The term family “engagement” and “involvement” in parenting programs has been used in research to define families being motivated to seek parenting support programs (Ingoldsby, 2010), beginning programs, attending programs, and completing programs (Beasley, Silovsky, Ridings, Smith & Owora, 2014; Mytton, Ingram, Manns, & Thomas, 2014). Although there is a broader view of engagement in the extant literature, for the purpose of the current study family engagement and involvement will be defined as families initially enrolling and attending a parenting program.

Family engagement in services lays the foundation for positive outcomes of parenting programs and early childhood education programs (Axford, Lehtonen, Kaoukji, Tobin, & Berry, 2012; Daro, McCurdy, Weiss, Caspe, & Lopez, 2006). Both the ITPI and the Halgunseth’s model of family engagement include factors related to the parent, provider, program, and ecological characteristics. Support for the ITPI model has been found when examined in application to a parenting program designed for vulnerable families with young children (Damashek, Doughty, Ware, & Silovsky, 2011; Beasley et al., 2014). Further, research has discovered that between the time in which a person agrees to participate in a program (enrollment) and when they decide whether or not to continue to attend (attrition/retention) there is an engagement period in which provider and program factors influence initial and ongoing engagement (Beasley et al., 2014; Beasley et al., 2017). Provider factors found to impact engagement were personality (e.g., trustworthy, caring, experience with children) and approach (e.g., showing they enjoy their job, available, flexible, punctual, considerate, resourceful, humorous). Program factors, in addition to those that are a part of the ITPI model demonstrating impact on engagement include the type of education and material being taught, the ability to tailor the program to meet the families’ needs, whether the services are provided in the client’s home or in a community setting, the cost to clients, and the provision of incentives (Beasley et al., 2014).

Other researchers have also focused on family engagement from a slightly different perspective. Halgunseth’s model (2009) integrated the importance of the approach of the early childhood education program, and cited that a welcoming environment with two-way communication, home-visits, and shared decision-making are critical components to successful engagement of families. The importance of infusing the participants’ culture in the activities and during recruitment was notable in Halgunseth’s model. Further, research has indicated that the importance of culture is much broader than language and incorporates the context that shapes human development (McWayne, Melzi, Schick, Kennedy, & Mundt, 2013). Even so, the existing base of empirical knowledge to inform programs and policies is limited (NRCIM, 2000) with studies focusing on Latino/a families even more limited.

When examining factors that influence the likelihood of successful family engagement in services, results vary widely (Azzi-Lessing, 2011; Duggan et al., 2000; Gill, Greenberg, Moon, & Margraf, 2008; Korfmacher et al., 2008; McCurdy & Daro, 2001). Perhaps most essential for family engagement are factors related to parents’ perceptions of the program and provider and the match of the program and family goals. Mytton, Ingram, Manns and Thomas (2014) conducted a review of qualitative studies in which caregivers were asked about factors that made it easy and difficult to participate in parenting programs. Researchers found that caregivers emphasized learning new skills, having trusted recruiters and providers, positive group experiences, tailored program content, accessibility, and incentives as being important facilitators to program engagement. Program inhibitors included mismatches in expectations, issues with program delivery, feeling discomfort in a group setting, complex interventions, and cultural barriers. Therefore, the importance of emphasizing program facilitators while reducing inhibitors was found to improve service engagement.

Specific to Latino families, recency of immigration, primary language of Spanish, lower levels of education, and higher density of people in the home have been shown to relate to a lower level of engagement in educational supports, particularly home-based supports (Mcwayne, Melzi, Schick, Kennedy, & Mundt, 2013). Other research by Pena (2000) found that factors that impact Mexican American parent involvement in a school setting includes language, parent cliques, parents’ education, cultural influences, attitudes of the school staff, and family issues. Specific to cultural influences, communication was found to be important with culture being more than language and including concepts of acculturation and family traditions that can influence expectations for the school and ability to trust.

