P3B233: Participant Endorsement of Parent Cafés: Variation by Demographics and Number of Cafés Attended

Background: Parent Cafés are where parents and caregivers talk about the challenges and victories of raising a family. Through individual deep self-reflection and peer-to-peer learning, participants explore their strengths, learn about the Strengthening Families™ Protective Factors, and create strategies from their own wisdom and experiences to help strengthen their families.

Methods: At the end of any Parent Café, participants are asked to complete an anonymous survey. This study is a secondary analysis of English survey responses collected since the COVID-19 lockdown (March 23, 2020 – December 2021). The survey includes fixed-choice demographic questions. Participants are asked 11 fixed-choice questions about the Café, rated on a 5-point scale of ‘Strongly Disagree' to ‘Strongly Agree', covering the programmatically aligned constructs of Strengthening Families Protective Factors (6 items), Café Process (3 items), and Parent Engagement and Leadership (2 items). To create a summary score, each respondent's count of ‘Strongly Agree' responses was calculated, reflecting the degree of endorsement of Parent Cafés.

Results: A multivariate linear regression was run. This study represents the first large-scale analysis of Be Strong Family Parent Cafés since their creation in 2012. The results indicate that parents of older children, grandparents and parents of children with special needs were significantly more likely to have attended more Cafés relative to parents not in these categories.

Conclusion: Respondents who are young, African American, Hispanic, and with children 0-4 years old are more likely to rate the Cafés highly regardless of dose. These findings suggest preliminary support for the acceptability and cultural responsiveness of Parent Cafés.