Evaluation of brief parenting discussion groups for parents with 5-8 year old children.

The Triple P Discussion Groups are preventively focused interventions designed to provide specific advice about common child behaviour or developmental issues. During the two-hour group sessions, parents are taught about the principles of positive parenting, strategies for developing a good parent-child relationship, and strategies for managing specific problem behaviours. These strategies are alternatives to coercive and ineffective discipline strategies. All discussion groups involve video-modelling of behaviour management strategies, a tailored implementation plan, and training in planned activities routines to cope with high-risk situations. The format of the group session includes some didactic presentations, active skills training, and group discussions. Each discussion group is accompanied by a workbook. The Triple P Discussion Groups used in this study will focus on five different topic areas: Dealing with Disobedience, Being a Positive Parent, Fighting and Aggression, Doing Chores, and Building Self-Esteem. The Dealing with Disobedience Triple P Discussion Group focuses on reasons for disobedience, parenting traps, ways to encourage positive child behaviour and strategies for dealing with disobedience. During the Being a Positive Parent group parents are introduced to the principles of positive parenting and taught a range of skills aimed at assist them to support their child’s competence and development and to build a positive relationship with their child. The Fighting and Aggression session covers why children fight, skills to teach children to play cooperatively, and strategies for dealing with sibling conflict, fighting, not sharing, and aggression. During the Doing Chores group parents will learn why helping is important, strategies to help prepare and encourage children to do chores, as well as strategies to use when chores are not completed. The Building Self-Esteem session looks at causes of low self-esteem, and teaches strategies to encourage healthy self-esteem, and to help children to manage negative self-talk and solve problems. Arm 1 Participants allocated to the one-off discussion group condition will receive the Dealing with Disobedience Triple P Discussion Group only. Arm 2 Participants allocated to the series of four group sessions will receive the Dealing with Disobedience and Being a Positive Parent Triple P Discussion Groups. They will then be given the choice to attend two additional groups targeting other specific behaviours and concerns, out of the three following topics: Fighting and Aggression, Doing Chores, and Building Self-Esteem. Parents attended four sessions once a week over a period of 4 to 5 weeks.