Taking part in a community-based parenting program has been shown to improve parents’ confidence, reduce parental negativity, and improve family functioning (Gardner & Woolgar, 2018). Cunningham, Bremner & Boyle (1995) directly compared clinic-based, individually delivered parent training to community-based, group-delivered parent training. Results showed that community-based implementation with groups of parents resulted in higher participation among immigrant families, families where English was a second language (ESL), and families with more severe child management issues. The community-based program also showed greater improvements in child behavior problems in the home setting with better maintenance of improvements at 6-month follow-up. When compared to clinic-based individual parent training programs, the community-based program was significantly more cost effective, and families often initiated outside social support after the conclusion of the program. Providing services in a community setting may increase participation within high-risk populations, address social isolation, and may be more cost effective.

To further examine the impact of group based parenting programs the current study examined initial and sustained engagement, as well as barriers to engagement, in the Spanish language adaptation of the Legacy program (Legacy Spanish). Legacy is an evidence-based program that was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promote the cognitive, language, behavioral and socio-emotional development of children from low-income families (Kaminski et al., 2013; Perou et al., 2012). This group-based prevention program was designed to promote child development by supporting sensitive, responsive mother-child relationships, building maternal self-efficacy, and fostering peer networks of support among mothers living in poverty (Perou et al., 2012). The program includes both mother-only facilitated group time to discuss child development and parenting topics within a peer group and mother-child time so mothers can practice concepts discussed in group with their own children in a supportive environment. There are two curriculum versions: one developed by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) that begins prenatally and is offered until the child is three years of age and one developed by the University of Miami (UM) that begins shortly after the target child’s birth and is offered until the child is aged five years.. The curricula cover developmentally sequenced themes such as attachment, discipline, social skills development, literacy, health and safety, maternal self-care and emotional management.

Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) compared the original, non-adapted Legacy program to a “usual care” comparison group and found that children of mothers randomized to Legacy had a lower risk of socio-emotional and behavior problems (UM), and hyperactive behavior symptoms (UCLA) (Kaminski et al., 2013). Parents also reported gains in parenting knowledge and skills (Hartwig et al., 2017). It is important to note that both of the original trials involved participants that predominantly identified as Black or Hispanic. Due to the success of these two trials, the Legacy UCLA version was translated and adapted to serve a population of Spanish-speaking Latina mothers and their infants. Similar to the Spanish language modification process followed by Mcabe and colleagues (2005), the Legacy translation and modification process involved the following: 1) the English curriculum was initially reviewed by Legacy content experts—including a bilingual staff member—to identify any phrases, topics or examples that might require modification based on the parenting intervention literature for Spanish speakers, original Legacy English focus group data, and expert opinion; 2) English books, videos, and songs were replaced with culturally appropriate Spanish language versions determined to convey the same concepts (e.g., using song for mother-child physical interactions by replacing the song Pat-a-Cake with Tortillitas); 3) a representative pilot session was selected for translation; 4) the pilot session was translated through an iterative process until there was consensus among the independent translation team, a second team of bilingual translators, and content experts that the translation reflected the original content and the language level was appropriate; 5) the full curriculum was translated using the pilot session as a guide; the translation was reviewed by both the content expert team and the second team of bilingual translators; and 6) finally, the original curriculum developers reviewed the translated/modified curriculum and additional changes were incorporated to ensure original content meaning remained through the translation process. Notably, the Legacy approach involves non-didactic group discussion allowing for exploration and valuing of cultural differences; therefore, major adaptations to the curriculum were not expected to be necessary when translating the curricula for Spanish-monolingual Latino families.

A feasibility evaluation of Legacy Spanish was conducted to inform additional adaptations (Beasley et al., 2017). As part of the feasibility study, a qualitative evaluation was conducted and found that the Legacy UCLA program material was culturally appropriate for the Latina population (Beasley et al., 2017). Specifically, qualitative feasibility results found that the UCLA Legacy program material was appropriate, culturally congruent, and recommended for Latina Spanish-speaking mothers. Minor changes were suggested to adjust language, lower the reading level of material, add pictures of Latino children/families to material, and add more culturally relevant songs. All of these requested changes were made to the material prior to the implementation of the Legacy Spanish program.

