Part B
• Home Visiting
• Libraries and Museums¹

Activities included across these federally-funded programs include flexible program hours to accommodate parents’ schedules, home visits and parent-teacher conferences, parent education, skill building training in parent-child interactions, and linkages to other community services.

North Carolina can identify gaps in access to mental health screening and treatment for pregnant women and new mothers. Depression prevents new mothers from being able to engage in consistent, responsive parent-child interactions. Widespread screening is the first step towards reducing the incidence of depression. More than half of the 14 medical practices within the Community Care of North Carolina (CCNC) network routinely screen for maternal postpartum depression. In July 2016, North Carolina’s Medicaid program began to reimburse providers for up to four screenings for postpartum maternal depression.¹

Ensuring access to timely treatment for mental illness for mothers is critical. Nationally, many adults who have been screened for mental health challenges still do not receive treatment.²

Eligible North Carolina families are under-enrolled or under-served in formal supports that improve family well-being. Participation in these programs improves short- and long-term child and family health, education, and economic outcomes by helping ensure that low-income families’ and children’s basic needs are met.¹

To reduce family stress, North Carolina can simplify the application process for family support programs and ensure that every eligible family is enrolled. To streamline the application process, NC could:

• Implement a “no wrong door” policy, so that any community or state agency provider can determine a family’s eligibility for services and supports
• Allow families to complete one application to receive access to all benefits they are eligible for² (e.g., Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (NC Health Choice), SNAP (food stamps), and other types of federal assistance.)  
• Review internal and interagency rules and application procedures to simplify and streamline application processes

The North Carolina Work Support Strategies Initiative aims to streamline policies, service delivery, and program eligibility to create a “no wrong door” system.³  As part of the initiative, North Carolina continues to expand implementation of its NC FAST integrated eligibility system at the state and county levels. NC Families Accessing Services through Technology (NC FAST) was developed as a tool to improve the way eligibility is determined and benefits given for services, including:

• Food and Nutrition Services, North Carolina’s SNAP program
• Medicaid, and NC Health Choice, North Carolina’s CHIP program
• TANF and Work First
• Subsidized Child Care/Child Care Financial Assistance
• Refugee Assistance

North Carolina can ensure that parenting support and education programs are built around practices that research has shown support positive parent-child interactions, including:¹

• Focusing on parents’ strengths, empowerment, and their own belief in themselves
• Affirming parents’ cultural traditions, beliefs, and practices related to raising children
• Sharing information with parents about child development and early learning
• Teaching or modeling parenting and discipline skills, such as strategies for managing challenging behaviors or supporting a child’s learning
• Modeling healthy interactions with children, such as how to follow a child’s lead during play or how to set appropriate limits
• Changing parents’ attitudes and beliefs
• Reducing parents’ stress by improving access to services through case management or referrals
• Improving social supports for parents
• Working with parents on areas other than parenting

Programs that intentionally include these practices result in:

• Improved parent-child interactions
• More positive parenting and discipline practices
• Reduced parenting stress
• Reduced child maltreatment
• Increased children’s social-emotional competence
• Increased attachment to their parents
• Increased cognitive, language and literacy development²

There is evidence that some specific parenting support and education programs improve:

• Parent-child interactions and relationships
• Parenting attitudes
• Positive discipline practices
• Knowledge of child development
• Parental well-being
• Parenting stress and/or
• Child maltreatment

Agencies that rate the evidence-base behind such programs do not always use the same terminology or standards to rate programs. Some programs may produce improvements in some of the outcomes and not others.¹

The programs listed below have been identified as being “evidence-based,” having “adequate evidence,” or being “programs that work” by one or more agencies. The specific programs vary by types of families served (universal vs. targeted) and the ages of children served (birth to early elementary school).²

See our Programs webpage for descriptions of some of these programs.