The Strengthening Families Strengthening Communities Parenting Programme: Its impact upon
parental competence, factors contributing to stress, children’s behaviour, self-esteem and reading self-concept.
Dr Gemma Castleman, University College London
Abstract: This study evaluated the effects of the SFSC parenting programme within an urban and culturally diverse local authority. It sought to
consider parental and child outcomes as a result of parents receiving the SFSC programme over a 12-week period in community settings. Parents
receiving the SFSC programme reported significant changes in a number of areas, from reductions in stress and depression to increases in
feelings of competence and attachment to their child. Significant reductions in the intensity and number of child problem behaviours were also
reported. Children of those parents who attended the programme were seen to have significant increases in affective functioning, self-esteem and
reading self-concept.
Why Evaluate Parenting Programmes? Parent training has been shown to be particularly
effective with the Positive Parenting Program, producing improvements in parent’s confidence
and self-efficacy (Turner and Sanders, 2006) and the Webster-Stratton Incredible Years
programme, also demonstrating gains in parenting competence, maternal depression and
children’s behaviour (Gardner, Burton and Klimes, 2006). Meta-analytic reviews have
highlighted the need to evaluate parenting programmes, which are currently being delivered
within LAs and where there is limited empirical evidence of their effectiveness in producing
outcomes for parents and their children in the United Kingdom (Moran et al., 2004). There is
also a need for more robustly defined research; definition of who such programmes are most
effective for and how changes in parent’s attitudes can be translated into changes at the
behavioural level. The need for more rigorous research designs in the form of randomised
control trials or more comparative designs have also been recommended (Kaminski et al., 2008).
A review of the literature has also highlighted the limited evidence of the effectiveness of
parenting programmes for parents from multi-cultural groups (Scott et al., 2001).
The SFSC programme is currently one of three programmes recommended by
the DCSF. It was first developed in the United States as a violence prevention programmenamed
“Strengthening Multi-Ethnic Families and Communities” by Marilyn
Steele. In 1999 this programme was adapted for use in the United Kingdom and
piloted in 2000. SFSC is a manualised programme focusing on 5 main areas; a cultural/spiritual
component; enhancing relationships; positive discipline; rites of passage and community
involvement. The conceptual basis of the programme draws on a number of psychological
principles and theories including psychodynamic theory, a humanistic perspective (Rogers, 1961),
social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), developmental psychology (Piaget, 1953; Vygotsky, 1978),
cognitive behavioural psychology (Beck, 1975), community psychology (Kelly, 1966; Trickett,
1984), social constructionist approaches and an ecological perspective (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).
Methodology:
Design: A quasi-experimental repeated
measures design with an intervention
group and waiting list comparison group.
Participants: the intervention group
consisted of 24 parents and one carer
(mean age 33 years 4 months) and 20
children (mean age 7 years 5 months)
whilst 18 parents (mean age 35 years 8
months) and 18 children (mean age 7
years 2 months)formed the comparison
group. Parents were from a diverse multicultural community.
Procedure:
Step 1- recruitment to the intervention and
comparison group through initial meetings
with SFSC parent training groups and
individual parents who registered to a
waiting list
Step 2- pre intervention measures
Step 3- 12 week SFSC parenting
programme and no intervention
Step 4- mid programme visit by Race
Equality Foundation for integrity
Step 5- post intervention measures
Step 6- comparison group parent training
Findings: significant findings were reported in the
following areas for both parents and their children who
received the SFSC intervention programme (p<.05). No
such changes were detected for the comparison group
over time.
Competence
Depression
Attachment
Parent
Outcomes
Isolation
Stress
Child
Behaviour
Reading Self
Concept
Health
Child Emotional
Symptoms and
Mood
Child
Self Esteem
Outcomes
Child Emotional
Symptoms
Attrition: There were no reported significant differences
on any pre intervention measure of behaviour or
emotional/affective symptoms when comparing
completers and non-completers of the SFSC
programme. Attrition was reported at 6.2%. The only
factor seen to be significantly correlated with parent
attendance was parental health.
Future Research and Implications for Educational Psychology Practice: There is a need for future research to consider the use of randomised control trials to match groups and reduce confounding
variables. Observational methods were considered as a tool to corroborate parent and child self-report however the bias of such methods has been considered, thus it is felt that using teacher self-report would
assist researchers in establishing if reported behaviour changes are noted across settings. Future qualitative research or mixed methodology designs could seek to establish the factors that
parents feel are
the particularly helpful or effective elements of the programme in producing change. Future studies should also seek to compare outcomes for parents between culturally diverse groups and parents from
single ethnic backgrounds. Lindsay et al., (2008) found that facilitators reported that some elements of the SFSC programme were not appropriate for parents living in rural settings. It would therefore be
interesting to consider if the programme produces greater outcomes for certain groups of parents or communities leading to a discussion of the implications for funding and decisions
on training within a
Local Authorities parenting agenda. This study highlights the benefits of a multi-cultural programme in recruiting a diverse cultural sample of parents with low attrition, through the delivery of programmes in
community settings with crèche facilities, highlighting the importance of considering the contextual arrangements for parenting interventions. Given the psychological underpinnings of the SFSC parenting
programme thought could also be given to the role of the EP in offering supervision to programme facilitators.
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