Background and objectives: Parenting support program ""Growing Up Together Online"" was developed as a response to challenges in finding new ways of supporting vulnerable families that were brought about by pandemic and earthquakes in Croatia. It was developed through participative process of co-creation with parents of preschool children, users of social welfare and child protection services. Program objective is to create supportive environment for vulnerable parents in which they would exchange experiences and learn. Theory of change focused not only on parent-child interactions but also on parents as individuals, their strengths and resourcefulness, and their interpersonal relationships.
Methods: During 2020 and 2021, 62 at-risk families participated in the ""Growing Up Together Online"" program. The program consists of 10 weekly, 90 minutes-long sessions and was implemented as a part of routine practice of public social services. Two sessions were conducted face-to-face (the first and the last workshop) and eight workshops were conducted via Zoom videoconferencing calls. Parents also had access to secure webpage where they could check on reading materials and write about their experiences. Parental self-reported cognitions (self-esteem, self-efficacy, parenting experience and parenting morale) and parental behaviors (positive involvement and reinforcement frequency, frequency of angry outbursts and physical and emotional harshness) were measured at pretest and posttest. Parental satisfaction with the program was measured at the end of the final session.
Findings: We found significant improvements in parent-reported general self-esteem, parenting self-efficacy, parenting experience and morale and significant reductions in physical and verbal violence towards the child. Parents did not report increased attempts to understand children’s perspectives nor higher frequency of positive interactions. Reliable improvement was most common in parenting self-efficacy and least common in positive involvement and reinforcement. After the program, almost all parents reported that they had benefited greatly from participating in the program. There were few who considered participation a burden, mainly in terms of managing technology.
Implications for policy, research, and practice: Implementing ""Growing Up Together Online"" was a new experience for practitioners (e.g., psychologists, social workers) in public social services since it is the first parenting support program in Croatia carried out almost entirely via videoconferencing calls. Outcome measures suggest potential of the program for improving parenting perceptions and practices and thus contributing to resilience of entire family. Program also showed its usefulness for at-risk parents who were unable to participate in in-person programs due to lack of transport in rural areas or lack of childcare during program hours. Successful implementation of ""Growing Up Together Online"" stimulated development of new online parenting support programs and web content for diverse caregiving contexts in Croatia (e.g., for adoptive families). These innovations in practices of Croatian public social services were enabled by their cooperation with the NGO Center for Parenting Support Growing Up Together and support from the Human Safety Net foundation.