Although there has been research indicating key factors of engagement in family support programs (Beasley, et al, 2017; Mytton, Ingram, Manns, & Thomas, 2014; Axford, Lehtonen, Kaoukji, Tobin, & Berry, 2012) there is a lack of literature describing engagement factors that impact both initial engagement/recruitment and sustained engagement for Latina mothers. In fact, research has found that retention varies by ethnicity (McCurdy, Gannon, & Daro, 2003), making it even clearer that there is a need for ongoing research to determine best ways to engage families of different cultures in parenting support services. Therefore, the current study focused on understanding factors that influence enrollment and early program engagement, as well as how early recruitment/engagement strategies can be improved. In relation to sustained engagement, interviews focused on understanding what makes families continue to attend meetings, taking into account breaks in the program, and how group leaders might influence ongoing engagement. Lastly, the current study sought to understand potential barriers to engaging in community-based group parenting programs. To reach these goals, the current study used qualitative interviews with Latina mothers who participated in the Spanish version of the Legacy UCLA program (herein Legacy Spanish). The Legacy Spanish program was implemented by bilingual, bicultural program staff in a community in the South Central region of the US through a partnership with a private childcare organization as part of their community outreach initiative. Individual interviews were conducted in order to further the understanding of factors affecting initial and sustained engagement as well as barriers to engagement.

Recruitment strategies used for participants in an intent-to-treat evaluation of the Legacy Spanish group included: 1) contacting teachers and family service workers to approach potential participants; 2) mailing letters, flyers, and handouts; 3) placing posters in a variety of locations where Spanish-speaking mothers frequented; 4) holding informational meetings; and 5) making phone calls to potential participants. Participation in the Legacy Spanish study included individual interviews with contact being made with all Latina mothers in the Legacy Spanish program (N=29) through their normal Legacy group. Interviews were not scheduled with three Latina mothers due to scheduling difficulties. A total of 26 Latina mothers participated in the current qualitative evaluation with all mothers living in the South Central region of the US. Two of the individual interviews were from mothers no longer attending the Legacy program. Due to these mothers answering questions that resulted in the same themes as mothers still attending the program, interviews were combined. A potential reason for “unengaged” mothers answering questions as if they were still engaged in the program could be related to attrition associated with extenuating circumstances rather than lack of interest. In fact, the mothers spoke of returning to the program if their situation changed.

Latina mothers ranged in age from 20 to 44 years old (M=31.65, SD=5.82). In terms of marital status, the majority of mothers were married (45%) or living with a significant other (52%) with a small percentage of mothers reporting never being married (3%). Average number of children were 3.5 (SD=1.7; range 1–10) and average age of the children in the home other than the new born was 109 months (SD=62.5). Latina mothers reported their educational background with 34% reporting attending less than 9^th grade, 31% attending less than 12^th grade, 14% completing high school, 7% obtaining a GED, 3% attending vocational school, 3% attending a professional school, and 7% attending some college. The majority of Latina mothers reported being born in Mexico (84%) followed by Honduras (8%) and the United States (8%). In terms of years living in the United States, Latina mothers reported a range of 2 to 18 years (M=9.85, SD=4.18). For ethnicity, all Latina mothers reported being Hispanic/Latino. The families’ had a monthly income ranging from $400 to $2800 per month with an average of $1561 per month (SD=$685).

The Legacy Spanish program was conducted by bilingual group leaders and implemented at a Latino community center. The Legacy UCLA curriculum is implemented in 9 blocks of 10 consecutive weekly sessions with 4–6 week breaks after each session. For the current implementation of Legacy Spanish, Latina mothers began the program after the birth of their child (child less than 6 months of age) and will continue until the child is approximately three years of age. The current qualitative analysis includes data from participants that were first time enrollers in the Legacy Spanish program, at the end of the first 10 weeks of curriculum (child age= 4.2 −9.1 months), so that questions regarding initial and sustained engagement, as well as barriers to engagement could be examined.

