Journal of Child and Family Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1, March 2004 ( C  2004), pp. 113–123 The Parents Matter! Program: Practical, Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, Ph.D., 1,4 James Jaccard, Ph.D., 2 and Eileen Casillas, B.S. 3 We provide a commentary on the Parents Matter! intervention program. Our com- mentary is organized around core issues confronting those who design prevention programs, namely (1) making the program practical, feasible and economical, (2) reaching a broad base of target individuals, (3) making the intervention effective in changing the behavior or outcome for those who participate in it, and (4) en- suring that the intervention is sustainable for future generations. Parents Matter! is a thoughtful and impressive program that addresses each of these issues. KEY WORDS: Parents Matter! Program; parenting interventions. The review of literature by Dittus, Miller, Kotchick and Forehand (2004) makes clear that family based interventions designed to prevent or reduce sexual risk taking on the part of young adolescents hold much promise. There is an impressive array of correlational evidence that implicates the influence of parents on the lives of adolescents. Given this, it makes sense to structure intervention efforts for parents of adolescents to help them effectively guide their children toward responsible behavior in the sexual domain. As evident from the articles in this issue, Parents Matter! is an impressive and thoughtful effort to develop a viable community based HIV prevention program for young adolescents by reaching out to parents. There is no question that parents need help along these lines. It has been well established that the factors that impact adolescent sexual risk taking are 1 Assistant Professor, School of Social Work and Department of Population and Family Health, Columbia University, NY. 2 Distinguished Professor, School of Social Welfare and Department of Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York, NY. 3 School Coordinator, School of Social Work, Columbia University, NY. 4 Correspondence should be directed to Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, School of Social Work, Columbia University, New York, NY 10025; e-mail: rg650@columbia.edu. 113 1062-1024/04/0300-0113/0 C  2004 Human Sciences Press, Inc.