Parenting programs have the ability to enhance parenting quality and healthy child development, but the overwhelming majority of evidence for their effects comes from a small minority of countries ...and research-intensive contexts. More evidence is needed from effectiveness studies (rather than highly controlled efficacy studies) and from countries less well-represented in the international literature. We examined changes in parental cognitions and parenting behavior in 62 families completing a 10-week online group program (Growing up Together Online) as part of social services in Croatia in 2020 and 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic and earthquake. Parents reported on their cognitions and behaviors before and after the intervention. Paired-sample t-tests show significant improvements in parent-reported general self-esteem, parenting self-efficacy, and parenting experience and morale. Parents also reported significant reductions in angry, harsh, and violent parenting. Parents did not report increased attempts to understand children’s perspectives and positive interactions (e.g. joint play). Reliable change index analysis showed that reliable improvement was most common in parenting self-efficacy and least common in positive involvement and reinforcement. Findings provide preliminary evidence for the program’s potential to optimize the parenting conditions of children growing up in an environment at risk for child abuse and neglect.
Highlights
This study examined changes in parental cognitions and behavior in the context of a new online parenting program.
Growing up Together Online was implemented as routine care in social services in Croatia.
After the program, parents reported better self-esteem, parenting morale, and self-efficacy, and less anger and physical punishment.
Already at pre-intervention, parents reported adequate levels of attempted understanding and positive involvement; these constructs did not change.
Our study suggests that Growing up Together Online may improve parental cognitions and behavior, especially harsh parenting.
•Multiple determinants involved in bringing quality standards into the practice setting.•Promote the cultural readiness of the system increasing the national awareness of EBP.•Need to facilitate the ...collaborative work disseminating EBP guidelines in all the sectors.•Ensure the sustainability of quality assurance to guarantee child and family wellbeing.
The European policy is placing a strong emphasis onadopting an evidence-based practice (EBP) approach. However, this process has not been sufficiently described and comparatively explored between countries with different family policies, delivery systems, target populations and professional cultures of evaluation and intervention. This study proposed a multicomponent model of implementation strategies to empirically examine the degree of adoption of EBP at national, agency, and practitioner levels in a sample of20 member countries of the European family support network: A bottom-up, evidence-based and multidisciplinary approach (EurofamNet), with a great geographical distribution and different political status: 12 EU members, 6 EU candidate members and 2 non-EU members. Consensual responses to the survey (17 questions) were provided by members of EurofamNet national networks made up of entities at the national, regional, and local levels across sectors. Three clusters of responses were identified, Cluster 1 Initial Level (30%, mainly EU candidates), Cluster 2 Medium Level (40%, EU and non-EU members) and Cluster 3 Advance level (30%, EU and non-EU members). Countries at the Initial Level showed a lack of / or less degree of achievement in the implementation strategies. Countries at the Medium and Advance levels showed progressive steps towards EBP adoption through the implementation of collaborative leadership, translational efforts on agreed EBP guidelines, official recognition of services and professional teams applying EBP guidelines, multi-agency and intersectoral EBP adoption, professional training on EBP guidelines, and dissemination strategies. Our findings highlight the complexity of the transformation process and the multiple determinants involved in bringing the quality standards into the practice environment. Lines of improvement are suggested to help countries reinforce the culture of quality assurance in the child and family services.
The aim of the study was to test whether the correlation between parental behaviors in the context of adolescent disclosure and adolescents’ self-reported disclosure could be explained by fulfillment ...of adolescents’ basic psychological needs within their relationships with mothers and fathers. The cross-sectional data were collected from a representative sample of 1,074 seventh graders in Croatia. Parental facilitating behaviors (initiating conversation, support and respectful guidance) and some of the inhibiting behaviors (unavailability, punishment) were shown to be indirectly associated with adolescents’ disclosure through the perceptions of their needs satisfaction. The assumption about the unique contribution of the need-for-relatedness satisfaction in mediating the link between parental behaviors and disclosure was consistently supported, whereas the specific contribution of the need-for-autonomy was apparent only in data about mothers, but not fathers. The results are equivalent for routine disclosure and self-disclosure, suggesting that the processes through which parents facilitate or inhibit both are rather comparable.
•Evidence-based standards are used to characterize 193 family support programmes across Europe.•Programmes' characteristics are used for an analytic comparison of their diversity.•A three-typology of ...family support programmes supports the differentiation of the targeted population.•Evidence-based programme formulation provides a practical roadmap for family support.
The importance of using evidence-based programmes to ensure children’s rights and families’ wellbeing is increasingly recognized in Europe. However, there are few and partial attempts to gain insight into the scope of prevention and promotion programmes currently implemented in child and family services across Europe, often located outside the formal peer-reviewed channels. The objectives of this study are empirically examining the diversity of family support programmes delivered and the extent to which they meet evidence-based standards for programme formulation and provide a picture of the typologies according to programme descriptors, operational aspects and implementation components. The Family Support Programmes' Survey was used to identify existing programmes addressing family support in participating countries. The sample includes 193 support programmes from 17 European countries, members of the European Family Support Network corresponding to three regions of Europe (Northern, Southern and Central-Eastern). The comparative survey was conducted using the Data Collection Sheet to gather information about program characteristics. Descriptive and cluster analyses were carried out. Results show that a large number of programmes fulfil evidence-based standards for programme formulation, such as clearly defined theoretical framework, manualization, and methodology components. In addition, three cluster profiles of programme formulation components were determined corresponding to the three European regions. Implications for research and practice on the development of family support programmes according to evidence-based standards for programme formulation are discussed.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to deliver parenting and mental health support services to families. This narrative review illustrates ...the diverse ways in which ICT is being used across Europe to provide family support to different populations. We distinguish between the use of ICT in professional-led and peer-led support and provide implementation examples from across Europe. We discuss the potential advantages and disadvantages of different ways of using ICT in family support and the main developments and challenges for the field more generally, guiding decision-making as to how to use ICT in family support, as well as critical reflections and future research on its merit.
