Training Schools

The integration of transmedia education as support tool for fostering and family reunification processes

Name and surname: Arnau Erta Majó

Home institution: Universitat de Lleida

Training School Title: The integration of transmedia education as support tool for fostering and family reunification processes

Wednesday, September 7, 2022 to Friday, September 9, 2022

Field of research interest: Family support and ICT, Family Reunification

Knowledge and skill acquisition:

Well, I learned the importance of not losing the face-to-face interactions when introducing ICT in family support field, the different ingredients that one has to consider when elaborating a parenting program, which also can be extrapolated to bigger structures in the family support field, and finally I don’t want to underestimate the importance of the approach that Andy highlighted, the importance of doing research in a way that can be trespassed to policy makers so what we found can be realistically applied, so that way our research has real tangible value.

Outputs:

The main outputs of the TS were the poster and its summary.

Future collaborations:

For the moment not future collaboration were established. Yet, I hope some of the lectures could be revisors or part of the tribunal for my thesis. In addition, the experience allowed to meet and connect with other collages that, with time, could led to collaborations.

Video and/or quote describing the experience:

It was such an inspiring experience in both ways, in the professional and research field and in the personal ambit.

Supporting parents of young children with disabilities in Croatia: The „Growing up together Plus” program evaluation

Name and surname: Ana Tokić Milaković

Home institution: Social Work Study Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb

Training School Title: Supporting parents of young children with disabilities in Croatia: The „Growing up together Plus” program evaluation

Wednesday, September 7, 2022 to Friday, September 9, 2022

Field of research interest: My research interests include parenting, parent-adolescent relationships, family relations, support to families who have children with disabilities and parenting programs evaluation.

Knowledge and skill acquisition:

First of all, I have learned how research, policy and practice need to be inseparably intertwined in creating meaningful change for families, and what are the possible consequences in case one or two of the three parts is being excluded. I also realized the importance of identifying the effective ingredients of family support programs, and got acquainted with different strategies of doing it in terms of their feasibility, generalizability (meaningfulness) and causal inference. I also learned about the wholeness of implementation and outcome evaluation, and the importance of the parenting programs being grounded in science as well as being tested for their effectiveness. In case of an effective program, an idea of identifying mediators was introduced to answer the questions why and how the program works. I have been alarmed to pay attention to publishing bias (studies reporting effectiveness have been favored) as well as the importance of identifying “poor science”. Some examples of parenting programs and their evaluation have been presented providing some inspiration for creating strategies for the provision of the evidence for the programs that I’m involved in (Growing up Together, Pećnik & Starc, 2010; Growing Up Together Plus). Some specific techniques in working with families have been mentioned (such as “Diary homework”), which are especially applicable in more ubiquitous online programs. In terms of skills, I practiced presentation skills, by presenting my own project, as well as responding to questions posed by experts and other trainees. During poster sessions, I also provided feedback to other trainees, giving my own ideas that could be implemented in their work. During group discussions (round tables) with experts and colleagues of different backgrounds (cultural, educational, interests) I practices listening skills as well as translating into language that could be mutually understandable in order to produce the answers to given questions. I also made a lot of acquaintances and found many ideas that I could use in my own research in more informal conversations during summer school (such as – Experience sampling method via application on Smartphone; Project cost benefit analysis procedure; Online database for scoping and systematic review studies etc…).

Outputs:

Introduction:

In the last decade, the provision of parenting support programs is gradually increasing in Croatia.  Although the importance of providing empirical evidence for their effectiveness is strongly emphasized (Asmussen, 2011; Wessels et al., 2013), it is still not reflected in the number of published evaluation studies. „Growing Up Together Plus” (GUTPlus) is a version of universal parenting support program „Growing Up Together” for parents of preschool children (Pećnik & Starc, 2010) adapted to more closely fit the needs of parents with a young child with disabilities (CWD). The program consists of a set of weekly, two-hour long, structured workshops (supported by the manual, PowerPoint presentations, short films and written materials for parents), designed for groups of 8-12 parents and facilitated by two trained professionals. The aim of this study is to contribute to the evaluation of GUTPlus program by: 1) determining the extent and direction of changes in parenting experience and ways of interaction with their CWD after GUTPlus attendance, and 2) testing weather the changes in the measured outcomes have been moderated by child’s disability type.

