This chapter discusses the significance of the right parenting programme environment, one in which participants are encouraged to share parenting experiences with other parents—what aspects of the environment did the parents consider to be particularly important?
The last, but perhaps the most surprising and encouraging theme that developed from my analysis of parents’ data was the importance of the right learning environment. What I’m talking about here is the way in which the parenting programme was delivered, how the trainer approached the subject, and how the parents taking part were made to feel, rather than, say, the details of the venue in which the course was held. With this in mind I found that what parents were telling me could be summarised into three phases: the recognition of the importance of parents’ pre-existing knowledge; the facilitation of the sharing of this knowledge with other parents; the building on this knowledge-base by application of a Transplant as opposed to an Expert model of parent-professional practice. In this chapter I’ll be using the parents’ voices to explain more about what I mean by each of these three phases.
This was one of the key themes that developed from the parents’ interviews to help answer my first research question, and a particularly noteworthy theme; the parents’ perception that the environment needs to be right to share parenting experiences with other parents. This theme developed from seven of the parents’ interviews making this an especially important aspect of the parenting programme. The parents talked about the importance of a number of factors such as friendly, approachable and helpful staff; a clean and safe place for children to play; the structure and calmness of group and being able to spend quality time with their child—all of which contributed to an environment in which they could get together to share experiences and ideas. Without this opportunity they could feel isolated, as if they are the only one who was experiencing these difficulties and, in some cases, even doubt their abilities to be a good parent. This was a particularly interesting finding as the importance of the environment where the parenting programme is delivered was not an area that was discussed in the literature.
One key aspect of this theme was having the right environment to talk to and learn from other parents. The Government had specific targets at whom they aimed these programmes, fathers, teenage mothers and parents with low socio-economic status, and although all the programmes I attended actively encouraged participation from each of these targeted groups they did however also allow parents who did not come under any of these specific categories to attend. From what I saw and heard from the parents, this wider and more inclusive approach to attendance created a much more fertile environment in which a broader range of parental experiences were brought together to be shared for the benefit of all.
This new knowledge of the importance the parents place on the trainers creating the right environment is especially valuable as it could help trainers in ensuring that they are creating a space where parents want to come to and don’t feel threatened or undermined in their role.
What the Parents Say
To ensure that I had parents representing all the government targeted groups (fathers, teenage mothers and parents with low socio-economic status) in the interview phase of my research, I included a series of demographic questions on the pre-programme questionnaire. You will note a representation from all the demographic groups in the quotations below; all adding evidence to the importance of the right environment to share parenting experiences.
The staff have been amazing and the structure has been really good.
PEEP (Q-post)
Chatting to the staff and other parents regarding everything from sleep to diet, behaviour etc.
PEEP (Q-post)
I think you can kind of just exchange ideas and just be comforted to know that everybody’s just got the same problems.
PEEP was hugely beneficial to both Lily and me. Always stimulating and friendly. Much of Lily’s childcare has always fallen to me due to my wife’s severe illnesses since Lily’s birth. Organised groups were fun in themselves and also gave me good contact with other parents.
PEEP (Q-year)
For many parents, not just dads, the parenting groups might be the only time they get to meet other parents. This was especially the case with PEEP parents who did not have an older child as they would not get to meet other parents at the school gate.
Making friends as I suffered from postnatal depression.
PEEP (Q-post)
Although not one of the government’s specific targets, it was recognised by professionals working with parents that mothers suffering from postnatal depression could also benefit from joining a parenting programme. As this was a particularly sensitive area to include on a questionnaire, and as it was not the focus of my research, I did not incorporate any questions either on the questionnaire or in the semi-structured interview schedule around mental health. However a couple of parents shared how attending a parenting programme helped support them during this difficult time.
Attending a session with other mothers with children of a similar age to my son to talk through concerns.
PEEP (Q-post)
That I am not the only one with dealing with sharing and tantrums.
PEEP (Q-post)
Meeting new people. Sometimes I thought I was not good with my children, I trying.
PEEP (Q-post)
Making new friends and discussing how people deal with different situations that arise with the child.
PEEP (Q-post)
…for me speaking to other adults has helped me as well because I have learnt like different ways to manage their behaviour and stuff, and obviously at that age like to put rules down and I learnt and feel more confident and that.
