Supporting Parenting

This publication on early childhood development (ECD) examines, for the purposes of policy advocacy, theory, and practice, the parenting of young children and programmes that support it. "This publication focuses...on programmes that are directed at enhancing parents’ practices and skills. The range of different potential approaches is explored, through the use of contrasting examples, along with reasons why particular solutions might be chosen." It is complied for the Bernard van Leer Foundation in collaboration with the Open University.

Contents include the following:

• Preface
• I. Parenting and children’s well-being 
  • Parenting goals 
  • Parenting capacities 
  • Parenting quality 
  • Promoting resilience 
  • Protecting children from risk 
  • Listening to children  
  • Policy questions, including: 
    • "What are the local conditions that limit the capacity of parents to pay attention to survival and health, economic self-maintenance, and the achievement of cultural values?
    • How are families’ opportunities linked to resources of the community, region and state?
    • By what means is the availability of parenting support services communicated to relevant agencies and potential beneficiaries?
    • Are parenting programmes sensitive to the characteristics of different parenting styles and their effects on child development?
    • What systems are in place to actively seek children’s views and involvement in decisions and programmes that affect their lives?
    • What steps are being taken to identify and overcome reluctance in parents to access and take up support services?"
    • What methods are used to identify families at risk for parenting difficulties?
• II. Programmes for parenting support 
  • United States: The Nurse–Family Partnership (NFP), a home visiting programme - "NFP nurses have three major goals: to improve the outcomes of pregnancy by helping women improve their prenatal health; to improve the child’s health and development by helping parents provide more sensitive and competent care of the child; and to improve parental life-course by helping parents to plan future pregnancies, complete their education and find work."
  • New Zealand: Ahuru Mowai – a programme for Maori parents - "The programme is centred on the concept of parent educators, who come from a variety of disciplines and also include parents who themselves have been recipients of the programme services. The educators’ training is based on Maori culture and covers five key areas: oral traditions; child development; parent support methods; the rights of children and rights to self-determination; and safety and health."
  • Australia: Triple P - "Delivered by trained practitioners, Triple P aims to build a 'family-friendly' environment to support and empower parents. It targets social contexts that influence parents on a day-to-day basis including the mass media, primary health care services, childcare and school systems, work sites, religious organisations and the political system."
  • United States: The Incredible Years - "The approach is based on 'videotape modelling' where parents discuss video clips that show parents using a range of strategies to deal with everyday situations with their child... emphasis[ing] parenting skills known to promote children’s social competence and reduce behaviour problems, including effective, non-violent strategies for managing negative behaviour."
  • Netherlands: Promoting positive parenting - "Parent and infant are videotaped during short (10–30-minute) daily episodes in their home.... In the period between the home visit and the first intervention session, the support worker reviews the videotape and prepares her comments on the child’s behaviour and the parent’s reactions. During the next visit the videotape is shown to the parent, and the support worker reviews it with him or her, repeating and discussing the selected fragments. Focusing on positive and successful interaction in the videotape (sometimes rather scarce), the aim of the intervention is to show the parent that he or she can act as a sensitive, competent parent, fulfilling the child’s attachment and exploration needs."
  • England: Sure Start 
  • Parenting support across five European countries 
  • Policy questions, including: 
    • "Has the variety of cultural meanings of parenting and childhood been researched and used to inform policy?
    • Is there adequate knowledge of the range and diversity of available parenting support programmes?
    • Is the importance of matching and linking programmes to local needs and service frameworks appreciated and taken account of?
    • Has the principle of cost-effectiveness been used to select the types of parenting support to implement?
    • How is the level of support matched to the degree of need?
    • Is good-quality training provided on an ongoing basis for practitioners?
    • What mix of targeted and universal services is best for the local context?
    • How is the risk of stigmatising programme participants avoided?
    • What evidence base has been used to design intervention services?"
• III. What works? 
  • Making a difference 
  • Working with parents 
  • Barriers to participation 
  • Evaluating parenting support programmes 
  • Evaluating Sure Start in England 
  • Policy questions, including:  
    • "In what ways are family functioning, children’s well-being and developmental outcomes monitored and assessed?
    • What training do practitioners receive to help them deal with psychological issues in working with parents?
    • Are there clear and consistent procedures for documenting and auditing the delivery of services?
    • Against what criteria is the quality of parenting interventions evaluated?
    • Is there sufficient breadth in the range of process and outcome measures being used?
    • How adequate is the evaluation strategy methodology?
    • Are well-validated measures being used in systematic ways to collect evaluation data?"