Do Parents Perceive Practitioners to Have a Specific Role in Change? A Longitudinal Study Following Participation in an Evidence-Based Program

Sara M. Leitão, Marco Pereira, Rita V. Santos, Maria Filomena Gaspar and Maria João Seabra-Santos
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Sara M. Leitão: Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioral Intervention, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3000-115 Coimbra, Portugal
Marco Pereira: Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioral Intervention, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3000-115 Coimbra, Portugal
Rita V. Santos: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3000-115 Coimbra, Portugal
Maria Filomena Gaspar: Centre for Social Studies, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3000-995 Coimbra, Portugal
Maria João Seabra-Santos: Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioral Intervention, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3000-115 Coimbra, Portugal

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-18

Abstract: Little attention has been given to the role of practitioners in evidence-based parenting programs and to the evaluation that parents make of their importance in the process of change. This study aims to explore the role that parents assign to the facilitators of the Incredible Years (IY) program in enabling long-term life changes, as well as the association between parents’ evaluation of the practitioners’ skills and specific changes perceived after the intervention. In this longitudinal study, we applied 1 survey to 80 community parents who had participated in an IY group 2 years before, and we retrieved archival data to assess changes in parents’ ratings of sense of competence and in children’s behaviors immediately after the end of the intervention. Two years after the intervention, parents perceived significant improvements, especially in their parenting and their children’s behaviors, and they recognized that their IY practitioners had played a significant role in these life changes. Parents who attributed a greater role to the practitioners’ skills reported a greater number of improvements in parental sense of competence and in children’s behaviors. The practitioners’ skills relating more broadly to these specific changes are the practitioners’ sensitivity and flexibility towards parents’ needs and the practitioners’ ability to clearly share knowledge with parents. The practitioner’s assigned role when implementing an evidence-based parenting program seems to go far beyond the mere conveyance of the program’s specific contents and methods and deserves to be researched further.

Keywords: practitioner; skills; parenting; change; evidence-based (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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