Predictors of Attendance and the Impact of Attendance on Outcomes for a Parenting Programme in Two Southeast Asian Countries

Background: Children living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experience alarmingly high rates of maltreatment, frequently at the hands of caregivers. Group-based parenting programmes show promise for reducing and preventing child maltreatment, as well as for improving positive parenting, child behaviour problems, and caregiver mental health. However, parenting programmes can only benefit families if caregivers participate in them. Using secondary data, this study thus aimed to 1) identify factors that affect attendance and 2) investigate the impact of attendance on outcomes within two randomised controlled trials of Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) for Young Children for caregivers of children aged 2-9 years in Thailand (N = 120) and 2-6 years in the Philippines (N = 120). The interventions were delivered within existing service delivery systems in both countries, over eight weekly sessions (Thailand) or 12 sessions every second week (Philippines). Method: To address the first aim of this study, multivariable logistic regression models with robust sandwich estimators were used to examine family baseline characteristic as predictors of caregiver attendance in sessions. An exploratory approach was taken to test a range of factors that have previously been linked to attendance in parenting programmes, including economic and educational, social and health, parenting and child behaviour, and sociodemographic characteristics. To address the second aim, caregiver self-reports and observational assessments (Thailand only) from baseline, post-test, and follow-up were analysed using complier average causal effect (CACE) analyses to test the impact of attendance variability on the primary outcomes of child maltreatment, as well as secondary outcomes of positive parenting, dysfunctional parenting, child behaviour problems, and caregiver mental health. Results: Caregivers in Thailand attended 82.3% of sessions while those in the Philippines attended 61.8%. Overall, few baseline factors were significantly associated with attendance. In Thailand, caregivers who were less educated and those who were older were significantly more likely to attend sessions. In the Philippines, caregivers who were less healthy, those that who used more emotional abuse, and those who had boys rather than girls were significantly more likely to attend. Notably, caregivers who experienced higher rates of intimate partner violence significantly attended 8% fewer sessions in the Philippines. A comparison of CACE estimates to intention-to-treat estimates at post-test and at follow-up showed greater benefits of the intervention amongst caregivers who attended more sessions. Specifically, the strongest intervention effects were found for caregivers who attended at least 75% of the programme. Conclusion: This study showed no evidence that disadvantages related to lower socio-economic status were associated with attendance, suggesting that it is possible for vulnerable families in LMICs to attend parenting programmes. However, developing retention strategies that target subgroups who are at greater risk of missing sessions is especially important as higher attendance at sessions is positively related to greater improvements in caregiver and child outcomes

World Health Organization guidelines on parenting to prevent child maltreatment and promote positive development in children aged 0-17 Years – Report of the reviews for the INTEGRATE framework.

Child maltreatment is a global public health problem. It can have detrimental and long-lasting effects on the development and health of children and occurs most frequently at the hands of parents and caregivers. These guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations on parenting interventions for parents and caregivers of children aged 0-17 years that are designed to reduce child maltreatment and harsh parenting, enhance the parent-child relationship, and prevent poor parent mental health and child emotional and behavioural problems. The guidelines are relevant to low-, middle- and high-income countries in all world regions. The recommendations in these guidelines are intended for a wide audience, including policy makers, development agencies and implementing partners, government health and social workers, and nongovernmental organizations

The science of scale for violence prevention: a new agenda for family strengthening in low- and middle-income countries

Ending all violence against children by 2030 is a core part of Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 16. A number of promising violence reduction strategies have been identified in research studies. However, we lack an understanding of the implementation and impact of these programs in respect to their delivery at a large scale or within existing service systems, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We advocate for greater collaboration between researchers, policymakers, donors, governments, non-governmental organizations, and program managers and staff to study how violence prevention programs operate on a large scale. We describe a new initiative aiming to foster such collaborations in the field of family strengthening programs

Evaluating the dissemination and scale-up of two evidence-based parenting interventions to reduce violence against children: Study protocol

Background Eliminating violence against children is a prominent policy goal, codified in the Sustainable Development Goals, and parenting programs are one approach to preventing and reducing violence. However, we know relatively little about dissemination and scale-up of parenting programs, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The scale-up of two parenting programs, Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) for Young Children and PLH for Parents and Teens, developed under Creative Commons licensing and tested in randomized trials, provides a unique opportunity to study their dissemination in 25 LMICs. Methods The Scale-Up of Parenting Evaluation Research (SUPER) study uses a range of methods to study the dissemination of these two programs. The study will examine (1) process and extent of dissemination and scale-up, (2) how the programs are implemented and factors associated with variation in implementation, (3) violence against children and family outcomes before and after program implementation, (4) barriers and facilitators to sustained program delivery, and (5) costs and resources needed for implementation. Primary data collection, focused on three case study projects, will include interviews and focus groups with program facilitators, coordinators, funders, and other stakeholders, and a summary of key organizational characteristics. Program reports and budgets will be reviewed as part of relevant contextual information. Secondary data analysis of routine data collected within ongoing implementation and existing research studies will explore family enrolment and attendance, as well as family reports of parenting practices, violence against children, child behavior, and child and caregiver wellbeing before and after program participation. We will also examine data on staff sociodemographic and professional background, and their competent adherence to the program, collected as part of staff training and certification. Discussion This project will be the first study of its kind to draw on multiple data sources and methods to examine the dissemination and scale-up of a parenting program across multiple LMIC contexts. While this study reports on the implementation of two specific parenting programs, we anticipate that our findings will be of relevance across the field of parenting, as well as other violence prevention and social programs

Optimising engagement in a digital parenting intervention to prevent violence against adolescents in Tanzania: protocol for a cluster randomised factorial trial

Abstract Background Violence against adolescents is a universal reality, with severe individual and societal costs. There is a critical need for scalable and effective violence prevention strategies such as parenting programmes, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where rates of maltreatment are highest. Digital interventions may be a scalable and cost-effective alternative to in-person delivery, yet maximising caregiver engagement is a substantial challenge. This trial employs a cluster randomised factorial experiment and a novel mixed-methods analytic approach to assess the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and feasibility of intervention components designed to optimise engagement in an open-source parenting app, ParentApp for Teens. The app is based on the evidence-based Parenting for Lifelong Health for Teens programme, developed collaboratively by academic institutions in the Global South and North, the WHO, and UNICEF. Methods/design Sixteen neighbourhoods, i.e., clusters, will be randomised to one of eight experimental conditions which consist of any combination of three components (Support: self-guided/moderated WhatsApp groups; App Design: sequential workshops/non-sequential modules; Digital Literacy Training: on/off). The study will be conducted in low-income communities in Tanzania, targeting socioeconomically vulnerable caregivers of adolescents aged 10 to 17 years (16 clusters, 8 conditions, 640 caregivers, 80 per condition). The primary objective of this trial is to estimate the main effects of the three components on engagement. Secondary objectives are to explore the interactions between components, the effects of the components on caregiver behavioural outcomes, moderators and mediators of programme engagement and impact, and the cost-effectiveness of components. The study will also assess enablers and barriers to engagement qualitatively via interviews with a subset of low, medium, and high engaging participants. We will combine quantitative and qualitative data to develop an optimised ParentApp for Teens delivery package. Discussion This is the first known cluster randomised factorial trial for the optimisation of engagement in a digital parenting intervention in a low- and middle-income country. Findings will be used to inform the evaluation of the optimised app in a subsequent randomised controlled trial. Trial registration Pan African Clinical Trial Registry, PACTR202210657553944. Registered 11 October 2022, https://pactr.samrc.ac.za/TrialDisplay.aspx?TrialID=24051