The aim of the study was to explore adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ behaviors that inhibited or facilitated adolescents’ self-disclosures to them. Four focus groups with 16 girls and 16 ...boys from Croatia (13—14 year olds) were conducted. Results indicate that adolescents perceive their self-disclosures to be influenced by a variety of specific parental actions and reactions in disclosure-related situations. According to adolescents’ views, not only can parents hinder adolescent’s disclosure by unfavorable reactions, but they can also prompt the adolescent to disclose by behaving in certain manner. Identified parental behaviors and emotional states (labeled as ‘‘inviters’’, ‘‘inhibitors’’, ‘‘negative reactions’’, and ‘‘positive reactions’’) are discussed in terms of contemporary perspectives on optimal parenting based on children’s psychological needs and children’s rights.
Contemporary literature on parenting support programmes advocates for greater engagement of fathers and a stronger evidence base of the programmes' effectiveness. This study examines the outcomes of ...the parenting support programme "Growing Up Together Fathers' Club" conducted through four weekly workshops with fathers of young children. A pre-post intervention comparison of self-reported data from 238 fathers who completed the programme in 25 sites throughout Croatia revealed an increase in parental self-efficacy, positive involvement with the child and attempted understanding of the child's perspective, and a decrease in harsh parenting and violence to the child after the programme. Participants' educational level did not moderate the results. Qualitative data provide insight into perceived programme benefits for fathers and theirchildren as well as suggestions for programme improvement.
Contemporary literature on parenting support programmes advocates for greater engagement of fathers and a stronger evidence base of the programmes' effectiveness. This study examines the outcomes of ...the parenting support programme "Growing Up Together Fathers' Club" conducted through four weekly workshops with fathers of young children. A pre-post intervention comparison of self-reported data from 238 fathers who completed the programme in 25 sites throughout Croatia revealed an increase in parental self-efficacy, positive involvement with the child and attempted understanding of the child's perspective, and a decrease in harsh parenting and violence to the child after the programme. Participants' educational level did not moderate the results. Qualitative data provide insight into perceived programme benefits for fathers and their children as well as suggestions for programme improvement. Keywords: programme evaluation, parenting support, fathering, father-child interaction, father involvement Suvremena literatura o programima podrske roditeljstvu poziva na vece ukljucivanje oceva te snaznije utemeljivanje programa podrske roditeljstvu na dokazima djelotvornosti. Ovim istrazivanjem ispituju se ishodi programa podrske roditeljstvu "Klub oceva Rastimo zajedno". Usporedba podataka prikupljenih od 238 oceva djece predskolske dobi koji su zavrsili program na 25 lokacija sirom Hrvatske, prije i poslije sudjelovanja pokazala je da ocevi po zavrsetku programa procjenjuju visom svoju roditeljsku samoefikasnost, ukljucenost u pozitivne interakcije s djetetom i razumijevanje djetetove perspektive, a nizom ucestalost grubog i nasilnog ponasanja prema djetetu. Uz to, njihova su uvjerenja postala manje tolerantna prema tjelesnom kaznjavanju i u vecoj mjeri podrzavala djetetov integritet. Obrazovna razina sudionika nije moderirala efekte programa. Kvalitativni odgovori govore o percipiranim povoljnim ishodima programa za oceve i djecu te donose prijedloge poboljsanja programa. Kljucne rijeci: evaluacija programa, potpora roditeljstvu, ocinstvo, interakcija otac-dijete, ukljucenost oca
Corporal punishment of children as a pedagogical measure has been prohibited in Croatia since 1999. However, the results of epidemiological research of violence against children show that violent ...educational practices are still often used. The attitude of individuals towards corporal punishment of children is considered one of the most important predictors of corporal punishment. The aim of this research was to examine the psychometric characteristics of the Attitude towards Corporal Punishment scale and identify the socio-demographic determinants of the attitude towards corporal punishment. The research was conducted as part of the project »Strengthen the Child's Right to Protection« on a sample of 2,215 parents from five Croatian counties. The results of the analyses indicate that the attitude towards corporal punishment shows a positively skewed distribution, i.e. that fewer parents have positive attitudes towards corporal punishment, although a substantial number of them support corporal punishment to a certain extent. Parents' sex, level of education, number of male children in the family and total number of children in the family were found to be statistically significant. Parents' age, self-assessment of family finances and number of female children in the family were not found to be predictors of the attitude towards corporal punishment of children. The results indicate the need for the revision of theoretical approaches in the area of prevention of violence against children. They also provide strong support for the creation of prevention campaigns aimed at changing the attitude towards corporal punishment of children in the general public. Based on the analyses, use of this scale as one of the for risk assessment tools is recommended to professionals who work directly with users.
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