Individual variability in parenting profiles and predictors of change: Effects of an intervention with disadvantaged mothers

Four components of a comprehensive, responsive parenting style (Responsiveness to Signals, Maintaining Attentional Focus, Rich Language, and Warmth) have been previously identified [ Landry, S. H., Smith, K. E., & Swank, P. R. (in press). Responsive parenting: Establishing early foundations for social, communication and independent problem solving. Developmental Psychology]. In the current study, Latent Class Analysis revealed classes (profile groups) of mothers who demonstrated 4 distinct patterns of skills across these parenting factors. Latent Transition Analysis revealed that mothers randomly assigned to a parenting intervention were more likely than comparison mothers to transition from weaker to stronger profile groups; e.g., 60% of comparison group mothers who were in the lowest profile group at pre-intervention remained in the lowest profile group at post-intervention, versus 17% of intervention group. Mental health symptoms, social support, and parenting beliefs individually predicted profile group membership prior to treatment, but only parenting beliefs predicted pre-intervention profile group membership using a multivariable model. Social support predicted positive change among intervention mothers. Implications include the potential importance of assessing parents' initial behavioral profiles and parenting beliefs to tailor interventions to individual strengths and weaknesses.