For many parents the analysis of the data suggests that without groups where they can get together to share experiences and ideas, they could feel isolated, as if they are the only one who is experiencing these difficulties and, in some cases, even doubt their abilities to be a good parent.
For Jacob, his wife worked from home and was the main wage earner. Jacob home tutored his sons and looked after the main household chores. He shared that if it was not for attending the children’s centre he “wouldn’t see anybody during the day”.
…but at this group the people talk to each other more so I think that’s an important thing about coming to these groups as well, for the parents to get out and talk to each other as well as children.
If it wasn’t for groups like that I would be just at home because I cannot afford to pay for, I dunno, softplace every day, it’s horrendous it’s like £7 now. So this is great, this is for free, it’s always open.
For Adelajda she found talking to other parents especially valuable, having come from Eastern Europe she did not have any family nearby so turned to these sessions to extend her knowledge around child development and also the English school system. As a primary school teacher I have found parents who have moved to England often find our school system very different from that in their own countries and their own childhood experience; unless a relationship between the parent and the educational setting has been developed this can be overlooked.
What This Tells Us
Having the right environment to share information with other parents was a recurring theme across all three parenting programmes. The data suggest one of the most important benefits of attending a parenting programme is the meeting, sharing, talking and learning from other parents. Seven out of the eight parents’ data had this as a developing theme, despite there being no questions specifically asking whether parental interaction was an important aspect of the parenting programme. The one exception was Ava, a grandmother who attended the programme with her daughter Olivia (a mother of four children); although this theme did not develop from the analysis of Ava’s interview, she did however comment that she would have welcomed the opportunity to have attended a parenting programme when her own children were young.
It is interesting to note that this theme, the importance of other parents on the programme, was not found to diminish the role of the parenting programme trainer. The parents recognised the role of the trainer in “setting the scene” and supporting them through challenging times in addition to providing general parenting advice and information. Concerns expressed in the literature around parenting programmes being regarded as an Expert model (Cunningham and Davis 1985) with parents being told what to do by the parent programme trainer, was not evident in my research. Conversely the data strongly suggest that the parenting programmes I studied fall within the domain of being a Transplant model, with parents and parenting programme trainers working in partnership.
Further analysis of the parents’ post-programme interviews revealed other aspects of parental preference regarding the environment in which the programme was delivered. Interestingly for Olivia, reflecting back on what elements she would have liked from a parenting programme which she could have attended when her children were toddlers, she was quite adamant that she would have preferred for it to be held in a village or church hall rather than a children’s centre. This was quite contrary to all the parents I spoke to who attended a PEEP group, not just in the post-programme interviews but also during the groups I visited. This could suggest that perhaps Olivia had a negative previous experience or her preconception of a children’s or family centre was not a positive one. Interestingly Ava, Olivia’s mother, also agreed that had she had the opportunity to attend a group with her children when they were toddlers, she would have preferred a village or church hall, however she gave no indication that she had recently visited a children’s centre. Were the daughter’s views regarding a children’s centre those passed on from the mother, or had the daughter passed on a negative experience to the mother? This aspect, the nature of the course setting, could be an area for further exploration in a follow-on study, with parents who attend parenting groups held in children’s centres or alternative venues.
…if you come from a particular socio-economic group there will be support there for you; if you come from different socio-economic groups you are not perceived as requiring any support and there are not any issues.
If you have got enough money coming in and got enough things you’re meant to be able to just kinda, sometimes I just feel like you just get on with it. Where’s if I was someone who had more issues kinda going on I would get more support of how to bring up my child.
Sophia
From the interviews we can conclude that parents value parenting programmes as an opportunity for them to meet and share information with other parents at least as much as they appreciate them for their intrinsic educational value. Additionally for some parents, particularly those with preschool children, it might be the only opportunity they get to interact with other parents and indeed “get out of the house”. For The Incredible Years and Triple-P programmes, parents in most cases attend because they have concerns around their child’s behaviour and by the end of the programme they have developed a toolkit of strategies to support them. For PEEP parents the suggestion is it is more about going to a toddler group to meet other parents, play with their child and for their child to socialise. However from talking to parents and analysing the data it seems that they come away with much more; they have learnt about child development, the importance of sharing stories and rhymes, healthy eating and a myriad of other topics that are covered in the programme.