Qualitative data collection was conducted in Spanish by trained qualitative research assistants from January 2016 through January 2017. Families had the choice to engage in the interview in English or Spanish. Although all participants had a choice of interview language, all participants chose to complete the interviews in Spanish, but one mother used English phrases throughout her interview. Prior to individual interviews, all participants completed a survey as part of a larger mixed-methods study. The survey was completed at the onset of enrollment and included a demographic questionnaire. To recruit for the qualitative portion of the study, Legacy Spanish group leaders told Latina mothers about the interviews during a group meeting. Interview times were scheduled after the completion of the first block (ten weeks of curriculum sessions) of the Legacy Spanish curriculum. Consent for individual interviews was conducted in Spanish in a group format and included a brief overview of the qualitative study and all safety measures taken to ensure anonymity. Interviews took place at the same time and location as regular meetings allowing families to fit the interviews into their schedule. If the proposed date and time did not work for the family, an additional time was offered. Childcare was offered as well as a small meal if the interview was scheduled during a mealtime. Families received a $40 gift card to compensate them for their time and to reduce barriers to attendance. All interviews lasted approximately 60 minutes and were audio recorded. Transcription of interviews were conducted by trained qualitative team members, with additional team members crosschecking transcripts to verify accuracy. During the transcription process, all identifying information was removed to ensure privacy. All Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) approved the evaluation methods.

The individual interview guide was developed by the first author (a qualitative researcher with previous experience studying engagement in family support programs), in conjunction with the evaluation team and collaborative partner agencies reviewing and revising the guide as needed. Current research involving the multitude of factors that influence family engagement (e.g., Attride-Stirling, Davis, Farrell, Groark, & Day, 2004; Halgunseth et al., 2009; Lefever, 2013) guided interview question development. The interview guide was semi-structured and focused on understanding aspects of the program that impacted enrollment/engagement initially (i.e., What did program staff do to make you want to come to meetings?) as well as aspects of the program that impacted ongoing or sustained engagement (i.e., What helped you stay in the program after the 6-week break?). Questions were also designed to elicit information on potential barriers participants face in engaging in the program (i.e., What makes it difficult to attend the Legacy program?).

Qualitative data analysis of the transcriptions was conducted using NVivo^© 10 and 11 software. Three qualitative researchers collaboratively developed the codebook to identify broad themes influenced by the semi-structured interview guide. Thematic analysis was used to define specific themes within the broader categories (Braun & Clarke, 2014). Developing the coding scheme and codebook took approximately three days with themes emerging from the data and not being predetermined. Upon completion of the codebook, two qualitative researchers coded all transcriptions using the created templates. When needed during coding, original interview recordings were reviewed to ensure that meaning was not lost when responses appeared to contain sarcasm or emotion. Coding was an iterative process with coding discussed in a larger meeting with broader codes developed to envelope groups of smaller codes when warranted. Once coded, transcriptions were compared for inter-coder reliability using simple percent agreement, which is a commonly used method for assessing reliability in qualitative studies (Lombard, Snyder-Duch, & Bracken, 2002; Stemler 2004). Average inter-coder reliability was over 85%.

Percent agreement (participant and total comments) was also calculated for every specific and broad theme within the transcription to quantify the emphasis that each theme received during the interviews which has been shown to be a useful qualitative research method (Silverman, 2005; Miles & Huberman, 1984). Themes are described in more detail in the results section below. The codebook (including themes and subthemes) and quotes were translated to English by several team members. This process included translation, reading translation back in English, making appropriate changes, and continuing this approach until team members agreed that meaning was not lost through the translation process. To further ensure that meaning was not lost in the translation process, multiple bilingual qualitative research assistants transcribed and crosschecked transcripts with the entire bi-lingual research team assisting with the final translation of results (as suggested by Emmel, 1998) This approach aims to address individual differences in the translation of concepts, ideas, and emotions within text (Emmel, 1998).

To allow for a better understanding of the initial engagement, Latina mothers who participated in Legacy Spanish were asked what program staff did at the first point of contact to engage families in the program. To capture information on the early stages of engagement, participants were asked about how they were recruited to join Legacy Spanish and initially engage in the program. Themes captured what was helpful for engagement as well as recommendations for improvements. Specific themes included information provided about Legacy Spanish and direct interactions with the mother by the recruiter, with recommendations regarding information shared about the program, methods of advertising the program, and ways to encourage Latina mothers.

Families were also asked if there was anything that a program could do to improve the process of recruitment and initial engagement of families in the Legacy Spanish program with some mothers reporting that nothing could be improved (27% of mothers). Several themes emerged from mothers that did have areas for improvement with these outlined below.

