Abstract
An extensive literature documents the numerous interrelated stressors families in poverty face, and associated risks for children's wellbeing. Positive parenting holds tremendous promise as a counterbalance to these risks; thus, evidence-based parenting programs represent one of the most important approaches in the arsenal of services for children and youth in poverty. However, logistic and perceptual barriers with particular relevance for low-income families contending with multiple stressors prevent many parents from engaging in supportive services. Applying an ecological public health model, we present evidence for innovative service models from within and outside of the parenting literature that provide support to individuals and families in communities of poverty, highlighting aspects of service models that align with the needs of high poverty families. Specifically, we review evidence that parenting programs may reach and engage more families if services are 1) led by fellow community members to align with cultural norms and multiply opportunities for service provision; 2) embedded in key settings such as homes and schools with flexibility to bridge settings; 3) aligned with the goals and needs of those settings, and bundled with other services to address families' pressing needs, thereby taking a “family-centered” form; and 4) offered through multiple formats, from traditionally formatted sequenced curricula to informal conversations infused with core parenting principles. Expanding the workforces, settings, intervention foci, and formats that can support parents' adoption of positive parenting practices may reduce the research to practice gap for some of our nation's most vulnerable children and families.