Parent education has been gathering momentum in Hong Kong since its inception in the 1970s; however, much emphasis has been put on imparting childrearing knowledge and skills to parents rather than facilitating the reorganization of parents' lived experiences and their identity development. Based on the results of an exploratory study conducted in Hong Kong, this article discusses the possible outcomes and experiences of a parent enhancement group adopting a narrative approach. The group comprised three, 5-hour sessions held weekly. The participants included 20 Hong Kong parents with at least one child in preschool. Through the adoption of a pretest-posttest design coupled with a 6-month follow-up survey and three post-intervention focus groups, the study attempted to examine the effects of the program and the subjective experiences of the participants.Findings: The quantitative results showed that the group might have positive impacts on the enhancement of parental satisfaction, parental efficacy, and parent-child relationships. The qualitative findings indicated that the group might help develop the parent identity through strengthening the parent-child relational connection and integration of parents' life stories. The participants also had a deeper understanding of the impact of parents' personal growth on their parenting practice and children's development.Applications: The findings offer a knowledge base for evaluating this approach to parent enhancement programs. Of particular importance are its transformative effect, retention effect, ripple effect, and empowerment effect. The findings also provide reference materials for practitioners to rethink the direction of parent education.

This article discusses how an existential approach contributes substantially by rethinking the ideas of parent education and enriching parent and child well-being. The goals and principles of this approach, namely eliciting the full spectrum of the meaning of parenthood, fostering constructive parent–child and family interactions, extending parents’ concerns from their own children to the welfare of future generations and addressing the issue of gender in parenting, are explicated. Parent education strategies, evaluation studies and their relevance to the Hong Kong-Chinese cultural context are also taken into account. Finally, it considers some practical suggestions for promoting this approach in Hong Kong.

While the increasing awareness of risk in late modernity has resulted in the proliferation and complication of parental roles and choices, few attempts have been made to explore how parent education can empower parents to reconstruct parenthood and transform parental lives. Based on the results of a mixed-methods study conducted in Hong Kong, this article discusses the possible outcomes and experiences of a parent education program that aimed to facilitate parents' holistic growth in dealing with the prevailing culture of intensive parenting. The program was composed of 30 h of seminars and workshops. The participants included 387 Hong Kong Chinese parents recruited from seven primary schools and 27 nursery schools. A pretest-posttest assessment survey and postintervention focus groups were adopted for the evaluation methods. Findings: The quantitative results showed that the participants experienced an enhancement in confidence, understanding, and trust in parenting. The qualitative

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This paper reports the results of a qualitative analysis of the participants’ perceptions and experiences of a parent education program adopting an existential approach. With a critical review of the changing social context of parenthood and the provision of parent education in Hong Kong, the paper discusses the theoretical underpinnings, key components, and the design of a growth- and meaning-oriented parent education program. This program comprised six 5- hour sessions held weekly. The participants included 43 Hong Kong Chinese parents. An evaluation study was conducted to explore the outcomes of the program, which was composed of a non-equivalent comparison group design, a subjective outcome evaluation survey, and post-intervention focus group interviews. The current paper focuses on reporting the qualitative examination of the data collected through five post-intervention focus groups. Twenty-five participants were randomly selected and invited to join the groups. The recurrent themes extracted from their narratives reveal their perceptions of the impacts of the program on their enhancement of self-understanding and personal growth, integration of life through life review, reset of life priority, affirmation of the parent-child relational connection, changes in parent-child relationships and interactions, and cultivation of mutual support and mutual learning. Based on the qualitative findings, the paper explores the relevance and potentials of this approach in re-conceptualizing parent education in the Hong Kong Chinese context.