Do young children perceive change in the daily lives of their families during participation in a therapeutic family support programme?

ABSTRACT

This article reports on findings from longitudinal research that explored perceptions of family life for three- to five-year-old children whose families were participating in an intensive, therapeutic family support programme (N = 5) in a disadvantaged community in Sydney, Australia. There were two early childhood comparison groups, one comprising children attending a supported playgroup (N = 2), and another comprising children attending preschool (N = 10). Interviews guided by Ecocultural theory were conducted with each child at three time points to understand their perspectives on everyday home and family life and explore whether or not their perceptions changed over the course of programme involvement. Thematic analysis revealed differences in perceptions of home life for children attending the family support programme compared with comparison group children. In contrast to the family support programme children, comparison group children described moments of love and affection in the parent–child dyad, shared meal times as opportunities to connect as a family, and enjoyment of home learning activities such as shared book reading. On the other hand, siblings played a key role, particularly as play partners, in the home lives of family support programme children. Change over time was found in two of the five family support programme children’s descriptions of home life, such as increased parent–child play and having friends home to play. Little change over time was reflected in the accounts of family and home life for the comparison group children. This article argues for including children’s voices in research on parenting intervention and family support programmes, and including children’s perspectives as one important component in evaluating programme effectiveness.

Keywords:

• early childhood
• disadvantage
• qualitative
• home and family life
• children’s perspectives
• Ecocultural child interview
• intervention programmes

Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank the children who participated in this research. We also thank the children’s parents for their support and involvement in this research as well as the programme staff who welcomed us into their programmes. Thank you also to the first author’s doctoral supervision team, Dr Rebekah Grace, Dr Anne McMaugh, Dr Frances Gibson, and Professor Jennifer Bowes.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Rotary Health Research Companion Terry Beslich PhD Scholarship provided by Australian Rotary Health and the Children and Families Research Centre, Macquarie University, Australia.