Research Base

At the time PIO was developed, no research-based parent education programs existed that had been designed specifically for incarcerated parents. However, a variety of research-based parenting programs had been developed for at-risk populations, and several of the most prominent of these were developed by researchers and clinicians at the non-profit Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC) in Eugene, Oregon.

The content and process of these programs were adapted to create the first draft of PIO and are at the core of the current version of the program. The most notable influences on this aspect of PIO were the Parent Management Training (PMT) program by Dr. Gerald R. Patterson and Dr. John B. Reid and colleagues; the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC) parent program by Dr. Patricia Chamberlain and colleagues; the Adolescent Treatment Program (ATP) parent program by Dr. Thomas J. Dishion and Dr. Kate Kavanagh and colleagues; the Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers (LIFT) parent program by Dr. Reid and colleagues; and the Parenting Through Change program by Dr. Marion Forgatch and colleagues. Outcomes for each of these programs have been examined within the context of at least one randomized controlled trial, and each program has been found to positively impact both parents and children.

Each of these programs is on one or more of the “best practice” lists for family based interventions assembled in recent years by various U.S. government agencies and private foundations. Outcomes due to PIO are currently being examined in a randomized controlled trial funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Results from this study of over 350 men and women inmates, their children, and the caregivers of their children will be available in 2009.