Prof. Dr. Frances Gardner

Prof. Dr. Frances Gardner

Prof. Dr. Frances Gardner works on the development and evaluation of parenting interventions, investigating questions about their effectiveness for reducing child disruptive behaviour, and child maltreatment, their transportability across countries, and mechanisms and moderators of change, using randomised trials and systematic reviews. She recently completed a series of systematic reviews, using a range of different methods to elucidate the essential components of parenting interventions, with a view to understanding how programmes can be strengthened, or abbreviated, prior to scale up. She led a large individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis of parenting trials across Europe, in order to understand the effects of parenting interventions on disadvantaged and ethnic minority families, as well as effects of other child and parent characteristics as moderators. She has conducted many randomised trials of parenting interventions in UK, USA, South Africa, Tanzania and the Philippines. Her work has helped informed policy in many governments and international organisations, including WHO, UNICEF, UNODC, and the Governments of UK, Malta, Estonia, Slovenia, New Zealand, Montenegro, and Sweden’s SBU (Health Technology Assessment) agency. She serves on the Board of ‘Blueprints for Violence Prevention’, on a WHO Expert Panel on Standard of Evidence in Violence Prevention, and previously, the Scientific Advisory Board for the UK National Academy of Parenting Practitioners.

Relevant publications:
  1. Gardner, F., Knerr, W., Montgomery, P. (2016). Transporting evidence-based parenting programs for child problem behavior (age 3-10) between countries: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. 45, 749-762.
  2. Gottfredson, D., Cook, T., Gardner, F., Gorman-Smith, D., Howe, G., Sandler, I., Zafft, K. (2015). Standards of Evidence for Efficacy, Effectiveness, and Scale-up Research in Prevention Science: Next Generation. Prevention Science, 16, 893-926.
  3. Knerr, W., Gardner, F., & Cluver, L. (2013). Improving Positive Parenting Skills and Reducing Harsh and Abusive Parenting in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review. Prevention Science, 14, 352-363.
  4. Gardner, F., Hutchings, J. & Bywater, T., & Whitaker, C. (2010). Who benefits and how does it work? Moderators and mediators of outcomes in a randomised trial of parenting interventions in multiple ‘Sure Start’ services. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 39, 568-80.
  5. Gardner, F., Burton, J. & Klimes, I. (2006). Randomised controlled trial of a parenting intervention in the voluntary sector for reducing child conduct problems: outcomes and mechanisms of change. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 47, 1123-1132.