The Great Parenting Experiment

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Driving Mum and Dad Mad

Driving Mum and Dad Mad was shown in spring 2005. This 6 week series followed the experiences of 5 families as they worked to change their child’s behaviour by attending a Triple P group run by Professor Matt Sanders from the University of Queensland.

According to ITV figures an average of 4.23 million viewers watched “Driving Mum and Dad Mad” (range 5.1-4.1 million) and it was a top rating series at the 10pm time slot.

The Great Parenting Experiment in brief

The Great Parenting Experiment began in February 2005, two weeks before Driving Mum and Dad Mad went to air. Prior to the series, 500 families completed questionnaires on their child’s adjustment, family functioning and other family information. Because this was a trial to test the effects of self-directed parenting assistance, families were randomised to either a standard condition, where they were simply encouraged to watch the series, or an enhanced condition. Families in both conditions had access to Triple P tip sheets related to each episode of the TV series via the ITV website.

In the enhanced condition, families were mailed a Triple P self-help workbook, which contains specific guidance, activities and recording diaries for families to work through over a 12 week period. In addition to this, families in the enhanced condition were encouraged via weekly email messages to pay particular attention to specific features of each episode, and also had access to an email helpline run by Triple P in Brisbane.

Families completed the first round of follow-up questionnaires 12 weeks after the start of the series. Families were emailed and asked to complete the same set of questionnaires as they had prior to the start of the study. In addition to an email reminder, all families were contacted, reminding them to log on and complete the questionnaires.

Findings

* Families in both the enhanced and standard conditions reported significant problems with their child’s behaviour at the beginning of the study.
* Families in both conditions reported improvements on several of the questionnaires.
* Families in the enhanced condition were more likely to report improvements than families in the standard condition in:
o Child behaviour difficulties
o Parenting strategies
o Parental anger about child behaviours
o Parent disagreements about discipline
* For both conditions, over a third of the children with significant behaviour problems at the beginning of the study, had scores in the normal range after taking part.
* The greatest improvement was in the enhanced condition, where the mean number of child behaviour problems reported dropped into the normal range.

All families were followed up 6 months after the series. The figures confirmed that there were long term benefits from participating in the study, with child behaviour remaining improved over this time.

Conclusion

This study provides the first evidence that a television observational documentary series depicting parents participating in an evidence-based parenting intervention can have a marked effect on child behaviour problems and parenting practices. The positive effects from just viewing the program were enhanced when supplemented by providing individually tailored written and web based support.

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