Abstract
Child maltreatment impacts many young people involved in the child welfare system, and it is important that the resource parents supporting these youth have knowledge and skills in trauma-informed care. The current study is a preliminary evaluation of the Resource Parent Curriculum (RPC), an in-service, 8-module, group-based parenting program developed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Youth and caregiver outcomes were examined by way of a quasi-experimental design that included 22 resource parents in the experimental group and 21 in the waitlist control group and involved baseline, post-program, and 2-month follow-up assessments. For learning outcomes, RPC resulted in improvements in resource parents' knowledge and beliefs about trauma-informed parenting. While not statistically significant, potential effects included improvements in resource parents' tolerance of challenging youth behaviors and parenting self-efficacy. For behavioral outcomes, several non-significant potential effects were noted, including improvements in resource parents' attachment relationships with their youth and increased social supports. This study was the first to evaluate RPC using a quasi-experimental design within a Canadian context and through a virtual delivery. Findings highlighted several benefits of the program and resource parents' ongoing training needs.