Evidence Sharing Parenting Works

Evidence Sharing Parenting Works

Most importantly our participants tell us all the time “It works!” We ask participants to complete an evaluation at the end of each of our sessions and last year 100% of those said they would recommend Sharing Parenting to others.

Don’t just take our word for it – please read our Parents Stories and Feedback page and also Professional’s Comments page.

Trials and Evaluations

We have three random control trials, the gold standard for evaluation in this field, all have confirmed that our Sharing Parenting programmes make a positive difference to families:

• Evaluation of Training for Professionals by Dr Alex Davies

Evaluation by trainees:

Professionals from a variety of backgrounds and in a variety of roles in Cambridgeshire (Parent Support Advisers, Family Involvement Workers and similar) have attended Sharing Parenting training on the Raising Children Parent Education Programme and related courses such as Raising Teens and Sibling Rivalry.

60 questionnaires were returned from participants who attended training between March 2013 and February 2015.

• 76% made comments to the effect that the training had increased their knowledge and understanding around the reasons behind behaviour, and of strategies for dealing with challenging behaviour.
• 85% made comments to the effect that the training would positively impact their practice in working with parents.

• Evaluation by the Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London

Was the programme effective? 
An evaluation of the Raising Children programme in the form of a year-long controlled trial involving 177 families was recently carried out by the Thomas Coram Research Unit. The aim of the study was to establish whether the programme was effective in enhancing parenting capacity, reducing parental stress and bringing about positive changes in relation to children’s challenging behaviour.

All participants acknowledged positive changes in their parenting as a result of the course. 

Parents were scored against standardised measures of Strengths and Difficulties, Parenting Daily Hassles and Parental Sense of Competence. These scores changed significantly for parents following participation in the programme, while there were no significant changes in the scores of parents in the control group.

Those who had attended the programme showed a decline in parenting stress, an increase in parenting competence, and reported fewer behaviour problems in their children at the end of the programme.

• Service Related Research Project

Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology – Shane Gallagher, Cambridgeshire Educational Psychology Service

Conclusion
This qualitative study was undertaken to elicit and explore parents’ perceptions of the effectiveness and compatibility of the 1-2-3 Magic and Raising Children parent training courses.

This research demonstrates the overall effectiveness of 1-2-3 Magic and Raising Children from the parents’ perspective and suggests possible underlying means for the effectiveness of these observed changes:

Levac, McCay, Merka & Reddon D’Arcy (2008; p.88) suggest that 

“When parents feel accepted and supported, they seem to be able to engage in self-reflection specifically related to their parenting styles. In turn, this level of self-reflection may have a positive influence on the process of change in the parents their children, and in the relationships between the parents and their children”.

Support for the Adlerian Approach is world wide!

• Gillian Pugh, Erica D’Ath and Celia Smith*

Dame Gillian Pugh, Erica D’Ath and Celia Smith* wrote a series of reviews on parent education and support, most notably in 1994, Confident Parents, Confident Children, in which on page 75 they credit Alfred Adler (1930), Rudolf Dreikurs & Vicki Soltz (Happy Children, 1964), Dinkmeyer & MacKay (STEP, 1982) and also Thomas Gordon (PET, 1075), drawing on the work of Rogers, 1951, 1961) as having the most influence on the thinking of American and British parent education programmes. 

*Pugh, G., D’Ath, E., & Smith, C. (1994). Confident Parents, Confident Children. London: National Children’s Bureau.

Please also see our Accreditations and Awards page and Who We Work With page.

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