The Experiences of Parents and Facilitators in a Positive Parenting Program

Abstract

The researchers examined facilitators’ and parents’ experiences with the Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting (PDEP) program through qualitative methodology. PDEP is a primary prevention program that teaches parents to move away from physical punishment and toward conflict resolution and positive parenting that focuses on stages of child development. Using a phenomenological approach, we conducted focus groups using semi-structured interviews with four PDEP facilitators and seven parents who completed the program. Parents and facilitators indicated that PDEP helped them learn new ways of thinking about parenting and contributed to overall changes in their parenting approach, including finding a balance of structured and sensitive parenting practices. Factors that contributed to positive experiences included the coherence and continuity among program modules, use of concrete examples to demonstrate concepts, supportive facilitators and fellow group members, and the provision of childcare. Suggestions for program improvement included the use of even more concrete examples to demonstrate parenting concepts, longer program duration, and greater flexibility in program delivery. These findings are important for further adaptations to the PDEP program. These findings may also be generalized to parenting programs that share similar core principles.

Application of Positive Discipline in Children to Reduce Parenting Stress During Pandemic

“…Some studies directly refer to a program to reduce parenting stress, but there are also those that place parenting stress as a mediator for other variables. We will discuss several programs that use positive discipline principles to reduce parenting stress, namely positive parenting [9]- [13] positive discipline [8], [14], [15], mindful parenting [16], [17], mother -child education [18], Developmental Surveillance and Promotion Manual -Family-mediated Preschool Parenting Program (DSPM-FMPP) [19], parenting intervention to prevent violent [20], [21], and affiliation with childcare organization [22].…”

Parenting Programme Structure, Potential Barriers, and Facilitators: A Scoping Review

“…Parenting programmes can increase parenting competence, skills and practices [ 27 , 31 , 38 ], self-efficacy [ 37 ] and parents’ knowledge about children’s temperament and developmental stages [ 28 , 38 ]. It also enabled the strengthening of social support [ 31 , 37 ] and the way to solve children’s conduct problems [ 36 , 38 ].…”

“…Parenting programmes can increase parenting competence, skills and practices [ 27 , 31 , 38 ], self-efficacy [ 37 ] and parents’ knowledge about children’s temperament and developmental stages [ 28 , 38 ]. It also enabled the strengthening of social support [ 31 , 37 ] and the way to solve children’s conduct problems [ 36 , 38 ]. The demonstration of various feelings of stress and frustration concerning day-to-day parenting was also reported as one of the benefits of the parental programme [ 29 ].…”

“…Factors that contributed to positive experiences included: access for future reference and content more specific to the child’s age and more sortable [ 30 ], consistency and continuity between programme modules, using concrete examples to demonstrate concepts, supportive facilitators and group companions, providing childcare, using concrete examples to illustrate parenting concepts, and flexibility in programme delivery [ 38 ].…”