What is the Digital Parenting Project?
The Digital Parenting Project provides access to a digital library of parenting messages and supports effective digital communication options. These parenting messages also support family-friendly approaches that allow parents to engage in their child’s development and learning as well as a healthy atmosphere to establish positive early childhood parenting.
To connect parents with evidence-based parenting information remotely, Extension’s Partners in Parenting team created the Digital Parenting program in 2021 (with initial support from the Christine C. Schulze Legacy Foundation). Unlike traditional direct education classes, this program reaches out to families through several different digital media and devices. These self-directed resources help parents acquire and apply the parenting and problem-solving skills necessary to build a healthy family and provide family resources to better connect parents with their children.
The digital parent is one who uses one or more digital media applications and/or devices in his/her daily activities, particularly parenting. Today's parents are less likely to attend traditional parenting programs and prefer convenient or self-directed sources of information, increasingly online, using mobile devices to access the internet and social media. Many parents/caregivers often use digital media for searching parenting information - 61% of parents use social media and 94% use email to seek information. The Digital Parenting Project reaches out to those families by providing parenting information on different topics, via different digital media such as parent-teacher communication apps (i.e. Band, Class Dojo), social media (i.e. YouTube, Facebook), email and texting.
Most parents want their children to succeed and serve as significant resources for child success. Some parents may need intensive support including skill-building, mental healthcare, and financial assistance. However, many parents overall need help obtaining information and overcoming the simple behavioral barriers that they face regularly. The Digital Parenting Project can support busy families by using digital media to provide parenting information, leading to more frequent and effective engagement between parents and their children. Ultimately, this will help children develop to their fullest potential.
What do we do?
- Develop a digital library - currently with 44 parenting topics - both in English and Spanish.
- Send parenting messages via text and email.
- Provide the digital library to early care and education programs.
- Offer parent-child activity videos on the Extension YouTube Channel - Partners in Parenting YouTube Playlist.
- Create online parent training courses. To access these courses in Articulate 360 click on the links:
Outcomes and Impacts:
Early Care and Education Staff Survey
- 85% of early care and education staff thought that the program is helpful for their families.
- 46% thought that it was easy to deliver the program to their families.
- They all would recommend the Digital Parenting Project to other schools/sites.
Parents/Caregivers
- 75% of parents thought that the program was helpful and 90% would recommend it.
- 61% of parents have shared parenting messages with their spouse/partner, 35% with friends, and 22% with other family members.
- 80% of parents thought that all the parenting messages were easy to understand and use.
The Digital Parenting Project received the 3rd Place Western Region Winner Human Development/Family Relationships award from the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.
Parents may sign up below for the messages or early care and education staff may inquire about the digital library for their center or classroom by sending an email to Christina Lee.
