The authors compare a group of parent clients who received volunteer parent-aide services with a group of parent clients who were not afforded parent-aide services in order to analyze the effectiveness of a parent-aide services program. Results show that parent-aide services did not significantly affect program outcomes. The absence of participating parents' substance-abuse problem and the number of case-planner contacts were the only significant predictors of successful program outcome. The findings suggest the need for training parent aides to monitor signs of clients' substance abuse and the need for social workers to develop more effective therapeutic intervention models for substance-abusing clients of preventive services.
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