Parents as Teachers (PAT) home-visiting intervention: A path to improved academic outcomes, school behavior, and parenting skills

Abstract The time from conception to young childhood is crucial in terms of brain-, social-, emotional-, and cognitive-development. Given the impact that parenting has on child developmental outcomes, home-visiting programs may be a viable means of improving parenting and thus increasing positive child developmental outcomes. Parents as Teachers (PAT) is a home visitation program that promotes parenting skills and abilities to improve parenting skills and child development outcomes. The current study used a matched comparison group quasi-experimental design and assessed three years of academic and school disciplinary data from a school district in Arizona to determine the impact of PAT on student reading, math, and English Language skills as well as absence rates and school suspension rates relative to a non-PAT group of students. Further, the study examined whether the program influenced parenting behavior. Findings indicated that compared to the non-PAT control group, the PAT student group performed better in terms of reading and math achievement and had a significantly lower rate of absenteeism, in-school-suspensions, and out-of-school-suspension. Further, PAT parents showed increased scores on parenting measures at post-test relative to pre-test. Taken together, findings indicate that participation in the PAT program is a viable means for improving child academic outcomes and school behavior and improving parenting behavior. Implications for future research are discussed.