Sustaining family engagement in services is challenging with community-based programs (Attride-Stirling, Davis, Farrell, Groark & Day, 2004; Baker-Ericzén, Jenkins & Haine-Schlagel, 2013). As Legacy Spanish was adapted from the UCLA version of the Legacy program, which includes having four- to six-week breaks between 10-week program modules, there was the potential for additional challenges in maintaining ongoing engagement after breaks. Therefore, Latina mothers were asked what factors helped them return to Legacy Spanish after program breaks.

Due to the challenges surrounding sustaining family engagement, we asked Latina mothers to make recommendations to help engage families after the break, to elicit specific ideas for activities in which group leaders and program staff could engage.

Understanding supports that make it easier for families to attend services is helpful; however, it is also useful to understand attendance barriers. There were very low Legacy Spanish program attrition rates among the group of individuals interviewed (N=2). Interviewed Latina mothers who were no longer engaged in the program answered questions as if they were still engaged. Latina mothers disclosed that the low rates of attrition can be attributed to external factors rather than program issues. Therefore, barriers presented below provide a description of what participants believe based off personal observations.

The Legacy Spanish program had very little attrition, hindering the ability to capture the stories of parents who failed to engage in the program. As a result, findings may be impacted by a sense of social desirability, with reluctance to report negative aspects. However, having a clear separation of the program and evaluation teams (research members were from a separate organization and community and were not involved in the program implementation) may have reduced the likelihood of potential social desirability affecting the results. Other limitations include the current study primarily involving Latina mothers born in Mexico (84%) with other regions not as well represented (Honduras, 8%; United States, 8%). There is the potential that geographical region of origin could influence Latina mothers perceptions of factors that influence engagement in parenting programs. Therefore, future research on engagement should focus on understanding if similar themes emerge among Latino families from other regions. Another limitation is the current study took place prior to service completion with the potential for new themes to emerge at the end of services. Future directions should include research that understands engagement and attrition not only while families are engaged in services, but also upon service completion.

The validity of the current findings is enhanced by several design factors such as the calculation of salient factors using percentages and the team-based approach used for coding. Specifically, through calculating the percentage of mothers that discussed a theme, we were able to ensure that themes discussed in the current paper were salient and were discussed by a number of Spanish-speaking mothers. Further, the fact that both primary researchers as well as collaborative partner agencies were involved in developing the interview guide is a strength, increasing the likelihood that the items in the interview guide validly and comprehensively captured the intent of our aims.

Programs designed to enhance parenting and child well-being of Latina Spanish-speaking mothers and their young children show promise in strengthening foundational relationships for healthy development (Dumas et al., 2011); however, successful engagement of parents is key to the success of these programs (Whittaker & Cowley, 2010). Notably, enhancing their children’s development was revealed as a strong motivator for Legacy Spanish participation. To counter racial and ethnic educational disparities for Latino students, some family support programs have focused on integrating and engaging Latino parents within school programming (Moodie & Ramos, 2014). When parents actively engage in educational programming, benefits are found in Latino students’ academic performance and participation (Chrispeels & Rivero, 2001; Jeynes, 2017; Niemeyer, Wong, & Westerhaus, 2009). Extending the results of Chrispeels and Rivero’s (2001) study, the current findings suggest that directly working with parents who are immigrants may help early engagement in educational activities. Indeed, support for practice that facilitates parent engagement with ECE among culturally/linguistically diverse families (e.g., Barrueco et al., 2015) is growing. Engaging culturally/linguistically diverse families within ECE has been deemed critical to children’s development, such that researchers have suggested that states could consider family engagement of culturally/linguistically diverse families as a valuable standard within state’s ECE Quality Rating Improvement Systems (Barrueco et al., 2015). Thus, parenting programs designed for culturally/linguistically diverse families with infants can bridge a link to ECE programs enhancing their ability to support families.

The results of the current study provide support for strategies to successfully engage parents in a culturally relevant (citation withheld for author anonymity) parenting program for Latina Spanish-speaking mothers of young children. Culturally congruent parenting programs similar to Legacy Spanish can offer additional opportunities for Latino family connections within ECE. Furthermore, ECE can address barriers to parenting program participation such as childcare and transportation (by offering programs where families are already accessing services). Therefore, implementing parent-focused prevention programs within the context of E programs has the potential to expand the reach of such programs and create additive positive effects (NASEM, 2016; Morris et al., 2017).