With the myriad challenges facing parents in recent years, formal parenting training programs have been developed to address parent needs. However, few studies have been conducted to assess the actual effects of participating in such programs. An attempt to develop a better understanding of how informal parental support networks and formal parent education programs influence participants' perception of child behavior is reported in this paper. A multi-modal self-report measure was developed to assess the effectiveness of some of these programs. A search for formal programs to participate in the planned comparative assessment revealed that formal parenting programs were generally reluctant to administer the survey to their participants. The majority (78%) of programs that expressed initial interest refused to administer the self-report battery of standardized measurement instruments to their program participants. The primary reason cited for nonparticipation was the fear of negative program publicity. Concerns about protecting potential parent participants were also expressed. Some of the challenges that future researchers may encounter when trying to scientifically evaluate parent education programs are described here. (RJM)