Implementation Evaluation of Bright Beginnings and Personal Best

Parenting practices are important because they affect not only family well-being but also children's emotional adjustment and readiness for school. Mathematica is evaluating several parenting interventions targeted to at-risk children and families.

The interventions include Bright Beginnings, which promotes children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development by supporting parent/child attachment relationships, and (2) Personal Best, which enhances the mental health and self-sufficiency of mothers of young children. The Ackerman Institute for the Family conducts these interventions with the support of the Robin Hood Foundation, which sponsors several early childhood interventions to promote school readiness, prevent abuse and neglect, and decrease substance abuse and mental health problems. 

The study is looking at whether mothers and children receive enough exposure to the interventions to promote changes in behavior and mental health. It is also examining implementation challenges and determining whether the interventions are implemented with fidelity.

Mathematica is also helping to refine and examine the theory of change used to guide these interventions. This project includes the development of fidelity measures and a participant tracking system as well as observations of the interventions in New York City among primarily Latino and Chinese immigrant populations. 

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