Development and outcomes of a community-based intervention to improve parents' use of inquiry in informal learning contexts

The development and evaluation of a parenting intervention based on Sigel's distancing theory and conceptualization of intervention processes is described. An iterative program development strategy was comprised of 3 studies: (1) Results of interviews with lower-income parents of Grades 1–4 children regarding views of children's futures and approaches to learning at home and school informed decisions about program content; (2) Observation and interview data from a multi-site implementation of a preliminary program curriculum contributed to revisions of the intervention; (3) A short-term experimental study of the program with a diverse population of parents in 5 communities revealed modest positive intervention effects on child participation in daily family routines, parent use of inquiry and incorporation of the child's perspective in problem-solving situations, and parent beliefs about influences on children's school achievement. Findings point to the promise of employing distancing strategies in a discussion group intervention to promote parents' use of inquiry in routine interactions with their children.