Method:

A pre-post interventional study design has been implemented. The data from 360 parents (84% mothers) who participated in the program in the period from 2014. to 2022. have been used. Pre-test is being conducted before starting the program and post-test immediately after completing last session.Several instruments were used: The Parenting Morale Index (PMI; Trute and Hiebert-Murphy, 2005, in Trute, et al., 2009) assessed parents' emotions; Sources and Intensity of Parenting Stress/ a sense of parental incompetence subscale (Profaca & Arambašić, 2004); Family Needs Survey (Bailey & Simeonson, 1988) identified topics of greater needs and wanted support (information on dealing with CWD, support in dealing with social environment, personal support); Parental Interaction with the Child (Pećnik & Starc, 2010) measured the frequency of developmentally desirable  (positive interactions) and violent (negative interactions) parental behaviours in interaction with their young child during the seven days preceding data collection. According to the type of child's disability, parents were divided in five groups: Motor, hearing or visual impairment (11%), Intellectual disabilities (13.7%), Autism spectrum disorder (40%), Speech and language disorder (21.6%), and Multiple disabilities (13.7%).

Results:

A set of Mixed Design ANOVAs (repeated measures with a Child’s disability type as a between-subject factor) were performed. The main effect of intervention was significant for most measured variables, suggesting that after participating in „GUTPlus” program parents of CWD significantly increased in their parenting moral, decreased in stress out of sense of incompetence, reduced the incidence of negative interactions with their child and reduced their needs for support in dealing with their CWD and social environment. None of the interactions between intervention and child’s disability typewas statistically significant, suggesting that the intervention might have been equally effective in all groups of parents with children of different types of disabilities. However, the main effect of child’s disability typewas consistently significant in all analyses (except from negative interactions) suggesting that means on dependent variables differed for groups of parents with different child disability types. Post hoc analyses (Bonferonni tests) revealed that compared to most groups of parents, parents of children with ASD had lower parenting moral, more stress related to sense of incompetence and expressed more needed support in dealing with their child, social environment as well as personal support (both pre and post intervention).

Conclusion:

The results are in favour of the effectiveness of the program for all groups of parents (according to child’s disability types). In future analyses, the analysed data should be complemented with the analysis of collected qualitative data (exp. gains for parents themselves and their CWD). A design with the control group should be implemented, as well as a follow-up measurement to test the durability of the effects. Additionally, possible other moderator effects could be tested (e.g. the presence of spouse on workshops). Adding more measurement points could assist learning which segments of the program contributed most to the improvement, as well as asking parents themselves to identify most helpful contents of the workshops. Parents of children with ASD might be especially at risk, thus possibly require additional support.

References:

Asmussen, K. (2011). The evidence-based parenting practitioner’s handbook. New York: Routledge.

Pećnik, N., & Starc, B. (2010). Growing up Together program of workshops with parents: Handbook for group leaders. Zagreb: UNICEF Office for Croatia.

Profaca, B. & Arambašić, L. (2004). Questionnaire of sources and intensity of parenting stress. Contemporary Psychology, 7, 43 – 260.

Trute, B., Hiebert-Murphy, D., Benzies, K., & Levine, K. (2009). Three Measures for Family-Centered Practice in Children’s Services: Family Impact of Childhood Disability (FICD), Parenting Morale Index (PMI), and Professional and Parent Alliance Scale (PAPAS). Calgary, AB: University of Calgary.

Wessels, I.,  Mikton, C., Ward, CL.,  Kilbane, T., Alves, R., Campello, G., Dubowitz, R., Hutchings, J., Jones, L., Lynch, M. & Madrid, B. (2013). Preventing violence: Evaluating outcomes of parenting programs. Geneva: World Health Organization.

Future collaborations:

I made an arrangement with one of the trainers to have a meeting online concerning procedure of cost-benefit analysis of projects (e.g. parenting support programs). I also established some future collaboration possibilities with several trainees.

Video and/or quote describing the experience:

“I really enjoyed the summer school – being able to exchange knowledge, ideas, concerns and solutions with people interested in the same research field as I am, led by prominent experts and all that in such a beautiful place as Tenerife”

Families at psychosocial risk. Analysis of the relation between parental competences and conduct problems in children and adolescents

Name and surname: Ester Herrera Collado

Home institution: Faculty of Psychology, University of Seville

Training School Title: Families at psychosocial risk. Analysis of the relation between parental competences and conduct problems in children and adolescents

Wednesday, September 7, 2022 to Friday, September 9, 2022

Field of research interest: Evidence-based programmes focused on family support

Knowledge and skill acquisition:

It has been a lot what I have learned during this Training School. First, I have picked up many ideas to continue researching (for example, to include in my data collection an instrument to ask for the children’s opinion about their parents performance). Moreover, it has helped me to have more initiative and share the results of research with people who work with families and those who make politics. In addition, it has given me ideas to design online parental programs without falling into mistakes that others already committed. I have also reflected a lot about how the parental programs hasn’t changed throughout the years despite the fact that the society has been changing so much.

