Evidence-based psychosocial family interven-
tions enhancing empathy and empowerment are particularly
beneficial to families of children who have developmental
disabilities. This study assessed the effectiveness of an
intervention called the Nurturing Program for Parents and
Their Children with Special Needs and Health Challenges
(SNHC). Eighty-seven families were enrolled and randomly
assigned to a control or treatment group. Forty-six families
in the control group received individualized case manage-
ment (CM) services and forty-one families in the treatment
group were assigned to 12 sessions of the SNHC curriculum
along with case management services. Before and after the
intervention, participants in both conditions completed the
Adult and Adolescent Parenting Index-2 assessing parents’
attitudes toward child rearing and the Family Empowerment
Scale (FES) measuring family empowerment. Caregivers in
the intervention condition improved in empathy towards
children’s needs, F(1, 54) = 4.52, p = .04; and all families,
both control group and treatment group, improved their
attitudes towards the use of corporal punishment by postt-
est, F(1, 54) = 6.56, p = .013. Also, all caregivers increased in their empowerment over the course of the intervention, F
(1, 50) = 13.28, p = .001. Attrition, 22–26% among CM
and 51–56% among SNHC+CM, limited generalizability as
did participants not completing all SNHC sessions. Despite
these limitations, findings suggest that early interventions
catering to families of children with developmental dis-
abilities have a positive impact on parenting. To varying
degrees, both conditions provided caregivers with tools that
positively affected the quality of the parent–child relation-
ships and promoted empowerment.

EB00000003946K

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• The Nurturing Program: An Intervention for Parents of Children with Special Needs