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Increasing Wellbeing through a Parenting Program: Role of Gender and Partnered Attendance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2015

Samantha Thomson ,
Erica Frydenberg ,
Jan Deans  and
Rachel P-T Liang Open the ORCID record for Rachel P-T Liang [Opens in a new window]
Samantha Thomson*
Affiliation:
Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Erica Frydenberg
Affiliation:
Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Jan Deans
Affiliation:
Early Learning Centre, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Rachel P-T Liang
Affiliation:
Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Australia
*
Address for correspondence:Samantha Thomson, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3010, Australia. Email: s.thomson@student.unimelb.edu.au
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Abstract

Coping skills provide a resource for tackling stress in everyday situations, including those relating to parenting. The aim of this article is to establish whether parents who experienced a 10-hour universal social emotional parenting program — Families Coping (FC) — benefit through increased productive coping strategies, decreased nonproductive coping strategies, and increased parent wellbeing, within a positive parenting framework. It is also of interest to see whether gender and/or partner attendance makes a difference in program outcomes such as coping styles and wellbeing. The data set combined two groups of parents (N = 23) of preschool-aged children from an early learning centre in inner-metropolitan Melbourne in 2013 and 2014 who undertook the FC parenting program. A mixed methods design was employed, where parents completed pre- and post-program questionnaires on coping and wellbeing. Results were considered with respect to gender and partner attendance. A one-way repeated-measures multiple analysis of variance (RM-MANOVA) showed a significant increase in one productive parenting style (Dealing with the Problem), a significant decrease in nonproductive parent coping, and a significant increase in parent wellbeing. Comparison of results between gender and partner attendance groups showed minimal differences in program effectiveness. Qualitative data mostly confirmed the key findings.

Keywords

coping skillswellbeingearly yearsparenting program
Type
Articles
Information
The Educational and Developmental Psychologist , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , December 2015 , pp. 120 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Psychological Society Ltd 2015 

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