Outputs:

Thanks of what I learned in the Training School, my project will get improved in different aspects. For example, I will include variables related to positive aspects of the children, not only behavioral problems, to study the relation between the parental competencies and the development of their children. I will include teachers as informants so I could contrast the information that parents offer. I got suggestions about how to collect the data from a representative sample. All these modifications will help to get more accurate information.

Future collaborations:

On the one hand, I would like to set a research stay with Sonia Byrne in the University of La Laguna, since I have met her and her team face-to-face at this Training School and I think I can learn a lot from this investigation team. On the other hand, I have learned more about the project that Ninoslava Pecnik carries out with fatherhood programs, and I will be able to be in contact with her so that she can help me carry out my project on the comparison between the needs of men and women when it comes to offer family support programs. In addition, we are going to use the data collection method that one of the trainees has used in her thesis, so we will be in contact, and we may develop some research collaborations.

Video and/or quote describing the experience:

It has been a great opportunity to participate in this Training School where so many professionals had interests and experience in the field where I am developing my thesis. It has been very encouraging to learn about all the different possibilities in this area, such as family programs focused on obesity in children. I have been very inspired hearing from so many professionals dedicated to the family support programs.

Understanding birth and foster families experience through visits: a context for family development programme

Name and surname: Lucía González Pasarín

Home institution: University of Málaga

Training School Title: Understanding birth and foster families experience through visits: a context for family development programme

Wednesday, September 7, 2022 to Friday, September 9, 2022

Field of research interest: Child protection, family foster care, residential care, vulnerable families, positive parenting, psychoeducational programs.

Knowledge and skill acquisition:

- Different strategies to identify the effective ingredients of family support.

- The significance of using a common language with the stakeholders, i. e., using Eurofamnet diagram to make them aware of the importance or possible impact of our projects.

- Various ways to evaluate the implementation of a program and to learn about the experiences of the target group.

- Examples of online family support in Europe and challenges involved.

Regarding my research project, these learnings will enable me to improve and refine the program evaluation process; to know how to identify those elements that need to be maintained, changed or excluded according to the target population; and has offered a frame of reference for possible online adaptation of the program.  

Outputs:

In this training school, a poster with some results about the implementation evaluation of the psychoeducational program Visits: a context for family development was presented.

Future collaborations:

Collaboration links were stablished with Joana Soares from University of Porto (Portugal) in relation to the topic of family foster care.

Video and/or quote describing the experience:

Renewed energy, new ideas and in the best company.

Impact on parenting competences of the “Vivir la adolescencia en familia” programme adapted to the educational context

Name and surname: Miriam del Mar Cruz Sosa

Home institution: University of La Laguna

Training School Title: Impact on parenting competences of the “Vivir la adolescencia en familia” programme adapted to the educational context

Wednesday, September 7, 2022 to Friday, September 9, 2022

Field of research interest: Positive Parenting, Parental Education, Early School Leaving, Adolescents and Educational Context.

Knowledge and skill acquisition:

Participation in the Training School has been an opportunity to learn about real experiences of intervention and support for families in different cultural contexts and European countries, from a multidisciplinary team of professionals in the field of families, issues related to good practices in family intervention and new ways of analysing the results of the implementation of actions. The training justified, once again, the need for evidence-based interventions where the effectiveness of the support offered to families is demonstrated and in which, among other aspects, questions of implementation are evaluated, thus guaranteeing more successful results. I also learned about the usefulness of new technologies in family support services and resources and various inclusive solutions for this. It was also an opportunity to learn about the importance of dissemination of results with society, family intervention professionals and policy makers. Finally, it has allowed me to learn about new lines of research in young researchers and EuroFam members, which are useful for setting new research objectives and designing evidence-based programs.

