Study protocol for a mixed-design evaluation of self-assured parents
2022 (English)In: Public Health in Practice, E-ISSN 2666-5352, Vol. 3, article id 100270Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Background: Immigrant parents of adolescents experience challenges in their role as parents in the new country and express a need for parental support. Still, they are underrepresented in existing parenting programs and when they do attend, their parenting practices improve less than what they do among native parents. Self-assured parents (SAP; Swe. Trygga Föräldrar) targets immigrant parents living in deprived areas in Sweden who worry about their adolescents’ adjustment. This study’s purposes are to examine if SAP is a feasible intervention in Swedish municipalities and if SAP is effective in reaching its aims, namely to promote parental self-efficacy and parent-adolescent communication and to reduce parents’ worries in the target group. Methods: SAP will be evaluated when implemented by social workers in three Swedish municipalities using a culturally-informed mixed design procedure. Parents will be recruited to the program by local social workers. Groups leaders will be interviewed, observed, and they will fill out self-reports to measure implementation quality, including fidelity and acceptability. A group of parents will be interviewed to better understand their perceived challenges and needs in their parenting in Sweden and their experience of participating in SAP. An interrupted time series design with three measurements before, two measurements during, and two measurements after the intervention has ended will be employed using self-reports of parental self-efficacy, parent-child communication, and parents’ worries. Informed consent will be collected from all study participants. Discussion: Immigrant parents living in deprived areas is an understudied and marginalized population. There is a lack of culturally-informed, evidence-based parenting programs aimed at this group in Sweden. The need for specifically developed programs for immigrant parents living in deprived areas with teenage children, has been voiced by both immigrant parents themselves and the Swedish government. Thus, this study will contribute not only to the scientific literature, but also to social service practice and potentially policy making. © 2022 The Authors
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2022. Vol. 3, article id 100270
Keywords [en]
Immigrant parents, Parenting program, Parental efficacy, Adolescent children
National Category
Applied Psychology
Research subject
Child and Youth studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-18435DOI: 10.1016/j.puhip.2022.100270ISI: 001134766800035Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85129664517OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-18435DiVA, id: diva2:1699546
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2020-01349
Note
The research project has been funded by the Swedish ResearchCouncil for Health, Working Life, and Welfare (reference number 2020-01349). The funding body has no role in the design of the study andcollection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing themanuscript
2022-09-282022-09-282024-06-28