Positive parenting: a randomised controlled trial evaluation of the Parents Plus Adolescent Programme in schools

Abstract

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to evaluate the Parents Plus Adolescents Programme (PPAP)—a parent training course specifically targeting parents of young adolescents (aged 11–16 years)—when delivered as a preventative programme in community school settings.MethodsA sample of 126 parents (mean age of children = 12.34 years; range = 10–16 years) were randomly assigned to either a treatment (PPAP; n = 82) or a waiting-list control condition (WC; n = 44). Analyses are based on a study-completer sample post-treatment (n = 109 parents: PPAP n = 70; WC n = 39) and sample at 6 month follow up (n = 42 parents).ResultsBoth post-treatment (between groups) and 6-month follow-up comparisons of study completers (within PPAP group) revealed significant positive effects of the parenting intervention with respect to adolescent behaviour problems and parenting stress. The post treatment comparisons demonstrated large effect sizes on global measures of child difficulties (partial eta squared = 0.15) and self-reported parent stress (partial eta squared = 0.22); there was a moderate effect size on the self-reported parent satisfaction (partial eta squared = 0.13).ConclusionsThis study provides preliminary evidence that PPAP may be an effective model of parent-training implemented in a community-based setting. The strengths and limitations of the study are discussed.

Parents Plus Systemic, Solution‐Focused Parent Training Programs: Description, Review of the Evidence Base, and Meta‐Analysis

“…In a randomized controlled trial of the PP Adolescents Program offered to families of normal adolescents attending regular secondary schools in a rural community, Nitsch et al. () found that compared with the waiting list control group, after treatment the PP Adolescent Program group showed significantly greater improvement on a range of measures. These gains were maintained at follow‐up.…”

“…Most studies in the meta‐analysis were underpowered. The sample size in only five studies (Gerber et al., ; Hayes et al., ; Keating et al., ; Lonergan et al., ; Nitsch, Hannon, Rickard, Houghton, & Sharry, ) was sufficient to provide adequate power ( p = .05, β = .80) to detect a small to moderate effect size, which is what has been reported in meta‐analyses of other parenting programs (Menting et al., ; Sanders et al., ).…”

“…There were also conjoint family sessions held midway through these programs and at the end of treatment. Two studies were run in child and adolescent mental health clinics with families of adolescents with psychological disorders (Beattie, O'Donohoe, Guerin, & Fitzpatrick, 2011;Wynne et al, 2016), and two were conducted in schools (Nitsch et al, 2015;. In a nonrandomized controlled trial of families of adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders, emotional disorders, and developmental disabilities attending mental health clinics at two Dublin university hospitals, found that compared with the treatment as usual control group, after treatment the PP Adolescent Program group showed significantly greater improvement on a range of measures, with gains maintained at follow-up.…”

“…In a nonrandomized controlled trial of families of adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders, emotional disorders, and developmental disabilities attending mental health clinics at two Dublin university hospitals, found that compared with the treatment as usual control group, after treatment the PP Adolescent Program group showed significantly greater improvement on a range of measures, with gains maintained at follow-up. In a randomized controlled trial of the PP Adolescents Program offered to families of normal adolescents attending regular secondary schools in a rural community, Nitsch et al (2015) found that compared with the waiting list control group, after treatment the PP Adolescent Program group showed significantly greater improvement on a range of measures. These gains were maintained at follow-up.…”

A first-level evaluation of a school-based family programme for adolescent social, emotional and behavioural difficulties

“…As previous research into the PPAP and WTO programmes has shown the efficacy of both programmes in clinical settings (e.g. Beattie et al, 2007;Nitsch, 2011), this study was concerned more with the effective delivery of these programmes in a novel setting, and so the positive findings in relation to adolescent and parent outcomes are encouraging. Due to the number of different sites the study was conducted across, the findings of the study are also more readily generalisable and thus provide relatively robust evidence for the effectiveness of the intervention.…”