Delivering Take Root to Military Families with a Child 0-to 3-Years-Old: Examining Feasibility and Proof-of-Concept

Abstract

Parents influence their child’s positive development, and this is especially true during early childhood. In military families, the largest percentage of children are between 0 and 5 years old, and there is growing interest in developing and disseminating parent-focused interventions that target this age range for military parents. The present study examines the feasibility and proof-of-concept of the universal, web-based, Take Root parenting program, which was designed to empower military and civilian parents with a 0- to 3-year-old child in their parenting role and support positive child development. Seventy-nine participants were recruited from two Armed Services YMCA locations in fall 2019 and summer 2020. Results indicate that executing the research protocol and implementing the program among military families with young children were feasible. Further, significant pre- to post-changes in self-reports of parenting efficacy, mindful relaxation, and family functioning were found; however, when a Bonferroni-Holm correction was applied to account for multiple testing, only parenting efficacy remained significant. Collectively, the favorable results indicate the potential usefulness of Take Root for military families with young children and support the need for further, more rigorous evaluations of the program.

Keywords:

• parent-focused interventions
• universal prevention
• health promotion
• positive parenting
• stress management
• web-based delivery
• infants and toddlers
• feasibility
• proof-of-concept
• military

Acknowledgements

The study team would like to recognize our partners and collaborators at the Department of Defense’s Office of Military Community and Family Policy, especially Mr. C. E. Mentzer and Ms. B Thompson (recently retired), for their continued backing of research and evidence-base implementation of programs that improve the health of military children, family, and soldiers. In addition, Marissa Kosko-Blyler, MSW, assisted with the implementation of the Take Root program.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Originality statement

This manuscript is the original work of the authors and has not been published or submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere.

Notes

1 One item was removed due to very low correlations with other items.

Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Office of Family Policy, Children, and Youth; U.S. Department of Defense under Award No. 2012-48709-20033, 2016-48709-25896, and 2020-48709-32817 developed in collaboration with The Pennsylvania State University. The study was also supported by a Level 1 grant from the Social Science Research Institute at Penn State University.