ABSTRACT
High-quality home-school partnership can bring significant benefits to children’s learning and wellbeing. While evidence-based parenting programs often target key determinants of high-quality home-school partnership (i.e., parenting self-efficacy and parental self-regulation), it remains unknown whether parenting programs can promote the home-school partnership. The present study, an incomplete stepped wedge cluster randomized trial of an evidence-based parenting program, namely the seminar version of the Triple P—Positive Parenting Program, represents the first attempt in addressing this knowledge gap. Data were collected from a sample of 912 parents of children (range between 4 and 13 years old; 50.2% girls) attending 160 different primary schools across three Australian states. Although the home-school partnership was not the intervention target, we found improvements at post-intervention and three-month follow-up assessments, with small effects in parent–teacher communication (d = 0.16 at T2 and 0.15 at T3) and parent school-based involvement (d = 0.19 at T2 and 0.22 at T3). These findings were systematically replicated through steps. Null findings were found on home-based involvement, parent–school relationship, and parents’ perceived quality of the school’s involvement in the local community due to potential ceiling effects. The mechanism of change was explored in Part II of the article series. The findings provide additional support to the notion that evidence-based parenting support should be made available in schools, as it not only brings well-documented benefits on children’s learning and wellbeing but also has the potential of strengthening the home-school partnership through enhancing the quality of parent–teacher communication and increasing parents’ participation in school-based activities.