Upstart Parent Surveys

Overview

Surveys are used internationally as a parent-reported measure of the common outcomes of community-based, prevention-focused parenting education programs.

UpStart Parent Surveys© measure:

  1. Parenting Knowledge/Skills,
  2. Parenting Experiences, and
  3. Program Satisfaction

There are two versions of surveys for different stages of parenthood:

  • UpStart Parent Survey – Prenatal
  • UpStart Parent Survey – Early Years (1-6)

Kits Includes:

-UpStart Parent Survey User’s Manual

-Printable Parent Surveys

UpStart Parent Survey:
Prenatal

Agencies and Academic Researchers: $250 USD

 

UpStart Parent Survey:
Early Years (1-6 years of age)

Agencies and Academic Researchers: $250 USD

 

  • Prenatal and Early Years versions have parallel form for use in programs with expectant parents or those parenting children up to age 6 years.
  • Based on principles of adult learning theory, uses retrospective pretest/post-test format to identify changes in parenting knowledge/skills and experiences during the education program.
  • Surveys are easy to complete by parents with diverse education, income, and ethnicity.
  • Parenting Knowledge scale is designed to be adapted to reflect program curriculum.
  • Assesses parental satisfaction with the program, which can be used for continuous quality improvement.
  • 3,2,1 questions summarize three things parents learned, two things they do differently, and one thing they still have a question about.
  • Strong reliability and validity.
  • Readability is 4.6 grade level for the Early Years version and 5.5 for the Prenatal version.
  • User’s Manual with two sections: one section for parenting educators/facilitators and one section for researchers.
  • Translated into French by the Public Health Agency of Canada.
  • Paper and electronic formats take the same time to complete and generate similar results.
  • Used in Canada, USA, United Kingdom, and South-East Asia.
  • Used with Canadian Indigenous populations.
The UpStart Parent Survey – Early Years version was designed in partnership with community agencies, researchers, and policy makers.
  • In a community-university partnership, agencies collected 536 UpStart Parent Surveys – Early Years version from program participants.
  • Each scale on the UpStart Parent Survey is unidimensional and sensitive to change over time.
  • Internal consistency reliability (coefficient alpha) ranged from .86 (Parenting Knowledge/Skills) to .96 (Program Satisfaction).
  • Test-retest reliability over 2 weeks ranged from .67 (Parenting Knowledge/Skills post-test) to .85 (Program Satisfaction).
  • Individual items on the Parenting Experiences scale demonstrated concurrent validity with the Tool to Measure Parenting Self-Efficacy, Parenting Morale Index, SF-8 Health Survey, Brief FAM-General Scale, and Family Support Scale.
The UpStart Parent Survey – Prenatal version was developed in collaboration with prenatal educators. It demonstrated similar reliability and validity to the Early Years version.
  • In a community-university parenting, prenatal education programs collected 277 UpStart Parent Surveys – Prenatal version from expectant 161 mothers and 106 fathers.
  • Internal consistency reliability (co-efficient alpha) for mothers ranged from .86 to .95 on the post-test; and for fathers ranged from .91 to .96 on the post-test.
  • Each scale on the UpStart Parent Survey is unidimensional and sensitive to change over time.
Agencies needed a brief tool to evaluate the common outcomes of their parenting education programs. The UpStart Parent Survey – Early Years version was developed and tested in collaboration with six agencies offering ten different prevention-focused programs for parents of children up to age 6 years. The UpStart Parent Survey – Prenatal version was developed and tested with a single prenatal education program. Both UpStart Parent Surveys demonstrated strong reliable and validity.
  1. Benzies, K., Barker, L., Churchill, J., *Horn, S., & *Smith, J. (2016). UpStart Parent Survey-Prenatal Version: A reliable and valid measure for prenatal education programs. Public Health Nursing, 33(5), 440-448.
  2. Benzies, K., Clark, D., Barker, L., & *Mychasiuk, R. (2013). UpStart Parent Survey: A new tool for the evaluation of prevention-focused parenting programs. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 17(8), 1452-1458.
  3. Clark, D. E., Benzies, K., & Barker, L. A. (2013). Building safe communities from the start: The UpStart Parent Surveyv. International Journal of Child, Youth, and Family Studies, 4(1), 119-135.

If you are a trainee, please contact us at connect@liminality.ca for pricing