To What Extent Can a Brief Health-Promoting Group-Based Parenting Program “All Children in Focus” Enhance Swedish Parents' Self-Efficacy and Improve Child Well-Being?

Introduction: Early parent training has been highlighted as an important strategy for empowering parents. One of the main objectives with early support to parents is to reduce the risk of later child ill-health before it has become established. However, universal brief health-promoting parenting programs are not as commonly employed as general prevention or selective approaches. In the present project, we therefore wanted to evaluate whether a newly developed, brief (4 sessions) health-promoting group-based parenting program, All Children in Focus, could increase parental self-efficacy and improve child psychological well-being among a general population of Swedish parents.

Methods: After a first pilot study targeting parents of children aged 2-12 years (N=104) indicated promising results of the All Children in Focus-program as a way of empowering parents, we conducted a multicenter randomized waitlist controlled trial in Sweden. Parents of children (N=621) aged 3-12 years were randomized to receive the intervention directly, or after a waitlist period of 6 months. Parents answered questionnaires about parental self-efficacy as well as child health and development. We used multilevel linear modeling with repeated-measures to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. We compared intervention participants to the waitlist group 2 weeks after the intervention had ended as well as 6 months after baseline.

 

Results: Results suggest that the intervention had positive effects on both parents’ efficacy and children’s health (e.g., mental and physical health and emotional development). At the 6-months follow-up, parents in the intervention group reported more increases in self-efficacy and better children’s physical and mental health than those in the control group. Intervention effects were moderated by parent’s education level and mental health: The strongest effects were found for parents with university-level education and parents who reported more positive mental health. 

Conclusions: The results from this RCT indicate positive intervention effects of the All Children in Focus program on parental self-efficacy as well as of parents’ perception of their child’s health, across the 6-months period. The study contributes to the understanding of possible advantages of offering universal parenting programs to strengthen and empower parents.