Parents value the role of the trainers in creating the right environment: trainers need to be friendly, approachable, non-judgemental and helpful. Parents feel that trainers create the right environment where they can share their parenting experiences and support each other within the structure of the group. It is the interaction with the other parents on the programme that is particularly important to them.
During my research I witnessed the effects of Government and local authority withdrawal of funding, resulting in a complete or partial reduction in parenting programmes offered. First, funding for PSAs was withdrawn resulting in a dramatic reduction in parenting programmes being offered to parents of school-aged children. For many of the children’s centres which were still able to offer parenting programmes, this meant that the groups they ran had to be restructured so that they were now predominantly for targeted parents—specifically parents living in areas of socio-economic deprivation, teenaged parents and fathers. The danger of this is that the perception of children’s centres and parenting programmes could return to the view that they are there for “failing” parents, an erroneous view that I have found has taken years to overcome since the roll out of Phase One children’s centres which were built only in disadvantaged areas. During my time as a local authority Parent Support and Children’s Centre Advisor, and throughout this research, I witnessed how hard children’s centre staff had worked to counter this image. From the one-year-on questionnaire data and my more recent visits to children’s centres, it was quite apparent that parents were well aware of the changes that were happening in their area. This process of reduction and re-targeting of parenting programmes will not only limit the attendance of middle-class parents, who for some reason are viewed as not needing parenting support, but would also discourage targeted parents who do not want to be viewed as failing in their role. This will result in a negative change to the environment for parents, which they value so highly, to one in which they can no longer benefit so much from sharing information with other parents.
During one of my last visits to a group for this research I met two parents who had previously been to and enjoyed attending a PEEP group with their older children, and had found it incredibly difficult to find one to go to with their younger children. In another group attended by a mix of mothers and fathers, cut-backs meant that the children’s centre decided to close this group and replace it with a fathers-only group. Sophia, one of the parents I interviewed, met with one of the fathers from the group they both used to attend and asked how he found the new group; his reply was “like tumbleweed”, with the new fathers-only group apparently suffering from very low numbers and limited group interaction. Maybe this group grew since I carried out that interview and maybe more fathers attended, but what happened to all the mothers and their children? None of the fathers had asked for a specific group for them, no-one asked them if they wanted it, Government funding and targets had simply dictated it. From the one-year-on questionnaire responses it was evident that the parents who could no-longer attend these targeted groups struggled to find PEEP groups that they were able to attend.
To summarise, there are two key findings from this theme that address my first research question about parents views of the parenting programme process: firstly how parents valued the role of the trainers in creating the right environment, where they could share their parenting experiences and support each other within the structure of a parenting group; secondly how parents valued the role of other parents on the programme. Importantly, although the perspectives and experiences of other parents were viewed as a critical element of the programme, this was not found to diminish the role of the parenting programme trainer. Seven out of the eight parents interviewed recognised the role of the trainer in “setting the scene” and supporting them through challenging times in addition to providing general parenting advice and information.
The parents spoke positively of their experience of attending a parenting programme and considered that they worked in partnership with the trainers rather than being told what they should or should not be doing. I would like to emphasise this point because it suggests trainers are not adopting the role of an expert, as in Cunningham and Davis’ Expert model, but rather are working in partnership with parents as in their Transplant Model. For one particular PEEP group I visited, it could be suggested that they had gone one step further and were moving towards the Consumer model where participants choose what they want included in their session, as there was provision for parents to suggest what topics were covered in the group. This is important because it suggests that parents are being empowered by the approaches to learning being adopted by the trainers, rather than disempowered by being made to feel inadequate as suggested could be the case (Cottam and Espie 2014). This also indicates that the concerns raised by Crozier (1998), whereby trainers view themselves as the expert and have a deficit view of the parents, may have been successfully overcome—at least on the programmes which formed part of my research. Consequently, as a result of adopting this Transplant model, trainers are reporting that parents are leaving the course with increased confidence, not only in parenting but also in other aspects of their lives.