Outputs:

The promotion of parental competences from the educational context is relevant because of the importance of the relationship between family and school in the development process of children and adolescents and in the promotion of their continuity in school. The low academic achievement of pupils and their maladjustment with the school may put the pupil at risk of early school leaving. For this reason, it is necessary to take preventive measures such as working with families to improve their parenting skills at school. In this way, group parental education programs from the Positive Parenting focus, with an experiential methodology, are a resource to achieve this. The historical evolution of the data on early school leaving in Europe and, specifically, in the Canary Islands (Spain), makes it a phenomenon of social preoccupation. For this reason, the group parental education program "Vivir la adolescencia en familia", originally for families at psychosocial risk, was adapted to the educational context. It is an evidence-based program, based on group intervention with experiential methodology and its contents are structured in five modules of four sessions per week. The objectives of this study are to present the adaptation of the program “Vivir la adolescencia en familia” to the educational context and to evaluate its efficacy in promoting the parenting competences of mothers with children at risk of dropping out of school early. This adaptation aims to improve parental competences and school continuity for pupils and is developed by teachers in Obligatory Secondary Education schools. The beneficiaries’ groups are families with children at risk of dropping out of school early. The contents of the last two modules are provided as a novelty, replacing the original ones. They include school continuity and the educational participation of families. Their evaluation is also adapted to measure parenting competencies, parental supervision, social and family climate, family conflict resolution strategies, adolescent competencies, and satisfaction with program implementation. To evaluate the results, this study included a sample of 568 mothers with an average age of 42.68 years (18-64 years). Most of them have between one and three children (90.4%), live in urban areas (75.1%), have a heteroparental family typology (65.7%), have a primary school or School Graduate level of education (55.4%) and are unemployed or receiving benefits (57.3%). To measure Parental Competencies, the Mothers' Perceptions of Parental Competencies Scale was used, and its validation has adequate fit rates (RMSEA=.057; 90% .051-.064; CFI=.957; TLI = .927 y SRMR= .030). In the same way, the results showed adequate reliability on the overall scale (α=.93) and in the five dimensions it explores: Personal Development and Resilience Competence (α=.85), Formal Support Finding Competence (α=.81), Competence for Educational Collaboration and Promotion of Sports Activities (α=.74), Informal Support Finding Competence (α=.70) and Community Participation and Integration Competence (α=.64). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVAS) was made. Then gains and Analyses of variance (ANOVAS) were calculated. From the analyses it was found that there are no statistically significant differences between the experimental group and the control group. However, after the intervention, mothers are found to increase their Personal Development and Resilience Competence and their Community Participation and Integration Competence. Also, according to some socio-demographic variables, it is observed that mothers with between one and three children, those living in urban areas and those who are not members of the Association of Mothers and Fathers of Pupils obtain higher gains. With these promising results, it is concluded that group parenting programs are a resource to promote mothers' parenting competences. They also indicate that, in order to maximize the effectiveness of the program, it is necessary to take into account some personal characteristics of the mothers when setting up the groups.

Future collaborations:

At the time of the activity, no collaborations emerged. However, I am in contact with colleagues, young researchers, who attended the Training School.

Video and/or quote describing the experience:

It has been a comforting experience, with a lot of learning about family intervention and with the capacity to generate new concerns for research. It has allowed me to create a network with people who are highly involved in working with families and family support resources.  

Breaking the obesity cascade at the childhood: Long-term effects and underlying mechanisms of change of Group Lifestyle Triple P

Name and surname: Marco Martins

Home institution: Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences – University of Porto

Training School Title: Breaking the obesity cascade at the childhood: Long-term effects and underlying mechanisms of change of Group Lifestyle Triple P

Wednesday, September 7, 2022 to Friday, September 9, 2022

Field of research interest: Parenting; Childhood obesity; Evidence-based programs implementation and evaluation; Statistics, data analysis and research methodologies.

Knowledge and skill acquisition:

Among the skills and knowledge I have learned during the training school, I highlight the development of critical thinking related to evidence-based family support programs implementation and evaluation and particularly the issues involved in the identification of the relevant/effective components of the interventions. In my own research, I will conduct a qualitative study to explore the experience of the long-term change of families following a parental intervention, and to identify the most relevant components of the intervention across time, where I will apply the learnings and insights that emerged from the described topic. There are also two other topics that I must highlight as some of the topics that led me to reflect on my own work. First, the discussion about one key issue for the success of the interventions, such as the early involvement of the policymakers, practitioners, and the target population, ensuring that the interventions respond to family needs and translate to effective, and positive changes for families and for society. Second, and connected to the previous topic, as researchers, the importance of developing a resilient attitude related to the implementation and dissemination processes, advocated by persistently investing in presenting our work/intervention next to those who could be the keys (or contribute to) a well-succeeded implementation and dissemination of the interventions. This leads me to rethink my work, and to consider these aspects in a broader way than what I initially planned, and also to work on it in an earlier stage of my project.

