Community‐based parenting training: do adapted evidence‐based programmes improve parent–infant interactions?

Abstract

Evidence‐based parenting programmes frequently undergo modifications when delivered in community mental health centres. Adaptations are made to the original curriculum due to clientele demographics, practitioner judgement and resource restrictions. It is thus important to evaluate whether adapted interventions successfully meet their expected goals once they are implemented in the community. The current pilot study examined the effectiveness of an attachment‐focused parent group training programme that was based on an empirically validated parenting course (Right from the Start), but adapted for use in a children’s mental health clinic with a diverse client population. Twenty‐two caregiver–child dyads participated, with children’s ages ranging from 4 to 41 months. As expected, following completion of the intervention, parenting stress had decreased, parenting confidence had improved and caregivers’ cognitive growth fostering skills had increased. However, the programme did not meet its primary goal of improving maternal sensitivity. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords:

• infant
• parent
• caregiver

Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by a Programme Evaluation Grant from the Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health, Ottawa, Ontario.

We would like to thank the staff and management of Aisling Discoveries Child and Family Centre and all participating families for their support and collaboration.

Notes

1. A few dyads came with a third relative who participated in the programme, but not in the evaluation.

2. This is equivalent to half of the total number of caregiver–infant dyads that attended the programme. Reasons for not participating in the research included participant absence on pre‐, post‐, or both evaluation days and/or discomfort with the research process.

3. This age range does not include the information from one mother whose age was not obtained.

4. Weekly topics listed are taken word‐for‐word from the Right from the Start leader’s manual (Niccols et al., 2001, p. 8).