Are Early Childhood Education and Family Support Programs Effective for Teenage Parents and Their Children? A Meta-Analysis

Authors: Caroline F.D. Black, Holly Schindler, Greg Duncan, Katherine Magnuson, Jack Shonkoff, Horikazu Yoshikawa, Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest
Presentation at 2017 AERA

Abstract: ​For over five decades, teen parent programs (TPPs) have offered mothers an opportunity to increase their self-sufficiency and invest in their children’s development. Yet to date, no systematic review has examined overall effects of these programs on parenting behaviors or child developmental outcomes. Using a meta-analytic database of 25 studies, this paper established the mean treatment effect of TPPs on maternal parenting behaviors (ES = .26, SE = .05, p <.001) and child socioemotional (ES = .24, SE = .08, p <.05) and cognitive outcomes (ES = .27, SE = .08, p <.01), relative to control groups. This paper is the first to synthesize impacts of five decades of evidence-based TPPs, and demonstrate differential impacts of treatment on these outcomes.