Outputs:

In a poster session I presented a poster related to my PhD project: “Breaking the obesity cascade at the childhood: Long-term effects and underlying mechanisms of change of Group Lifestyle Triple P”. 

Future collaborations:

I intend to become an active member of the EurofamNet Young Researchers Group, and to be involved in the COST Action EurofamNet, as an associate participant (WG 3 - Quality standards and evidence-based programmes). Also, I started to collaborate with other researchers in studies related to my current research topics and/or related to my scientific interests.

Video and/or quote describing the experience:

For me, participating in the EuroFamNet training school was a very enriching experience, from a personal and academic point of view. In addition to interesting lectures that invited us to reflect and discuss on very relevant topics, the immersive nature of the event and the constant contact with other researchers (experienced researchers, as well as more young researchers), and with their work, resulted in an environment intellectually very stimulating, where professional and personal networks were established, and persist beyond the event.

Evaluation of a mindfulness-based program for parents of children with mental health disorders

Name and surname: Sofía Baena Medina

Home institution: Universidad Loyola Andalucía

Training School Title: Evaluation of a mindfulness-based program for parents of children with mental health disorders

Wednesday, September 7, 2022 to Friday, September 9, 2022

Field of research interest: Family support, program evaluation, positive parenting, families and disability, educational inclusion

Knowledge and skill acquisition:

It has been a great opportunity to meet with experts in the field and other young researchers. Also, it has been interesting to learn about what other researchers in the field of family support are doing. It has been eye-opening in terms of current and future possibilities for collaboration, but also to improve my own research. I have learnt about different methodologies, approaches, questionnaires, dimensions, ways of interacting and including practitioners and families and children in research and reporting results….

I have learnt about different ways of approaching the study of the parenting ingredients and alternatives to research them. This topic opened my mind to different research alternatives and being aware of their pros and cons. It also motivated me to think and decompose the different parenting components, not only focusing on them globally, but rather be more specific and to go in more depth when analyzing possible changes in the interventions. I also learnt about implementation research and its importance for program development and evaluation, and some options about how to research about implementation in real life settings. This topic gave me ideas about possible elements to take into account when analyzing the data we already have gathered related to implementation, but also how to improve the implementation and its research in future projects, such as incorporating fidelity checklists, take into consideration the differences in training and in personal characteristics of the practitioners, and also which quality standards should be taken into account when implementing a program and when researching about implementation. Of particular interest was the debate about which were the implementation quality standards that need to be followed in ICT programs. It made me think particularly about the importance of providing professional support even if the setting is online, but also the importance of user-friendly platforms and accessibility.

I have also learned about the use of ICT in research and in family support in general, debating about the positive and negative aspects of their use, and different ways of incorporating ICT in family support and its research. For example, the need to sometimes modify certain elements of the program to fit the online setting, but also the possibility of having asynchronous support not necessarily in the format of a structured program. This training school has also served as a reminder of the importance of designing participatory research and to always bear in mind that the final objective is the improvement in the lives of families and children.

Outputs:

Poster. We presented a poster with a summary of the research design for the evaluation of a mindfulness-based intervention targeting parents of children and adolescents with mental health disorders. First, we gave an overview of the rationale behind the emergence and evaluation of this intervention, as well as the theoretical justification for the use of mindfulness-based interventions with this population. Then, we detailed the methodology used, particularly focusing on the recruitment of the control group and the stratified strategy we followed. We also focused on explaining the data collection concerning the implementation of the program. Finally, we answered questions and received feedback from other trainees and experts in the field.

Book of proceedings. We were offered the possibility to participate in a books of proceedings by submitting an extended abstract summarizing the information provided in the poster and other information about the project we considered relevant.  

Future collaborations:

I learned about other projects concerning parenting programs with families of children with disabilities, and I will contact them for further information about the program and its evaluation. Also, we have used the same questionnaires and populations than other researchers, which has led to talking about possible future collaborations.

Also, some trainees showed their interest in being informed about the Young Researchers Group activities or even being part of it. 

Video and/or quote describing the experience:

It has been a mind opening experience, with a good mixture of relationship building time, discussion and learning in a comfortable and stimulating environment.