Outcomes Following an Early Parenting Center Residential Parenting Program

Abstract

Outcomes for maternal well-being and behavior as well as difficult child behavior following participation in a 5-day early parenting center residential parenting program were explored. Participants were 44 mothers and their children, the majority presenting with child sleeping difficulties. Data were collected at four stages: intake (2-4 weeks prior to the program), the first day of the program, the last day of the program, and 4 weeks after the program. Measures included questionnaires, monitoring sheets, and videotaped observations of parent- child interactions. Improvements were seen in mothers' behavior during parent-child interaction over the week they attended the program. Maternal symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress were lower after the program. The perceived frequency and seriousness of maternal reported difficult child behavior decreased over the measurement period, and 52% of parents had achieved 80% or more of their behavioral goal for their children. Implications for future research in early parenting centers are discussed.

The contribution of Australian residential early parenting centres to comprehensive mental health care for mothers of infants: evidence from a prospective study

“…The findings of this study confirm the evidence from other uncontrolled prospective cohorts of the substantial, sustained improvements in maternal mental health and infant behaviour shown after discharge from Australian residential early parenting services [23,29,35,37,50-52], and greater and more rapid than those found in a sample treated only with infant settling strategies as outpatients [36,53]. Prospective cohort studies of this kind do not preclude the possibility that the improvements may have occurred because of the passage of time and increasing infant maturity.…”

“…Frequently they have their own coexisting physical health problems, anxiety, depression, clinical exhaustion and adjustment difficulties [21-29]. Feeding, crying and sleeping problems are known to vary by infant age and developmental stage [17], but the sample size did not permit us to confirm this in this study.…”

Admission of women, with their infants, for psychological and psychiatric causes in Victoria, Australia

“…Their babies have sleeping, settling, soothing and feeding difficulties. Evidence from the available prospective cohort studies (see Table 2) is that brief structured residential early parenting programs are highly effective in reducing non‐psychotic maternal psychological morbidity, improving infant behaviour and strengthening maternal confidence and parenting capacity in the short and longer term 3,9,10,20–24 . Mothers can self‐refer to some of the public access services and while medical referral is required for the remaining services, mothers have often self‐identified a need and initiated the process.…”

Maternal factors and experiences associated with observed parenting behavior in mothers attending a residential parenting program

“…Families attending the 5-day residential parenting program at the QEC were invited to participate in a larger study evaluating the effectiveness and acceptability of the program (Treyvaud et al, 2009). Ethics approval for this study was granted by the SET Portfolio, HREC Subcommittee (nonbiomedical) at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia.…”