Decades of rigorous prevention research have shown that strengthening parenting improves not only children’s wellbeing and resilience, but also improves parents’ mental health. Findings from randomized controlled trials/RCTs have demonstrated how behavior changes occur and cascade across family members and over time shedding light on mechanisms of effect. But much less is known about what programs, in what formats, work best for what kinds of families. This presentation showcases a program of research on a program developed for US military families in which a parent deployed and returned from war, Adaptive Parenting Tools/ADAPT. ADAPT was tested in four RCTs to examine not only the program’s effectiveness, but the effects of different formats and sequences on parenting and children’s adjustment. Innovative prevention designs including those testing online formats will be discussed.

Dr. Abigail Gewirtz is a child psychologist, mother of four, leading expert on helping families cope with trauma and the author of When the World Feels Like a Scary Place: Essential Conversations for Anxious Parents and Worried Children (Workman, 2020). She is Foundation Professor in the Psychology Department at Arizona State University. Dr. Gewirtz has worked as a clinician, researcher, program developer, and trainer of providers, and is the author of more than 100 publications. A fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association, Dr. Gewirtz has conducted research in the United States, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and has been invited to speak widely, in the U.S. and across the world, on parenting in times of stress.

Booking is required for people outside of the Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI). The registration form will be available soon. DSPI members do not need to register