Child and Parental Outcomes of a Group Parenting Intervention for Latino Families: A Pilot Study of the CANNE Program

Criando a Nuestros Ninos hacia el Exito (CANNE) is the Spanish adaptation of Parenting Our Children to Excellence (PACE). A pilot study conducted with 124 parents of preschoolers (mostly recent Mexican immigrants) provides preliminary evidence for the community acceptability and efficacy of CANNE. Eighty-eight of the 124 parents who enrolled in the program attended one or more of the 8 sessions (17% attended 1 session, 11% attended 2-4 sessions, and 72% attended 5 or more sessions), participated actively in sessions, and expressed high degrees of program satisfaction. Over time, parents improved on measures of harsh inconsistent discipline, and children improved on social competence and social communication skills. When high-versus-low attenders were compared, high attenders (parents who attended 4 sessions or more) reported greater increases than low attenders in their appropriate positive parenting practices and clear expectations, and in their children's social competence and communication skills, and they reported greater decreases in their harsh inconsistent discipline and in their children's aggressiveness and hyperactivity. Some of these changes were evident by the end of the program, whereas others became apparent (or stronger) over a 3-month follow-up period. These encouraging results point to the need for an efficacy study that assesses how well CANNE can help larger numbers of Latino parents in the important task of bringing up their young children in the United States.