Taking a Public Health Approach to School-Based Parenting Interventions: The Triple P-Positive Parenting Program

Considerable advances have been made through parenting and school-based interventions in preventing or reducing misbehavior. However, the majority of parents who might benefit from these services are unable to access them. In this paper we propose that a promising solution is to adopt a public health approach that provides a well-coordinated continuum of care with multiple levels of service sufficient to meet parent and student needs. We argue that this public health approach, which parallels the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach frequently seen in United States schools, can best be achieved by melding multi-level parenting programs with multi-level school-wide interventions. To illuminate some of the potential benefits and challenges of this public health approach which bridges gaps between school, clinical, and community psychology, we describe the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program and propose some adaptations needed to develop an effective interface between Triple P and schools.