As the new Active Parenting Now program enters the final stages of production, LEADER asked Dr. Michael Popkin to answer a few questions about this two-year project.

The challenge for families is to create a core set of values that can help kids withstand this bombardment and build the strong character from which good decisions will be made.

Q. Why did you decide to revise the program at this time?
A. We want our parenting programs to be relevant to current societal challenges and so we have made the commitment to spend the time, energy and money to completely redo them every few years.

Q. How does the newly-revised Active Parenting Now differ from Active Parenting Today?
A. We have kept the core model of Active Parenting, but added some new parenting methods and a greater emphasis on drugs, sexuality and violence. We now introduce these critical topics in Session One and continue to address them throughout the program.

Our leaders have also told us that parents want to receive more skills sooner in the curriculum. To accomplish this, we moved the section on handling disrespect from Session Four to Session One; we cover communication skills in Session Two (versus Five in the old program) and discipline skills are now taught in Session Three (versus Four). This allows us to practice discipline techniques while teaching the four goals of behavior.

We also simplified the Think-Feel-Do cycle to show parent-child dynamics more clearly. We have added the section on "caring for the caregiver" that has been so successful in our 1,2,3,4 Parents! program and addressed the topics of emotional intelligence, anger management and character development. We also included content addressing CSAP's protective factors and Search Institute's Developmental Assets, and put in a research tool for leaders to use in collecting data to support the effectiveness of the program. 

Q. The effects of bullying and youth-on-youth violence are being felt in every community. How does the revised program deal with this issue?
A. We address these topics throughout the program in all three components—the video, group discussion and in the Parent's Guide. We dramatically show how kids are often subjected to mixed messages about when it is okay to fight and when it isn't, and then how parents can clarify this message and back up their teaching with support and discipline.

We also include a section on anger management and non-violent problem-solving to give parents the tools for teaching their children how to effectively handle problems at an early age.

Q. Funding agencies always ask about research and results. How does the revised program meet these criteria?
A. We do this in two ways. First, Active Parenting Now is a "research-based program" in the sense that the skills and information that we teach have been proven effective in many research studies over a long period of time.

Second, research demonstrating the effectiveness of Active Parenting Today and Active Parenting of Teens (on which Active Parenting Now is based) has been published in the "North American Society of Adlerian Psychology", "The Journal of Drug Education" and other publications. Third, we have included measurement tools for leaders to use in conducting their own evaluations. Government funding sources allow two years to collect such data, and these tools should help leaders prepare their results effectively.

Related links:
Active Parenting Now program description

Training for the new Active Parenting Now program - Summer 2002

Active Parenting Today program description

Active Parenting of Teens program description

Reprinted from Leader magazine.
Copyright 2002 by Active Parenting Publishers, Inc.