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Background Evidence for the effectiveness of book-based parenting resources to enhance child social and emotional wellbeing and parent mental health is limited. Furthermore, they may not work equally for parents from different socioeconomic backgrounds. This study examines whether the Incredible Years Babies book (IY-B) as a standalone parenting resource can enhance child social and emotional wellbeing and parent mental health at age four months and investigates whether these relationships vary as a function of parental education.Methods A pre-specified secondary analysis of combined data from the Enhancing Social-Emotional Health and Well-being in the Early Years Steps (E-SEE) randomised controlled pilot and full trial ( ISRCTN11079129) was conducted. A sample of parents with babies under eight weeks old from five geographically diverse English locations were recruited by health visitors, family support workers or through self-referral. Participants completed baseline questionnaires, including the primary outcome measure for child social and emotional wellbeing (ASQ:SE-2) and the secondary outcome measures for parent mental health (PHQ-9). Participants randomised to the intervention group had access to IY-B while the control group received service as usual. Measures were reassessed two months post baseline. Multiple linear regression analyses using StataMP 18 tested the relationship between the intervention and outcomes adjusting for parent ethnicity, parent education, parent relationship status, child sex, dataset source, intervention site, ASQ:SE-2 baseline score and PHQ-9 baseline score. A model with an interaction between intervention group and parent education was estimated to investigate if these relationships varied by parental education.Results All parents (n=545) were mothers and were randomised 437:108. Significant differences between arms were found for ASQ:SE-2 in favour of the control arm (B=-4.2, 95% CI -7.4 to -0.9, p=0.013). No significant differences for PHQ-9 were found (B=0.4, 95% CI -0.1 to 0.9, p=0.127). There were borderline statistically significant differences when including the interaction term between treatment arm and parent education on ASQ:SE (B=-6.8, 95% CI -13.6 to 0.0, p=0.050). Significant differences in ASQ:SE-2 between arms were found for parents without degrees in favour of the control arm (B=-6.5, 95% CI -10.6 to -2.5, p = 0.002) but not for parents with degrees (B=0.2, 95% CI -5.2 to 5.7, p = 0.930).Conclusion IY-B was not effective at improving child social and emotional wellbeing or parent mental health at age four months and may exacerbate inequalities in child social and emotional wellbeing. Based on these results, IY-B is not recommended as a standalone parenting resource.