The Duplin County Center of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension has recently been selected as a site for research that focuses on parental education for guardians/parents mandated by the court system or referred by social services agencies to its local Parenting Matters program.

The research project, An Evaluation of Parenting Matters: Parent Education for Mandated and Referred Parent, began earlier this year. This research is designed as a systematic evaluation of the eight-session Parenting Matters curriculum. The Parenting Matters curriculum was developed by Dr. M. Jean Baldwin, Family Life and Human Development Specialist with the Cooperative Extension Program at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T).

Wanda Campbell Clay, Family and Consumer Sciences Extension agent, provides leadership to this program in Duplin County. Clay states the objective of the parenting education program is to fill the need for training of mandated and referred individuals.  The overall goal of the curriculum is to reduce or eliminate instances of child abuse and neglect by providing educational learning experiences that increase the use of positive parenting practices.

Dr. Valerie Jarvis McMillan, Associate Professor at NC A&T, is principal investigator for this research project and works locally with Ms. Reddick and Ms. Clay. The Evans-Allen Research Program, Agricultural Research, School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at NC A&T, and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) fund the research project.

For more information about the local Parenting Matters program offered at the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service -Duplin County Center, please call 910.296.2143 and ask for your local Family & Consumer Sciences Extension Agent, Wanda Campbell Clay, or Parenting Matters Coordinator Brenda Reddick.